An actor struggles with anxiety in Ben Lankester’s short film Experience, which screened as part of HollyShorts London Film Festival.
Ben Lankester’s Experience clocks in at just over two minutes. It’s short and sweet, but the amount of information and emotion Lankester manages to communicate in those two minutes is rather remarkable.
The short focuses on an actor who is preparing for an audition. Auditions can be terrifying; you’re standing under scorching studio lights, someone holds a boom mic over you, the camera’s presence feels intruding and people are watching your every move and listening to every single word you say and how you say it.
Karen Bengo plays the actress who struggles with overwhelming anxiety. She’s due to perform a monologue which hits a little too close to home too, which probably isn’t helping with her nerves and mental health. We watch her practise, memorise her lines, but Lankester aims to allow us a glimpse into the very real experience of anxiety on a different level. Inside Out 2 did an amazing job making the emotion a concept easy to grasp for audiences of all ages, but Lankester really digs into what it feels like.
Read more: Short film review | Calf
Experience isn’t a film with an easy, uncomplicated narrative with a clear conflict and resolution at the end. Instead, Lankester focuses on the visceral feeling of anxiety and how that can be shown visually. As the kids might say, it’s all about the vibes; the vibes here are not just immaculate, but deeply affecting.
Experience screened as part of the HollyShorts London Film Festival 2024.
Related Stories
- Short Film Review: Gardening
A woman tries to understand and come to terms with sexual assault in artist and filmmaker Sarah Beeby’s haunting animated short film.
It feels like we’re living through a particularly exciting time for animation. We’ve got beautiful animated films such as The Wild Robot, the Spider-Verse movies and Robot Dreams to mention a few. Artist and [...]
- Short film review | Where Are All The Gay Superheroes?
Two superheroes ask the eternal question: where are all the gay superheroes? Here’s our review of Tom Paul Martin’s short film which screened at HollyShorts London Film Festival.
Superheroes are all the rage today, but we’re still quite short on queer superheroes on the big screen. Deadpool loves to joke about being gay, but do we [...]
- Short film review | Twenty
A young, homeless ballet dancer gets an audition of a lifetime, but first she needs to find somewhere to sleep. Here’s our review of Twenty which screened as part of HollyShorts London Film Festival.
If you’ve never been to a dance audition, let me tell you what they’re like. You’re given a number and you’re surrounded [...]
- Short film review | Three Things We Won’t Talk About
A woman is left alone after her thoughtless, potentially cheating boyfriend leaves on a worktrip. Here’s our review of Three Things We Won’t Talk About, which played at HollyShorts London Film Festival.
We’ve all had a partner who refuses to replace the toilet roll after they use the final piece, leaves their hair in the sink [...]
- Short film review | Stillness
A photographer has promised to take photos of a family that has experienced stillbirth. Here’s our review of Stillness, which played at HollyShorts London Film Festival.
As a society, we’ve slowly begun to discuss postpartum depression and the traumatic experience that childbirth can be, but we’re still learning to talk about stillbirth. It’s incredibly difficult for [...]
