Portland Events, Music, Art, Entertainment, Sustainability | PDXPIPELINE.com

Posted By Jeff Guay

"This shit is a true story" begins local non-budget filmmaker Bob Moricz' latest feature, a digital interpretation of real events which led to as many as eighteen high school girls, none older than sixteen, agreeing to get pregnant and raise their children together in their small town in Massachusetts.

Set in Portland with a cast of six wonderful local young actresses, BUMPS successfully evokes a bizarre atmosphere of alienation and teen sexuality, while simultaneously disrupting dramatic moments with interjections by Moricz himself, cutting in non-narrative exchanges between he and his actresses and even allowing us to see him edit the movie on his computer. The result will throw some people, but I was surprised at how well the narrative flowed, either despite or because of these often hilarious moments of directorial interjection.

At one intense moment, for instance, a pregnant teen gets so worked up that she screams at a young child skateboarding past the shot. We hear Moricz apologize behind the camera, "Sorry, she's just in her character."

BUMPS also stands out in aesthetic quality, from the golden and green hues of the anonymous Portland backdrops, to the hilariously repetitive and catchy soundtrack (also by Moricz) that punctuates the narrative. But the acting is the real key to the film's trance-like quality, watching these girls drift into really fucking awful decisions is hypnotic, charming and entertaining.

The result is a no-budget digital feature on a subject that no studio would dare touch. It also looks and sounds great, has awesome acting and is entirely unlike anything else in theaters on a Thursday night. This is what independent cinema is really about.

BUMPS
Film Premier
Thursday, July 30th
Clinton St Theater, 9pm
Directed by Bob Moricz

Related: Portland EVENTS LIST

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Jeff Guay is a local filmmaker, English student and music writer for PSU's The Daily Vanguard
More articles by Jeff on Pipeline:

• Jim Henson, Commercials and Experiments
• NW Film Center's Black Christmas