Can I Put You On Hold? is a film showing at the HollyShorts Film Festival this month.
Can I Put You On Hold? (James Cutler, 2025)
Matthew Cutler and Dangmo Kanyawee dream of being together, but immigration and bureaucratic hurdles plot against them. The film starts with an unusual ratio and framing, suggesting distance and worry.
The credits state that Cutler and Kanyawee are playing themselves, although Can I Put You On Hold? is a dramatic fantasy in style rather than a drama-documentary. Matthew has come into the country first, finding work, and Dangmo is in Thailand waiting for her visa to be approved.
Despite the boxes of photos and items “for their future home”, the problems of finding a joint sponsor to allow the couple to live together seem insurmountable. The title comes from a phone call in which being “on hold” leads Matthew into flights of fancy and memory, dreaming of literally travelling with Dangmo in his arms.
The room he is in literally transforms as his anguish and desire to see Dangmo again makes him burst out of the confines of interviews, forms, and proofs that are need to secure residency.
Matthew Cutler wrote the screenplay of this 11-minute short with director James Cutler, and it delves deep into the issues around long-distance relationships, with all the frustrations and loneliness of being oceans apart.
Composer Michelle Cheuk adds music to enhance the visual storytelling of Can I Put You On Hold?, allowing what is a mundane, everyday tale to become something far more elaborate. I found myself thinking of the civil servant’s dreams in Terry Gilliam’s 1985 classic Brazil, which also brings a strong fantasy element into a stringently controlled setting.
Can I Put You On Hold? is part of this month’s HollyShorts Film Festival.