Oakland Filmmaker Wins 2

Watch the film at the end of this article

The Jersey Filmmakers of Tomorrow, a festival encompassing Bergen County high school students, recently premiered their winners in Allendale, NJ….and third place went to Kevin Cheetham of Indian Hills High School. The festival, sponsored by the Fort Lee Film Commission, had over 70 entries, and is in it’s 6th year.

The rhythm of the movie, clocking in at just over 4 minutes, visually moves the audience with simple and smooth transitions. The plot undoubtedly lends itself to a comic air, being narrated by a pumpkin about to be carved, but Cheetham does not attempt to exploit the potential comedy at all and takes the film to a level that makes it a metaphor for life after death, or no death at all.

We join the story of the pumpkin near it’s end, as it is being picked. The vibrant beauty of the autumn scenery provides a contradictory backdrop to what one would assume to be the end of the pumpkins journey in life, being picked. Instead, the end becomes the beginning as the pumpkin welcomes its fate with destiny.

The journey to a new home, a new family, a new life, is built through the relationship between the pumpkin and the young boy for whom the pumpkin was picked. The joyous colors of the fall leaves, the tenderness of the pumpkin being held in the car, and the sincere voice narration imitate more the homecoming of a new pet rather than that of a vegetable destined for the carving knife.

As the story progresses, and the knife approaches, we can only expect the film to take a turn towards the morbid, the cries of the pumpkin to jar us from its melodious journey. Instead, Cheetham again chooses a different track, takes the audience in an unexpected direction, and here we have the makings of a great short film. The audience is forced to examine the definition of life, our concepts of transformation, and the need to trust and believe in something outside our understanding.

Should the film be deconstructed in an English literature class, the character of the young boy would be described as representative of the figure of God; we are the pumpkin. The trust and faith the pumpkin displays towards the boy, even as the knife is driven into its core, shows a relationship of biblical proportions without extravaganza or hyperbole: simple, unquestioning acceptance. The completion of the carving, metaphorically by the hand of God, brings about a new life.

The movie continues beyond the carving with the inclusion of another unexpected twist, but in the end it does not end. In the end, the film provides a new metaphor for change, an argument for life after death. Though only a 4 minute film, Kevin Cheetham has displayed a talent for both directing, cinematography, and editing…and the story of a boy and his pumpkin makes this short film a winner.

Kevin Cheetham Youtube