
CAITI BLUES
France, Canada | 2023 | 84 min
Like so many kids, Caiti Lord has a dream too. To pursue her dream, she moves to the West, directed to San Francisco. At some point she runs out of money. She makes a temporary stop in Madrid, New Mexico – only to make ends meet, she says to herself. Time goes by, and California looks increasingly like a delusional aspiration of someone who didn’t make it. Those who don’t make it, for want of money or because of ever more unrealistic aesthetic canons, pay dearly for the American dream, fuelled by individualist mentality. Justine Harbonnier focuses on the intersection of awareness and disillusionment, demonstrating that living on art today is a business for the happy few. Caiti’s ‘blues’ then becomes intense and filled with experience, while we scan through its daily melancholy and resigned rhythm. In the background, we see images of Trump-era everyday America and the failed impeachment, a symbol of the state of degradation and quiet desperation of an entire country. (e.s.)