Search The Archive

Search the film archive

"Slacker cinema for people who can't even be bothered to light a joint – in its own strange way a marvelous thing." – The Village Voice

Droll tragicomedy and sublime inertia meet in this debut feature from short-film director Ted Fendt, which evokes not so much the obvious comparisons to mumblecore as it does the French New Wave.

A rambling shaggy-dog jaunt turned off-key moral tale, Short Stay follows 30-something pizza delivery dude Mike as he swaps his New Jersey loafing for a Philadelphia sublet and a stint covering his friend's walking-tour guide job, where he finds himself repeating the same mundane interactions with complete strangers. Shooting in evocative 16mm, Fendt frames the wonderfully deadpan performances with a refreshing economy of style, marking him as an exciting new American independent.

"Unexpectedly locating a wholly new and refreshingly unsentimental brand of humanism … [Fendt] is a filmmaker quite unlike any other." – Cinema Scope

Screens with Crystal Lake.