Ryan Shows Another Film

During Ryan Conklin's class at the New York Film Academy, he had three film projects that he worked on. In addition to his mise-en-scène and troubling No More Tomorrow, he did a short film on 16mm with the theme of a man seeking isolation within the confines of a large city.

Going straight to video, the film was shown by Ryan on the TV at The Real World Brooklyn house so his roommates could see it. Watching Ryan in the film as the lead character, they were entranced by what they saw.

In the film, a handsome, well-built young man (Ryan A. Conklin) reads a book while sitting on the sidewalk with his back against a wall. He is in a large city, but literally on the sidelines of it. He puts his book away and rises to his feet. We see by his attitude and slightly unusual dress and grooming that he is someone who keeps himself out of the norm and he is quite confident in himself for doing so. He places large headphones over his ears and with a confirming nod and closed eyes he shows he has successfully withdrawn into his inner world and shut out awareness of the surrounding space from which he wishes to separate.

With his eyes closed, his hands tightly tucked into his jacket and his head bobbing, he proceeds to walk straight ahead down the sidewalk, oblivious to all but the sounds and patterns swirling in his own mind. He bumps into a woman, knocking her books and papers to the ground. He maintains his forward motion and path with no indication that he is cognizant of who or what he has momentarily made contact with. Unfortunately for the man, the collision with the woman was but a foreshadowing of more dire consequences ahead stemming from his desire to be within but apart from the city that he is traversing.

Still walking, the man removes the book from his pocket and begins to read again. His eyes are now necessarily open, but he allows them to see only the printed words and not the activity around him. He begins to cross a street and in a moment of uncharacteristic lack of control of his behavior, he accidentally drops the book onto the pavement below. He stoops to pick it up, and when arising he finally takes notice of something that he cannot avoid perceiving: a moving car that is poised to strike him in less than a moment. The impact is not shown, but what we see immediately before that is the shock in the man not only of his impending demise but also the realization that despite his willing it, he could not truly be separate from the people and tangible objects that would always be around him.

The roommates were very supportive of Ryan in their comments about the film, despite obviously not having a background in film studies (Sarah Rice: "It's very film noir.")