YouTube Highlight – In A Heartbeat

This week I bring you a stunning short film about love, peer pressure and hope.

The short animation, created by college students Beth David and Esteban Bravo, sees one closeted boy trying to hide this crush on another boy despite his heart bursting out and chasing the other boy. The first thing that strikes me is the music, which is very emotive and touching throughout. It works to convey the mood, emotions an narrative of the characters who remain speechless. This a short that relies on its music and visuals to communicate its story and it does it superbly.

When I first watched it, it made me cry because of how sweet, cute and heart-warming the film is. The animation is beautiful and the characters are brought to live so effectively in such a short piece. The storyline is very simple but powerful, especially the bit where the two boys fight over the heart and the main one tears it in two under the pressure put on them by the watchful eyes of other students. It’s important to show this pressure still exists to be normal or conform, but the ending is best bit, showing that love can overcome and be returned.

It is also a very important example of art that should be produced nowadays where characters can reflect the LGBT community and LGBT love in very positive way. This is especially achieved through not using dialogue and letting the characters express who they are without acknowledgement or need to explain their sexuality. This is will a big thing for young LGBT kids out there who can see what they feel and think reflected back to them, letting them know that there is hope and potential for love out there. For me, many out there, I wish I could have had something like this to show that being LGBT was okay. That there was hope and that you can be loved.

This short film, a college project no less, is beautiful and thought provoking, and created by some very talented students who I hope we will hear more of in the future.