-exquisitely satiric short film
--Daily Variety
I just saw this movie on HBO. It was written and produced by Brian McDonald on digital video. It's a fourteen minute long movie in the style of a documentary about Clowns. But these aren't just normal circus clowns. These are people with clown faces, a race of clowns, who are trying to be a normal part of society, but are constantly prejudiced against because they are so different. Of course, this movie is entirely fake; but it has a huge meaning. I think it's about racism. You see a lot of references to different races that have been oppressed and discriminated against. For example, there is one clown, a woman named Clarabelle Confetti with a very Polish accent, who talks about the old days, giving us a historical context for Clowns in America; and you get a "World War II" sort of feeling. She tells about how bad everying was for Clowns when her family came from the "old country". She goes on to say that her son "married outside the race, don't ya know". His wife is a mime. What a world we live in.
Another of the Clowns featured is a Doctor; Dr. Howard Blinky. He says that some people won't even let him operate on them, screaming for him to get the 'real' doctor. He's real good with kids.
The script for the movie was written in 1996, but was too expensive to shoot at the time, so it wasn't done right away, but won the Saguaro Film Festival Award for best short script in 1997. After a wile, with advances in technology, it became possible to shoot the video relatively cheaply. Brian McDonald got money from his friends and family and used his credit card to pay for the production of the film.
The movie also won the Best Short Film Audience Award at the 2001 Slamdance Film Festival.
I think everyone should see s movie. It's witty, funny, and thought-provoking. Two thumbs up. There's even a Clown who talks with his squeeze-horn; luckily for us, it's subtitled.