Tribeca: “Awaiting the Lightning Bolt” Catches Love in a Bottle
All filmmaking is a labor of love, but stop-motion animation takes that labor to a whole new level. It’s staggering to think about the effort that has to go into making a project like this. Yet isn’t part of the reason we’re all so enchanted by stop-motion animation because we recognize the Herculean effort that goes into the act of creation? In Marco Russo’s Tribeca-premiering Awaiting the Lightning Bolt, the short film asks the viewer to weather the storm in the name of innovation, effort, and love.
Renato (Lupo Misrachi) is a Renaissance-era inventor. His latest endeavor is to do the impossible: catch lightning in a bottle. What fuels this scientific innovation is not revealed until the end of the short, but the audience can sense that there’s an urgency behind his experiments. That he’s not standing in the middle of stormy weather merely for science. Something deeper is spurring him on to catch the lightning.
courtesy of Tribeca
Every frame of Awaiting the Lightning Bolt is utterly lovely. Renato and the other characters are puppets made of a felt-like material. The way the threads shimmer in slight movements provides a tactile, warm sensation. It’s hard to imagine the work that went into making the grass wave in the wind or the miraculous lightning in the bottle. Awaiting the Lightning Bolt is about the extreme lengths a person will go to for someone they love. The same can be said about the making of the film as well. The short ends with a dedication to Russo’s father. It’s a reminder that the effort of artistic creation is almost always for or because of someone else.
When watching Awaiting the Lightning Bolt, a quote from Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird comes to mind. “Don’t you think maybe they’re the same thing? Love and attention?” Love, attention, and effort are intrinsically connected, all fueling one another. Eventually, this love and attention has to be turned into something. Eventually, it has to pour out of you so the love becomes something tangible and visible for all to see. Awaiting the Lightning Bolt is a sweet little ode to the many times we try and the many times we fail and the one time we catch lightning in a bottle. All in the name of love.
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