This year’s Dances With Films festival included a wide variety of features and shorts. I’ll be reviewing a small selection this month.
Moonwater (2024) wr/director William Tyler Wiseman
Two brothers, torn apart by alcohol addiction, find themselves coming together again over a family secret.
Tom (Michael Lee Joplin) has a calm life, the daughter, and the nice house. Pete (Matthew Wayne Roberts) has given up his chances of happiness and domesticity for the bottle.
Moonwater explores how the trauma of fear and rejection can tear families apart but allows the two main characters space to find common ground to re-bond over.
It’s an unlikely object that does this; their father’s old moonshine still, where he made illicit booze for (perhaps) over-consumption. Pete feels it is his destiny to rebuild the still, while Tom resents it.
The only other characters of note are Tom’s daughter (Dannica Terry), a child who already understands the sickness blighting her family, and Emma (Liz Meinders), who still loves Pete but has to let him go.
Moonwater is a complex, well-written film that doesn’t romanticise how addiction can damage close family relationships. In talking about their father, the boys recall he ‘was something of a bastard’ but still retain affection for the things the three of them did together.
In Pete’s life, he seeks a sense of purpose to allow him to move on. Tough love clearly hasn’t worked, nor has any form of self-respect. In remaking the still, he seems in the house of last chances.
Although William Tyler Wiseman’s film is clearly small-scale in budget, it’s clear he has the potential to think big, even with a story this specific and personal.
Moonwater screened at the Dances With Films festival – I reviewed from an online screener.
***.5
Running Erins (pilot episode) wr Erin Fogel, director Guillermo Iván
Erin Fogel is facing a crisis at home and school, where a new mom challenges her as top dog and most popular social organiser.
As her yoga studio is closed down, she gets her kicks with a saucy handyman while avoiding diets, drink, and exercise.
This has a lot of potential. Well-paced and written and setting up the dynamic between Erin and ‘Cameron’s Mom’, whose sugary smile hides a core of steel.
Nicely sets up the rest of the story. Bring it on. Great title, too.
****