Through the showery urban and sleepy suburban landscapes of the American Pacific Northwest, Lake Forest Park follows a group of adolescent friends in the wake of a mysterious shared loss. Specificities regarding the event are minimally disclosed in the beginning of the film, allowing seemingly mundane vignettes to dovetail while charged with the subtext of confusion and grief. Traversing the choppy waters on the Seattle ferry, in tender moments of care and conflict between young people, and among the troubled institutional spaces of home and school, Lake Forest Park meditates on the loss inherent in the transition of things. As long takes unfold through shifts in light or the subtle progression of off-screen sound, the film reflects T.S. Eliot’s thought that the essence of change is gradual and often unremarkable - the greying of the sky before a shower - more of a whimper than a bang.
Kersti Jan Werdal is a filmmaker and photographer based in California. She frequently works in Washington State, where she was born and raised, incorporating landscapes and histories of the region. Her films focus on off-screen sound and framing of the subject to tell a story, as all filmmaking is inherently subjective, and therefore narrative. Her film-essays incorporate archival footage, still photography, text, and music.
Editor: Kersti Jan Werdal, Andrea Franco
Executive Producer: Hannah Peterson
Producers: Jackii Chun, Robin Pecknold, Ecstatic Static
Cinematographer: Gillian Garcia
Cast: Alex Hofstrand, Luka Huffines, Tres Huffines, Kesiah Manival, Clara McHale-Ribot, Dylan Lehmann, Jack Paradise, Lily Rand, Weihong Zheng
Score: Marisa Anderson
Sound Design: Kevin T. Allen
Color: Kaitlyn Battisteli
Titles and Graphic Design: Scott Ponik
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