A quiet, introspective study of a Marine's last day home before shipping back to Iraq with a weighty conscience. An entirely improvised drama that was shot over the course of one day in Arlington, Texas, using both actors and non actors, both family and friends of the director, all from a one page outline. In this loose narrative, three vignettes display the difficulty and uncertainty that people have in expressing love. The first film from the improvisational film collective, Backyard Movies. Starring Nicholas Blanton, Page Mosley, Nancy Owens, Gideon Seaman, Jessica Hixson, Frank Mosley, and Juan Campa.

OFFICIAL SELECTION

2007 Dallas Video Festival  (Dallas, TX)

2008 Mid Valley Video Festival  (Salem, OR)

    -Golden Pioneer Nominee for Best Narrative Short

2007

18 min.

color

miniDV

PRESS

“Shot with a naturalistic aesthetic and dependent on improvisation, Leave marks a quiet triumph for Mosley as both a whole-hearted examination of his developing directorial voice and as a respectful and atypical glimpse of the mind of a soldier.  With his cinematography, there is an incredible intimacy with the way he approaches people.  Nancy Owens’ heartbreaking performance immediately becomes the barometer for the film.  Gideon Seaman bears the weight of his scene easily, even in its depth.  Mosley and Jessica Hixson pull off their characters’ insuing shock with an intensity that even at its most dramatic never falters into melodrama.  Deriving its poignance much more from its silences than its cries, this introspective character study holds its tongue about politics and instead tells a simple, successful story about how people are affected by war, how those battles are fought not always on the ground but rather in our minds, the self battling the self.  Affecting in its complete honesty, the film succeeds on Mosley’s willingness to listen and wait....these are the type of moments treasured to encounter.”

                                                                    -Noralil Ryan Fores, Short End Magazine

“Leave is a fantastic film that really makes you think about the men and women who stand on the front lines for us...The acting is amazing, feelings are conveyed without any words at all, and it’s even all the more amazing because the entire film is improvised...Four out of four stars.  A great movie with a message that too many people still need to hear.”

                                                                    -Brian Morton, Rogue Cinema