FILM / Zora's Super Short Show / Winter Prayer / Zora Satchell

This month I wanted to highlight the work of a fellow poet, Haolun Xu! Not only is Haolun a prolific poet (his forthcoming chapbook, Ultimate Sun Cell, which was runner up in the New Delta Chapbook contest will be published in 2021), but he is also a director! His forthcoming short, Winter Prayer, is the focus of this month’s column. Winter Prayer, which focuses on the brief exchange between a priest and a stranger in an outside seating area in the middle of winter, is a reflection on vulnerability. 

The short opens with the priest (Javis WIlliams) and the stranger (James Baksh) having a stilted exchange in a Chinese take out spot in the middle of Jersey. Baksh seems out of it. He stands at the counter, zoned out as the priest tries to hand him a receipt. He pushes it away with irritation before leaving without any food. The priest shrugs it off before ordering, and then we quickly cut to the outside where the stranger waits. The priest sits in the Covid seating area, right beside a white partition that mimics a confession booth. The stranger takes the seat on the other side. The priest is visibly uncomfortable; he wishes to eat in peace. I empathize a lot with the priest, who has become wearily familiar with the way some approach him with the intention to unburden themselves without regard for where he is at due to his profession, but I also felt intrigued by the stranger. Our stranger, clearly desperate for connection, pushes on and they begin to talk about faith. 

It becomes clear that the stranger is houseless as he continues to talk. He's cold, hungry and struggling with isolation. “Sometimes I come to places like this just to be close to someone” he laments before commenting further that it makes him feel pathetic. This line stuck with me because for our stranger who's deprived of all basic needs, his biggest battle is with the shame of his circumstances and yet he still reaches out for connection even as he’s deprived of it. To this the priest responds, ”Being pathetic is not necessarily bad, what matters is what we do with it.” This is when their not quite comfortable conversation truly begins to resonate with me. The stranger, who lives on the outskirts and occupies a kind of space most people uneasily pretend not to see, reaches out, and for a brief moment is met with compassion. I was compelled by the importance of connection, no matter how temporary and how kindness, a shared moment in prayer, a compassionate ear, can be the one thing that keeps you going. 

What I also found compelling about this short were the performances and use of sets. Short films are a lot like narrative poems, in the sense that they have to tell a fully realized story in a very short amount of time. In a poem details of a narrative are often communicated through negative space or rather what is not stated but implied (whether it’s the way the white space of the page is utilized or what is implied through the absence of some words). I think the way this happens in a short is through the use of setting and the way an actor blocks out their performance. For example, I can infer the stranger is houseless before he confirms as much through dialogue by how he is first introduced. He is standing in a Chinese restaurant, zoned out and without ordering. The lack of food tells me that he can’t afford it but that he is also within the store to get warm. I also know that he needs connection on some level because he waits outside to apologize to the priest rather than just going about the night.

In addition to the blocking, the use of set was very poetic. The majority of the short is shot in the outside dining area of the restaurant. On a practical level, it makes sense given that they must follow Covid protocol, however what makes it so brilliant is that Haolun uses the Covid partitions to mimic a confessional booth, which was genius. In other films that utilize the confession trope, it’s often utilized to highlight something within themselves that a main character struggles with while also highlighting their need to be understood without judgement. A more formal booth signifies a social contract a confessor and a priest have entered into. However, in a Winter Prayer, the booth is informal, lighting the lack of social agreement. This is more of an ambush, and yet the priest only offers him absolution and compassion.

For more information on Winter Prayer, see: https://haolunxu.com/