Shotgun Stories
by 
|Following the death of their father, a feud erupts between two sets of half brothers in a sleepy middle American town. Both sides have chances to end the conflict, but each new act of violence restarts the battle. Too often in films everything is explained, however with Shotgun Stories, the characters are so well crafted, the dialogue so exact and spare, that the story is told with a minimum of exposition and the beauty is in what is left unsaid. The film then conveys its powerful message with a minimum of fuss and without being overbearing. Lingering shots of empty streets, rubbish strewn reserves, ploughed fields, pickup trucks and simple homes illustrate the lives of the inhabitants of this town better than any spoken description ever could, and are shot with such care the plain scenery is granted a sense of romanticism. This surprisingly touching film has won many awards at film festivals around the world and has snuck onto DVD with a minimum of press but is well worth the effort.
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San Francisco artist Matthew Palladino’s work is on my obsessive website viewing rotation. His colourful, clean, folksy images have got me, though I must say that I’m not as drawn to some of his more overt examples of political subject matter as I am to his more personal, introverted images. Regardless, Palladino implements the most beautiful patterns and shapes with his watercolors. And I just can’t get enough. Read more
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Created by graphic t shirt label, the-affair, and printed on beautifully soft American Apparel. Limited edition of 200.
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