"Blue Skys, White Clouds" begins with a young couple's late-night scream-fight in the middle of a street in downtown Richmond. But it's not just a harmless lovers' quarrel - it's an extremely vindictive, profanity-spewing, irrational outburst. From that point on, the film rarely relents in its brutal (but real) representation of the dysfunctional romantic life of urban twentysomethings.
Independent filmmaker Patrick Pfupajena has created a film full of epiphanies both for his characters and his audience. It's a harsh but beautiful film, engrossing in every way.
Pfupajena is a student in the newly born film program at Virginia Commonwealth University. His previous work includes several film shorts, many that have been shown at Flicker, Richmond's bimonthly film festival, and various other festivals. "Blue Skys" is his biggest project to date.
Pfupajena uses innovative and somewhat experimental techniques. While shooting his films, he uses hand-held digital cameras, a relatively new technology for filmmaking. Going digital is faster and cheaper than working with traditional film. Although it has its flaws - mostly because it's still new and has not yet undergone much revision - digital video is the future of filmmaking, as far as the general consensus agrees. Already, films like Lars von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark" have used it to great effect.
Pfupajena's use of digital-video technology will excite anyone interested in contemporary independent film. What he does with digital cameras and Final Cut Pro - a user-friendly, consumer-accessible editing program - is astounding and will inspire aspiring filmmakers.
"Blue Skys" takes narrative film conventions and throws them out the window with gusto. The film deftly moves in and out of the walls enclosing both documentary and narrative forms. Pfupajena redefines both genres by blurring any existing lines between them. While "Blue Skys" acts as a narrative film, it feels real - there is no script, and the plot is not substantially developed. It's a montage of six people and their complicated, skewed relationships with one another.
Most actors in the film are friends or fellow students of Pfupajena. Their character names are their own, and while working through scenes, they had no idea what the resulting film would be like or about. It took a good deal of on-the-spot improvisation with direction from Pfupajena. Since digital video was used, more time and footage could be spent on the shooting of each scene.
The most interesting moments in "Blue Skys" are the ones in which three or four shots are cross-dissolved to form a single scene with multiple identities. At times a character may be superimposed on himself three times, speaking three different sets of dialogue.
The result is an unconventional, exciting and evocative film that captures the dysfunctional web of six young urbanites. The first scene sees Bryant screaming at his girlfriend in the middle of the street. She responds with a snarling "f--- you!" And so it goes.
Kira and Sean aren't together for any good reason. He sleeps around and she knows it. She stays anyway. Sean is a fiend. He picks up girls at work or at bars, brings them home, gets his action, then tells them to get the hell out. Kira confronts him multiple times, repeatedly shouting "I don't need this." They argue in virtually every scene; it's a bitter, jealous, controlling relationship.
Bryant and his girlfriend are very much in love but just can't seem to make it. They can't be with each other without using much loud profanity and then storming off. Together they are usually unhappy, but neither can let go of the other. It's a classic case of "With or Without You" syndrome.
Christina, Kira's best friend, and Bourke, Bryant's best friend, are lonely singles full of longing whose chance meeting in a bar turns into a blossoming romance. Theirs is a na
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