Sunday Short Theatre – An Occurrence at Arverne (2020)

2020 was a pivotal year, not just with a certain pandemic, but also society in general and our assumptions. Our eyes were fully opened with the killing of George Floyd, society is racist. We became judgemental, assumed the worse on everyone. In thus week’s Sunday Short Theatre, An Occurrence at Arverne assuming the worst you will get the worst.

An Occurrence at Arverne is an 7 minute film directed by Robert Broadhurst. It tells the story man arrives at an unknown home with an unknown agenda.

Films based on social issues walk the fine line of finger pointing who, what, is to blame. As we know accepting the existence and dealing with racial prejudice. Broadhurst’s film deliberately gives a way very little in narrative, leaving the viewer to build on there own tension. All delivered in Hitchcockian fashion gets to the heart of the message of the film in a restrained indirect way. Messing with your expectations, challenging you and not to assume , just because the character we see creeping around a home is a black man it’s going to be negative.

AN OCCURRENCE AT ARVERNE follows an unknown man in his 20s attempting to gain access to an unknown home as a woman entering her car regards him warily. Once inside the home, his purpose is interrupted, rattling his nerves. As the ambiguity of his agenda sharpens into focus, wariness on the streets escalates.

This short film, the first narrative work by New York-based filmmaker Robert Broadhurst, suggests a modern-day riff on Ambrose Bierce’s AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE as it involves the audience in the process of completing its action.

Source: Film Shortage