Son, Can't You See I'm Burning?
An experimental, poetic meditation on parental grief, guilt, and climate change.
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Ariel MahlerDirectorEvan Ever After (award-winning short doc), Re-Entry (narrative short), Bad Ally (webseries)
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Daniel MiramontesDirectorTransition 4, Upside Down Dancers, Warehouse, Last Butterfly
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Daniel MiramontesCinematographer
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Ji-Ye WonEditor
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Daniel MiramontesWriter
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Nicole ButcherSound Design
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Ryan A. JohnsonVisual Effects
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Gabriel GutierrezProducer
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Raven RobinsonProducer
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Daniel MiramontesProducer
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Nehemiah Washington - BallExecutive Producer
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Arturo TolentinoKey Cast"Son"
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Pilar UribeKey Cast"Mother"
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Project Type:Experimental, Short, Student, Other
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Genres:Drama, Experimental
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Runtime:3 minutes
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Completion Date:May 28, 2023
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Production Budget:12,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Shooting Format:35mm 4 perf
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Aspect Ratio:16.9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:Yes - AFI Conservatory
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GuadaLAjara Fil Festival (GLAFF)Los Angeles
United States
November 3, 2023
North American Premire
Official Selection
Ariel:
ARIEL MAHLER (she/they) is an award-winning trans writer and director. She’s a recent graduate and scholarship recipient from the American Film Institute (AFI) Directing Fellowship. Ariel’s short documentary, EVAN EVER AFTER, screened at festivals across North America, including Outfest, Newfest, Inside Out, and HollyShorts. The documentary has won several awards, including the Audience Award for Best Florida Short at the Florida Film Festival, and Jury Awards for Best Documentary Short at Out on Film Atlanta and Stamped Film Festival in Pensacola, Florida.The film was recently commissioned to screen for a statewide Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting in Florida, and a citywide Gender and Sexuailty Alliance (GSA) summit for NYC public schools. Ariel’s AFI thesis film, RE-ENTRY, received an Alfred P. Sloan production grant, and is currently in consideration for a 2024 - 2025 festival run. Ariel was a two-time finalist for Newfest’s New Voices Grant. Her screenplays have advanced to the top-five in ShoreScript’s Film Fund, the second round of the Sundance Development Track, and the final round of WeScreenplay’s Diverse Voices Lab. In 2019, Ariel produced DEATH AND BOWLING, a feature film that world premiered at Outfest in 2021, and was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. In addition to her MFA from AFI, Ariel holds an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College, and a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic. Originally from the East Coast, Ariel is currently based in Los Angeles. She is driven to tell queer stories about misfits seeking authenticity through human connection.
Daniel:
Daniel Miramontes is a filmmaker, multimedia creative, and educator. Raised in Los Angeles, California, amidst a thriving group of creative friends and a blue-collar family. Daniel is a first-generation Mexican-American and a 200,000-generation human being. He is a San Francisco State University graduate with a double bachelor's in Cinema and Fine Arts and an Associate’s in Photography from Fullerton College. He is also an alum of the Jerusalem Film Workshop and SUROP program at Kansas State University, where he conducted research at the intersection of art & technology. He recently completed his master's in Cinematography from The American Film Institute. Daniel’s short film Icarus was part of the 2020 San Francisco Dance Film Festival, and in 2020 his film Transition 4 was exhibited at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. His work is focused on creating understanding, compassion, and collaboration through the exploration of unconscious human traits. When not working, Daniel is a voracious consumer of philosophy, long urban bike rides, and any food with cheese.
“It is in dreams that we encounter the traumatic Real; thus, it is not that dreams are for those who cannot endure reality, but that reality is for those who cannot endure (the Real that announces itself in) dreams.” - Slavoj Žižek
According to the U.N. Climate Chief, we have two years left to prevent irreversible damage to the planet.^1 Yet, my friends are pleased about the ‘sandal weather.’
The threat today is pseudo-activity, performative actions that mask their complete ineffectiveness. As I see it there are two sects regarding ecology, either denying the threat completely while knowing it exists or feeling powerless but acting nonetheless in ways that have proven to be ineffective (i.e. recycling, even though in 2018 the story broke that most recycling for the past 20 years was being shipped to Asian countries. With only 32% of trash being recycled with only 6% of that being plastic).^2,3 This focus on personal accountability instead of addressing global systems has left many of us stuck.
The film Son, Can’t You See I’m Burning aims to highlight this paradox formulated by Alenka Zupančič: “[The] Apocalypse has already begun, but it seems that we still prefer to die than to allow the apocalyptic threat to scare us to death.” Climate change serves as an alarm clock for our deepest pathological behaviors and ideological dreams that shape our reality, shielding us from the traumatic reality we find ourselves in.
It’s crucial to recognize the absurdity of the increasing geopolitical conflicts (i.e. fighting over territory) when the planet that is being fought over is itself under threat. Realigning our priorities we can realize that something strange is happening. We're on the verge of a major catastrophe, and the most disturbing sign is how, for most of us, it’s just “business as usual.”
Citations:
1. Valerie Volcovici, "UN Climate Chief Says Two Years to Save the Planet," Reuters, April 10, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/un-climate-chief-says-two-years-save-planet-2024-04-10/.
2. Tony Mariotti, "Recycling Statistics: 2023 Facts and Figures," RubyHome, April 23, 2023, https://www.rubyhome.com/blog/recycling-stats/.
3. Laura Strickler, "Critics Call Out Plastics Industry over 'Fraud' of Plastic Recycling," CBS News, April 29, 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/critics-call-out-plastics-industry-over-fraud-of-plastic-recycling/.