Here Lies Joe (Short)
“Here Lies Joe” is the story of a man (Joe, played by Dean Temple) who has a desire to kill himself, and yet, he also wants to live. Why else would he choose to go to a Suicide Anonymous meeting? Of course, the question we probably should be asking is, why does he want to kill himself? We can infer his desire to live from the act of going to the Suicide Anonymous meeting, but we never really pick up on why Joe wants to kill himself. We can make similar inferences from a wedding picture with a broken frame, but other people’s marriages have ended without resorting to such permanent actions. He doesn’t seem clinically depressed like his fellow SA group member, Carol (Mary Hronicek), but neither does he seem to take it lightly like Z (Andi Morrow). He genuinely seems torn by the idea, and though he wonders whether the group actually would help him feel less likely to do the deed, he also seems like he’s at peace with his decision, as well. This is an intriguing dilemma that gets to the heart of the pain that would cause someone to do what, for many people, would be unthinkable, and it’s at the heart of Mark Battle’s short film. Co-written by Pamela Conway, “Here Lies Joe” is a collection of moments rather than a straight-line narrative, moments that will shape our experience of this time in Joe’s life. The two women Joe meets in the meeting, Carol and Z, have distinctive personalities and outlooks that seem to counteract what we think about them; Carol wants to be better, but doesn’t seem to have the fight in her, where as Z is fascinated by the idea of dying, but acts like she wants to live. In the middle is Joe, who seems to be between both extremes. Battle’s ability to deliver these disparate and engaging character dynamics within the context of what seems like a drab and depressing subject matter makes “Here Lies Joe” more entertaining than it should be, and as enlightening in it’s look at human nature as we hope it will be. He has made a wonderful film.
