By Hannah Cumming.
After a successful world premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival, the Portland made feature film, Thunderbolt in Mine Eye, had its Portland premiere on March 10th, at the Portland International Film Festival. A Seed and Spark crowdfunding success story, the film is the brainchild of brother-sister directing team Sarah and Zachary Sherman. The duo have mastered the art of the awkward silence, and their honest portrayal of modern day adolescence is as refreshing as it is uncomfortable. Teenagers have always been portrayed by 25-30 year old actors in film and TV, so for the Shermans to value realistic and accurate casting speaks volumes about their attention to detail. This film is provocative in its depiction of realistic adolescent sexual relationships, and it doesn’t shy away from the complications that arise for young women during their sexual awakenings.
The film follows the budding first relationship between teens Harper (Anjini Taneja Azhar) and Tilly (Quinn Liebling) as they navigate all of the societal expectations and double standards surrounding love and sex. With breathtakingly beautiful exterior locations, the story is a perfect love letter to Autumnal Portland – a sacred time of year for any school-aged individual, which holds so much promise and uncertainty. While this first love only lasts a few weeks – the season never even changes – it is still an intoxicating romance fueled by the natural chemistry shared between Azhar and Liebling. After Liebling’s acting debut in Netflix’s Everything Sucks! he takes on the character of Tilly, a more mature and three dimensional role, establishing himself as a serious actor in the indie film scene.
After the screening, the directors and Azhar took to the stage to partake in a Q&A facilitated by producer/director/and POWfilm fest founder Tara Johnson-Medinger. This particular pairing was a great choice, as Johnson-Medinger recently directed her own coming-of-age story with actual teenage actors, titled My Summer as a Goth. One of the more remarkable aspects of Thunderbolt in Mine Eye is how it inevitably received its funding. Sarah explained that they didn’t expect to fundraise a lot of money, and were planning on keeping the production pretty small, until their team eventually decided to aim higher. Through their crowdfunding campaign on Seed and Spark they raised $15,000 as well as $45,000 from the Duplass Brothers when they won a crowdfunding contest through the fundraising platform. The Duplass Brothers selected the film out of more than 15 finalists and 40 independent films, all surrounding the filmmaker’s and showcasing their hometowns in their films. The Duplass Brothers now serve as executive producers of the film. Finding established filmmakers who want to support independent cinema financially is an incredible feat, and the Duplass Brothers were right to invest in this particular project, which explores new territory in the realm of coming-of-age cinema.
Thunderbolt in Mine Eye is a charming film that emphasizes the authentic importance of using real teenagers to portray real teenagers. Centered in and around Sherman’s hometown of Portland, the film is a local gem that will share the beauty and magic of the city to all who will see it on the festival circuit. The film also carries a significant amount of progressive under and overtones, as well as a woman of color in the leading role – something not often seen in coming of age narratives. The creation of a new kind of teenager portrayal was very much needed under the current socio-political climate, and the Sherman Siblings have done an excellent job of paving the way for more three dimensional teen characters in media. The film plays again on March 12th, at 3:30pm at Cinemagic!
PSU School of Film @ PIFF 