San Diego City Beat Review
Time to scratch that cinematic itchExploring the highlights of the San Diego Film Festival
by S.T. Fior
...Here are some film highlights:
little man
Saturday, Sept. 24. Noon
This is the essential film-festival movie. It’s powerful, intense, low-budget and making its premiere in San Diego. Little man follows writer/director Nicole Conn and her partner Gwen Baba through the birth of their second child, Nicholas, who arrived 100 days premature. The odds against Nicholas’ survival are overwhelming, but Conn is determined to overcome them, against all medical expectations and doctor’s advice and contrary to the wishes of her own spouse.
Little man is intensely, painfully personal. And that intimacy itself invites judgment upon the filmmaker, as we’re compelled to ask what sort of person would open the most intimate and excruciating moments of her life up to public censure. But that same intimacy makes for extraordinary and unforgettable filmmaking.
There are any number of reasons to dislike Conn. By her own admission, she is a bully, single-minded and at times impossibly selfish. Her betrayal of Gwen is of such scope and implication, that it’s difficult to even comprehend. Even so, it’s impossible not to be moved by her story.
She is heartbreakingly sincere and megalomaniacal, valiant and repulsive. And though the film isn’t perfect, its maudlin tendencies can be forgiven, considering the circumstances of its creation. This is one of the most affecting movies you will ever see.
