This is an extraordinarily beautiful and heart-wrenching short movie of the very tragic subject of gay teen suicide that is adapted from a story written by 20 year old actor Zach Kemper who also stars in it. It consists of a monologue that Kemper’s unnamed character pours out as he goes through the motions of going to a neighborhood party because it is ostensibly birthday celebrations for the boy we learn who was not only his lover, but who took his own life a few months earlier.
Kemper’s character is full of anger and frustration as he grapples with the reality of his loss and the love that he had, and he is now so full of regret that he had been completely unable to see that he boy he loved had been struggling so much with his sexual identity.
The movie directed Brandon Zuck deftly touches on a problem which sadly is still so widespread as the number of teen LGBT suicides continues to grow in alarming numbers. He and Kemper told Milk Magazine however that their focus doesn’t fall back of the familiar trope of a gay teen trying and failing to overcome their suicidal thoughts, as they were much more interested in what comes after.
You can watch this powerful piece in full below ….. be prepared and have a box of kleenex ready ….. and on the movie’s website http://www.asongforyourmixtape.com/ there is information on LGBT suicide hotlines too.
Labels: 2016, culture, movie, teen suicide
