...No Lies (1974)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Mitchell Block

Writer:

Mitchell Block (writer)

Genre:

Short | Drama

Plot:

A young filmmaking student turns his camera on a female friend as she gets ready to go out for the night...

Plot Keywords:

Rape | Fake Documentary | Independent Film

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Shelby Leverington
Alec Hirschfeld

Runtime:

16 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Shockingly Real, captivating...Genuinely scary.

I was able to see Mitchell Block's short film "NO LIES" in my Media Arts class that I took at Temple University. It is a short piece of film (about 15 or 20 minutes in length), which first appears to simply be a goofy college student playfully filming and interviewing his girlfriend as she gets ready to go out to see a play one night. There is no manipulation of the light in the room, the camera is very shaky, and both parties giggle at everything that is mentioned. Many references to the camera being on are also made, which even further demonstrates to the audience that it is a real situation.

What proceeds is in my opinion, one of the greatest tricks ever pulled off in the film industry. As the questions asked to the giggling girl get more personal, she eventually begins to tell the provoking interviewee the frightening details of how she was raped outside of her NYU apartment one night. The laughs eventually turn to soft sobs, and then yells as the cameraman makes her realize what has been done to her. In tears, she finally tells the man that she's leaving, and walks out of the apartment, closing the door behind her, into the now ever-dangerous midnight streets of the city. At this point, I expected the film to simply end, however, after the door closes, credits pop-up on the screen! The audience is set to realize that it was all an act.

Mitchell Block, a film student at NYU at the time, didn't really go onto bigger and better things, but this short experimental shot at direct cinema has certainly immortalized him as a film god in my mind. It is, and will remain one of the most original pieces of film that I will ever see.