Cinema Arts Festival Houston 2009

The Time We Killed is the first feature by avant-garde filmmaker Jennifer Reeves, who had been generally known for her formal experimentation with optical printing and painting directly on film (as in the extraordinary When It Was Blue, screening Friday) and her exploration of a range of topics including women’s sexuality, mental health and recovery, poetry, and dogs. The Time We Killed is a surprising departure, a remarkably assured narrative feature. The film’s title has a double meaning, signifying both the boredom and isolation of the protagonist and her country’s run-up to the Iraq war. It has the raw intimacy of a filmed diary as it focuses on the daily life of Robyn, an agoraphobic writer who shuts herself in her Brooklyn apartment after the events of September 11, 2001. It is a visually stunning and evocative meditation on Robyn’s inner world filled with memories, past loves, childhood visions, and life failings. The imagery is beautiful, capturing the light reflecting on the East River and the nature surrounding Robyn, reflecting Reeves’s avant-garde experience as a cinematic painter of light. The film won multiple awards at the Berlin Film Festival (2004), New York’s Tribeca Film Festival (Best NY Narrative Feature 2004), and screened at the Whitney Museum, and at the Rotterdam, Sundance, and New York film festivals. —MDH