If you saw the Southern Made Shorts block at the El Dorado Film Festival Saturday, you saw Capchtas cause an existential crisis, a desperate attempt at meditation, and a quest for a little introvert time turning into a beautifully lit battle of wits. All the films took strange and absurdist turns to show modern life almost exactly as it is.
The best example may have been the total charmer “Emma’s Social Battery” by Jannet Lopez and Carlos Jimenez. The film stars a young woman named Emma (Olivia Peck) who falls into a new friend group. She really likes them, but they invite her to too many things and she’s afraid to offend them by saying no.
The characters will seem familiar to introverts everywhere: friends who stay too long, a domestic partner who doesn’t pick up on your telepathic pleas to kick everyone out, that one friend-detective who always has piercing follow-up questions about your excuses…