Hammurabi
Director: Patrick Kennelly
United States, 2019, 11 min
Shooting Format:Digital
Festival Year:2020
Category:Narrative Short
Genres:Drama, Horror, Thriller
Cast:Joe Lando, Bethany Orr, Unati Mangaliso
Crew:Writer: Bethany Orr. Producers: Leo Garcia, Bethany Orr, Channing Sargent, Nikki Bohm. Executive Producers: Dennis Garcia & Patrick Kennelly. Cinematographer: Gavin V. Murray. Sound + Music: Jonathan Snipes
Email:patrickunmarked@gmail.com
Synopsis
A pregnant deaf woman is inspired to kidnap a man she believes is her abusive birth father.
About the director
Patrick Kennelly is a Los Angeles based director, editor, producer whose body of work spans film and video, theater, live events and the visual arts. He is the creator of the highly stylized and darkly surreal "raw pop" productions PATTY: The Revival, experimental South Sudanese doc ten minutes is two hours, and the music video for clipping's Body and Blood.
In addition to developing his own projects, Patrick serves as Artistic Director at renowned experimental arts center Highways Performance Space & Gallery, in its 30th year.
He met collaborator Bethany Orr working on his debut feature Excess Flesh, which toured the worldwide festival circuit in 2015. Essentially a horror film about food, it was called "the most twisted movie at SXSW—and of the year” by The Daily Beast.
Filmmaker's note
"Hammurabi at its core is a history lesson. It’s set in the sticky intersection between our main character’s past and her future. In our work we like to tangle with tropes, just to light them ablaze. We wanted to make a modern revenge story, working with elements we haven’t seen before in this context. So we took this dated 1980s-inspired design and added a dash of technology, putting our characters in a fairly simple situation with a lot of information to unpack. We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!"
-Patrick Kennelly & Bethany Orr