‘Camera’ is a Movie About Film Photography Bringing People Together
A new independent movie called Camera centered around film photography and how it can bring people together is currently available to stream on Amazon and Apple.
The 2024 film is made by Jay Silverman and stars Beau Bridges, Jessica Parker Kennedy, and newcomer Miguel Gabriel. Camera follows a mute boy and an eccentric repairman who form an unlikely friendship over a broken twin-lens reflex camera.
According to Digital Camera World, the film camera is not just a plot device but a character in its own right.
“Through the interplay between still images and moving ones, I want Camera to come alive, to be as real to the audience as a thinking, feeling organism, and for it to move them towards a brighter future after the picture fades to black,” explains director Jay Silverman who is also a photographer himself.
The movie follows Oscar, a boy with a speech disability, as he moves to a struggling fishing town and finds it difficult. He meets a local repairman called Eric who helps Oscar fix a camera and he becomes the boy’s mentor, helping him to learn more about photography.
“As mentor Eric teaches the young Oscar about how to get the most out of this aging technology, it’s both a nostalgic journey for older hands who remember analog and an introduction to it for younger ones who don’t,” writes Tom May for Digital Camera World.
The film’s tagline is “Make Every Frame Count”. It’s a fitting motto for a flick about analog photography where the number of images the shooter can take is limited.
“The exciting thing about this movie, about me playing this character, is that Oscar expresses himself through the camera and he sees something that other people don’t,” says actor Miguel Gabriel who plays Oscar.
“I wanted to write a story about the wonder and amazement that children see in the world. It’s something that’s unique to childhood,” adds screenwriter Jamie Murphy.
“It’s something that I think we lose in our adulthood. The camera in this story is symbolic of that, it’s symbolic of the things that we probably should keep in focus in our lives.”
Camera is available to stream on Apple TV and Prime Video. For more, head to the film’s Instagram page, Facebook page, and website.
