Somewhere in America, the 1850s: Juliet (Gabrielle Rosson) sure can sing, and she has got an operatic voice, too, and a skill for emoting. She does find an audience, too, but unfortunately not because of her voice or her skills, but solely because of her looks - in fact, she's presented to her audience by her impresario Jonag (Damien Chinappi) as "the ugliest woman alive", basically because her face is covered in hair. Juliet doesn't mind that much, as she's deeply in love with Jonah - who sees her as a business opportunity only abd would rather not be seen with her off stage publicly - even if he hasn't alwas been impregnable to her weird charms. And then she tells him she's pregnant from him ...

A film loosely based on the story of bearded female performer turned freakshow sensation Julia Pastrana and her manager husband Theodore Lent - who would profit from her and her equally haired son's corpses even after their deaths -, this is a film made with great empathy, especially considering it consists of basically just one musical number and one dialogue scene. But for one is the tune and also Gabrielle Rosson's emoting pretty impressive, and the backstage dialogue is very much to-the-point without being on-your-nose while the directorial effort is elegant and gives its lead character plenty of dignity. And all of this comined just makes a compelling short that's well worth a watch.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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