SSF: “Fishing at Lethe”

Today’s short, Derek Fong’s Fishing at Lethe, reminds me a great deal of Barbara Bakos’ Lady with Long Hair, which I mentioned a few months back. And not just because they both focus on fishing and/or elderly ladies coming to terms with their pasts. It’s the whole “recalling lost memories” bit that really gets to me, though the reasons behind our protagonist’s memory loss in this short is a bit more like those featured in Undone. And as a result, the whole things a bit sadder than Bakos’ offering. (It also reminds me of The House of Small Cubes. Which also involves fishing. And the elderly. And memories. Fascinating how well the watery and angling imagery works in this context.)

I love the way Fong uses a (slightly) different style for the background art in contrast with the forefront imagery. Love the softness/sketchiness of it when contrasted with the harder lines in the foreground. Love the way in which that little difference plays into the short’s message. Also, the use of color is really sweet. (Yes, that last comment seems odd. But it makes sense in context. Just watch; you’ll see what I’m getting at.)

Attribution(s): All artwork, publicity images, and stills are the property of Derek Fong, who made this work available via a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.