With her sophomore film This Closeness, a sleeper hit on the indie festival circuit in 2023, Kit Zauhar is quickly becoming one of the most interesting filmmakers on the American indie scene. Her honest and disquieting look at 20-something life, for a generation that is increasingly adrift in world that seems to have little to offer them. Making their own way is daunting, yet her characters suggest both vulnerability and ingenuity, even as they fumble towards a hoped-for satisfaction without clear direction. Factory25 will shortly be releasing the film in US cinemas. Tessa and Ben are staying in Philly for the weekend to attend Ben's high school reunion. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the couple has to rent a room in a stranger's apartment. That stranger...
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- 5/1/2024
- Screen Anarchy
This Closeness
Director Kit Zauhar uses her sophomore feature, This Closeness, as a Petri dish to explore human nature in a claustrophobic Philadelphia apartment. The plot centres on couple, Tessa (Zauhar) and Ben (Zane Pais), who are in town for his high school reunion. Renting a room in a stranger’s apartment, Tessa begins to form a bond with Adam (Ian Edlund), their temporary lonely and introverted roommate, as tensions mount with her boyfriend.
In conversation with Eye For Film at this year’s SXSW, where the film screened in the Narrative Spotlight section, Zauhar discussed her interest in critiquing white masculinity, and using 'trivialities' to scratch the surface of the human experience.
Paul Risker: Why acting, writing and directing as a means of creative expression? Was there an inspirational or defining moment?
Kit Zauhar: I don't know if I had one moment where I knew. I'm a lucky individual,...
Director Kit Zauhar uses her sophomore feature, This Closeness, as a Petri dish to explore human nature in a claustrophobic Philadelphia apartment. The plot centres on couple, Tessa (Zauhar) and Ben (Zane Pais), who are in town for his high school reunion. Renting a room in a stranger’s apartment, Tessa begins to form a bond with Adam (Ian Edlund), their temporary lonely and introverted roommate, as tensions mount with her boyfriend.
In conversation with Eye For Film at this year’s SXSW, where the film screened in the Narrative Spotlight section, Zauhar discussed her interest in critiquing white masculinity, and using 'trivialities' to scratch the surface of the human experience.
Paul Risker: Why acting, writing and directing as a means of creative expression? Was there an inspirational or defining moment?
Kit Zauhar: I don't know if I had one moment where I knew. I'm a lucky individual,...
- 4/8/2023
- by Paul Risker
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Building on the success of her well-received debut feature Actual People, writer-director-actor Kit Zauhar’s This Closeness further explores the deviously twisty nuances of angst as experienced by people in their 20s nowadays. The plot unfolds over a weekend during which couple Tessa (Zauhar) and Ben (Zane Pais) come to stay in a “sad,” sparsely decorated Philadelphia apartment, having used an online app to book a bedroom from introverted host Adam (Ian Edlund).
But the inherent awkwardness of sharing a small space with a total stranger subtly unnerves all three characters. Tensions bubble up from the depths, especially submerged jealousies between Tessa and Ben, who have come to town for the latter’s high-school reunion. The result is a finely observed study of modern manners and mores on a micro-budget that’s nevertheless rich in feeling, especially the cringeiness one might experience from watching other people bicker or hearing people have sex through thin walls.
But the inherent awkwardness of sharing a small space with a total stranger subtly unnerves all three characters. Tensions bubble up from the depths, especially submerged jealousies between Tessa and Ben, who have come to town for the latter’s high-school reunion. The result is a finely observed study of modern manners and mores on a micro-budget that’s nevertheless rich in feeling, especially the cringeiness one might experience from watching other people bicker or hearing people have sex through thin walls.
- 3/20/2023
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Have social interactions with strangers always been fraught with awkwardness, or has contemporary society and its technological trappings made it worse? How do we decide on new rules for behaviour and etiquette, especially when crossing cultural and class lines? I'd argue that there have always been rules that are often unspoken, and people's own idiosyncrasies that make perfect sense to them seem uncouth to others, and those others are often insensitive to differences. Perhaps our modern trappings make this worse. This awkwardness and those who carry it are on intimate display in Kit Zauhar's sophomore feature This Closeness. Something of a thematic cousin to her first film Actual People, This Closeness explores further themes of strangers thrown together, miscommunication, and living lives of quiet desperation...
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- 3/11/2023
- Screen Anarchy
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