“AM,” directed by Alexia Vasiliou

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San Diego Short Film Festival

Musical / Music Video

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TRT 3:16

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“AM” depicts a dancer (Alexia Vasiliou) enjoying an Arctic Monkeys song in her apartment. There’s some lip-synching and air guitar playing that punctuate the dance performance.

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This is a minimalist affair, done in a single take with an unmoving camera in a sparse living room and with a $0 budget. Vasiliou moves around the small space in a performance that is obviously inspired by the song but doesn’t convey any particular expertise in dance, lip-synching or air guitar playing.

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The most complex thing about “AM” is the title. Is it meant to stand for “ante meridiem”? (The Brits don’t punctuate “am” and this is a U.K. production.) Is it meant to stand for “amplitude modulation”? (The audio quality of the music definitely evokes AM radio.) Is it an emphatic statement about the dancer’s existence? One cannot be sure, but given that this was completed in April of 2020 it’s entirely possible.

As a reminder of how we entertained ourselves in the early days of COVID, it’s a poignant little time capsule. As a music video, it technically qualifies for the category.