Factory Drop was one of the Official Selections from the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation and Technology’s 2024 festival that accepted the Filmmaker Mixer Podcast’s offer to review their work. It is a live action short film about a group of oppressed factory workers who live dull, dreary lives, who discover something that shakes their world if even just for a moment. The film has no spoken dialogue, and characters express themselves largely through movement and dancing. One area where this stands out in particular for me is the repetitive and pedantic motions the characters run through while doing their factory work, with even the shots and camera work following suit and being repeated in the film. I also enjoyed when the characters danced when feeling joyful, as you can really feel exactly what the film wants you to feel through the movements of the characters. The soundtrack in this film is another standout quality of it. It does an incredible job at furthering the emotions that are expressed in this short. There’s an allegorical and universal quality to the story, and I think anyone would be able to relate to it in some way.
-Madelyn, Filmmaker Mixer Correspondent
