Omeleto | UNDER THE LIGHTS | Omeleto @Omeleto | Uploaded January 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 day ago.
A teenager with epilepsy goes to prom.
UNDER THE LIGHTS is used with permission from Miles Levin. Learn more at seedandspark.com/fund/underthelights.
Molly is a teenage girl crying in the bathroom on the night of prom. In the next stall over, she discovers a boy lying in the stall, wearing a helmet. He exhibits weird, erratic behavior, and Molly thinks he's just a drunk kid. But he's hurt, with a dislocated shoulder, ramming his shoulder back in place and begging Molly not to call an ambulance for his injuries.
Instead, he asks Molly to talk to his date and let her know he's coming for the dance she's saving for him. Eventually, the two learn the different stories that led them to the bathroom: Molly's boyfriend was making out with another boy at the dance, and Sam has epilepsy but was determined to attend prom like a normal kid, even though the lights would trigger a seizure. Together they console and comfort one another.
Directed and written by Miles Levin, this empathetic, solidly well-crafted short drama captures the impact of epilepsy on a young teenage boy's life, cutting him off from normal experiences. While it portrays a nuanced, layered portrayal of how seizures happen, the primary insight is how those living with epilepsy have to navigate the world with wariness, fear and guilt, as well as frustration that they're missing out on experiences that many of us take for granted.
In some ways, the storytelling takes the "meet cute" structure of a romance and subverts it, deepening the emotion and depth to become a multi-layered portrait of struggle, compassion and connection that's rendered with visuals that can oscillate between stark and gritty to impressionistic and hazy, depending on the emotional temperature of the moment.
Sam and Molly meet in a bathroom in different reactive states of crisis, and at first, both misunderstand and conflict with one another. But through dialogue and a few flashbacks, viewers and Molly get a fuller picture of Sam's situation, as well as a deeper understanding of just why he'd risk putting himself in harm's way just to have one normal teenage experience.
As Molly and Sam, actors Pearce Joza and Alyssa Jirrels convey the intensity of feeling and believable awkwardness of teenagers navigating strange situations and feelings. Joza's portrayal of epilepsy is admirably specific, but it's the feelings of frustration, shame and vulnerability that he taps into that truly bring out Molly's compassion and understanding. Those are feelings that anyone can understand and share, which makes her gesture at the end all the more tender and heartwarming.
Many viewers likely only think of seizures as dramatic, almost scary events of out-of-control physicality, which is often how epilepsy has been betrayed cinematically. But UNDER THE LIGHTS -- inspired by the director's own experiences with epilepsy -- was made partly in response to this portrayal, aiming to show seizures with more nuance and evoking the emotional toll of epilepsy on those living with it. Despite its specificity, it achieves a powerful universality in its feeling: a yearning for normalcy and experience, a desire to connect and a wish for someone to simply be there when we are most in danger of feeling utterly alone.
A teenager with epilepsy goes to prom.
UNDER THE LIGHTS is used with permission from Miles Levin. Learn more at seedandspark.com/fund/underthelights.
Molly is a teenage girl crying in the bathroom on the night of prom. In the next stall over, she discovers a boy lying in the stall, wearing a helmet. He exhibits weird, erratic behavior, and Molly thinks he's just a drunk kid. But he's hurt, with a dislocated shoulder, ramming his shoulder back in place and begging Molly not to call an ambulance for his injuries.
Instead, he asks Molly to talk to his date and let her know he's coming for the dance she's saving for him. Eventually, the two learn the different stories that led them to the bathroom: Molly's boyfriend was making out with another boy at the dance, and Sam has epilepsy but was determined to attend prom like a normal kid, even though the lights would trigger a seizure. Together they console and comfort one another.
Directed and written by Miles Levin, this empathetic, solidly well-crafted short drama captures the impact of epilepsy on a young teenage boy's life, cutting him off from normal experiences. While it portrays a nuanced, layered portrayal of how seizures happen, the primary insight is how those living with epilepsy have to navigate the world with wariness, fear and guilt, as well as frustration that they're missing out on experiences that many of us take for granted.
In some ways, the storytelling takes the "meet cute" structure of a romance and subverts it, deepening the emotion and depth to become a multi-layered portrait of struggle, compassion and connection that's rendered with visuals that can oscillate between stark and gritty to impressionistic and hazy, depending on the emotional temperature of the moment.
Sam and Molly meet in a bathroom in different reactive states of crisis, and at first, both misunderstand and conflict with one another. But through dialogue and a few flashbacks, viewers and Molly get a fuller picture of Sam's situation, as well as a deeper understanding of just why he'd risk putting himself in harm's way just to have one normal teenage experience.
As Molly and Sam, actors Pearce Joza and Alyssa Jirrels convey the intensity of feeling and believable awkwardness of teenagers navigating strange situations and feelings. Joza's portrayal of epilepsy is admirably specific, but it's the feelings of frustration, shame and vulnerability that he taps into that truly bring out Molly's compassion and understanding. Those are feelings that anyone can understand and share, which makes her gesture at the end all the more tender and heartwarming.
Many viewers likely only think of seizures as dramatic, almost scary events of out-of-control physicality, which is often how epilepsy has been betrayed cinematically. But UNDER THE LIGHTS -- inspired by the director's own experiences with epilepsy -- was made partly in response to this portrayal, aiming to show seizures with more nuance and evoking the emotional toll of epilepsy on those living with it. Despite its specificity, it achieves a powerful universality in its feeling: a yearning for normalcy and experience, a desire to connect and a wish for someone to simply be there when we are most in danger of feeling utterly alone.
