I am Not Soft

Film: I am Not Soft (2023), by Valencia 'Lenciaga' Benjamin

• Visual-Editing Technique: Original, 'Basquiat Editing' style; a style created and perfected yearly by its creator, Valencia Benjamin.

*Descript:

Artful off-kilter, in your face editing technique that seeks to present art in the form of humanity, surrealism, unconventional clip formatting, (such as elongated pans and irregular clip widths, from transition to transition), sound, symbolism, abstraction, and/or words.

This artful editing technique is directly inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat's original art forms on canvas, thus, it was named for him.

It has uniformity, meaning, and the grit of life, whether that be of trauma revealed or gathered with a nuanced happiness; the style seeks to emit the permanence of mortality and art, of a poetic infinity in art, as this regards the social condition and recorded human histories— as a way of life, and as a statement of human truths within society.

— Film Overview:

Story: "I am Not Soft"

This short story used the literary device of Menippean satire. ~ The story is about a young saxophone player whose first time, “looking at love,” came with a high price attached... his freedom.

The story’s tone/nuance directly juxtaposes misogynoir and a general mental assumption, against feminine liberation and pure sensuality. The symbolism’s theory of presentation is that of contrasts and social histories.

The story presents as narrative form, and only slightly hints at the fact that the narrator is actually deceased at the point that the, “reader,” or, viewer, meets him.

The Voice:

The protagonist's voice is grainy, almost tunnel like, as the story progresses into trauma, confrontation, internal passion, adrenaline, and physical and emotional unbelief.

The music builds on those progressions by emitting a vintage, yet modern sound. The undertones of sadness, soul, and innocence in that sound only bolsters the overall film theme, and characteristics of the protagonist, who is a complex focal point throughout the film.

I call this: Human grit.

The Philosophical point, or, question, that the story presents is Nietzschean in manner. It polarizes the ultimate victim in this plot, by presenting her at the point of attack, (and after), where she is in survivor mode; breathing, yet, not living. ~ the story’s overall point is to seek to review human trauma, through the lens of predation AND innocence, and, on how those two can correlate to one another in society.

In this story, the man-child is ignorant, unknowingly caving into a social condition of toxic masculinity. The use of social histories throughout his story is reflected by the plurality of presentation. The man-child is not one, but many; contrasts and symmetry.

And, the woman is sensual and complicated, specific about who, and how, she loves. She is defensive and ready; it’s as if she had grown to expect … a human gray matter.

This social issue is an important one, and this short story/film is an attempt to give voice to the silenced, whether they be silenced by themselves, physically, by their peers, subconsciously, ... or, by their own mentality and fear.

The subjects of prison and youth are also tackled by the projection of the dissolving of a relationship, from father to son, within the film.

The ending's final impact (the death) is a statement on social injustice, via systematic and cultural implementations of misogynoir and race relations, as it relates to gender, color, and economic class. The subject is subtly submitted, but aggressively confounded within the protagonist's life; we see this via posture as symbolism, historical symbols throughout the film, and the "stiffness effect," where trauma is presented through body language, which speaks directly to the human subconscious as a "way of life". It is living through suppression, guilt, and, more polarizingly, fear; breathing without the personal objections of introspection.

*I call this: The Human Nuance.