Birdhouses
By Richard Propes | December 9, 2007
dir: Sam Goetz, 14:44—When I was a young boy, I would gather every Saturday evening around the television for our weekly family tradition of watching “Hee Haw,” an hour of country music, down home silliness and simple family fun.
As I grew up, my musical tastes moved more toward The Ramones and The Dead Kennedys and, sadly, family time became less and less of a priority. Birdhouses, a 2004 short film written and directed by Sam Goetz, brings to mind those sweet, tender and funny days when family time mattered and courtship still took place over homemade berry pies and reruns of “Hee-Haw” and “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”
The story of Dave (David Barlett) and Louise (Nina Louise Miller), Birdhouses is a funny and gentle-hearted romantic short that follows these two lonely souls who unexpectedly connect after Nina moves into the neighborhood and, being the neighborly sort, brings a homemade pie over to David as a sort of introduction.
What follows is a basic story made incredibly beautiful by the touching performances of Bartlett and Miller, blended together with surprisingly effective clips of Buck Owens, Roy Clark, Lulu and the rest of the oddly endearing “Hee-Haw” gang. So easily, the characters in Birdhouses could have been turned into a Southern caricature, but Goetz’s wonderful dialogue finds the inherent humor in the scenes without ever making fun of the characters.
Shot on an estimated $3,500 budget, Birdhouses is carried by the strength of the lead performances and Jonathan Yi’s mood-setting black and white camera work. The film won “Best Short Film” at the Ithaca Film Festival and Idaho’s Spudfest and is now available as a free rental at Jaman.com.
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February 13th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I came across your review just by chance and wanted to write and thank you so much for a very kind review. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
February 13th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Glad you enjoyed the review! Great job on a great film, Nina. We’d love to see what other films you’ve been in. Any hope that some are online?
February 19th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Hi Nina,
I’m glad you found and enjoyed the review. I’d noticed that Sam has made a few other shorts, but haven’t noticed any with your name attached.
I really enjoyed “Birdhouses.” I agree with Andrew. If you’ve got any other films available online, I’d love to see them.
Thank you for taking the time to check out the review.
Richard
March 5th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Hi Andrew and Richard,
Birdhouses is the only film that I’ve been featured in. I did more theater and musical theater than anything, and a slew of “Background” work on films, commercials and TV shows. I’m so touched that you guys enjoyed my performance that much. I’ve taken a pause from the crazy world of acting and my audience these days is the 0 to 5 set (www.kidslovedrama.com). But who knows, maybe there will be more films in the future.
This is a really cool website. Thanks for the support, and I’ll keep checking in to see what’s on the list for me to catch up on. !!
All the best,
Nina