Martin Titchenell07-17-2013

Laura Keller: NBDirector: Mo PerkinsWriter: Mo Perkins

Stars: Amber Benson, Martin Starr, Robert Baker

Laura Keller: NB is a short film set approximately 40 years in the future where overpopulation has led to

a national lottery that determines who can and who can’t attempt to have a baby. The title character

works in the reproductive center, but she is not chosen to be a “breeder”. The characters in this film live

in a world of where resources are extremely limited and there isn’t enough of a lot of things to go

around. I was struck by just how many people there are around during the shots of Laura going to and

leaving work. The stairs are a constant flow of people both up and down. This helped emphasized the

overcrowded nature of their world while also subtly showing that perhaps elevators and other assistive

technologies might be seen as luxuries that waste precious power and resources that could be better

used in other areas. I was also struck by how monochromatic everything was – there were mostly dull

colors in every scene. We didn’t see any shots of nature or greenery. The characters’ lives seemed to be

set in a series of dull boxes. I was led to believe by the black market steak – that any supposed luxuries

in this world are tightly controlled and regulated. If they have gotten to the point where they control

breeding – I am sure everything else is just as tightly controlled. Laura and her husband also hinted at

the fact that they were actually fairly well-off financially compared to others in their social circle. Her

husband was a lawyer, but still they lived in a very small apartment. That being said – that apartment did

fulfill all their needs which brings me to my final point. If more people lived like this now – we could

probably slow our resource consumption rate dramatically. We simply don’t need the large, sprawling

homes that quite a few people live in. There is no reason that more people can’t live a lot simpler than

they do and consume fewer resources doing so. This film made me think of my own excesses and areas

where I could simplify and consume less. It also showed how little people care about how limited

resources are until they are directly impacted. The main character, through her job, was well aware of

1

Martin Titchenell07-17-2013

the limited “breeder” designations. She was OK with that reality until she didn’t receive one of them.

After that she was willing to do just about anything to get one.

2