Indie Spotlight- Candid Love

In an ongoing effort to help aspiring filmmakers and promote independent films, particularly those struggling with distribution and releases, we periodically feature films in our “Indie Spotlight” series for your consideration.

‘Candid Love’ (2015) (English Language)

55min

Genre:    Documentary

Director: Kurtz Frausun

Cast:      Jon Hargis, Shanea Devon, Daniel Hendricks…and more

Country: USA

A micro-budget fly-on-the-wall “indie” documentary, ‘Candid Love’ follows the emotional struggles of gay Texas couple Jon and Daniel as they deal with the disintegration of their relationship after the huge effect of his father’s death on Daniel’s psychological state, all amidst the surfacing of resentment and substance dependency in this piece from self-professed “experimental” underground director Kurtz Frausun.

As the title might suggest ‘Candid Love’ is an apparently honest capture of a flawed couple’s struggles under great stress with them mostly addressing the camera and therefore audience directly in “interview” mode, Frausun seemingly fills the role of audience and arguably conductor in a film that has a distinct voyeuristic tone despite the director’s surprising on-camera appearance to try and qualify this voyeurism.

 Director Frausun takes a departure from his bizarre experimental pseudo-sexual horror/bdsm/gothic productions to deliver an unusual and yet traditional documentary which looks unique thanks to visual techniques like soft-focus and light blue tones that give the film an ethereal dream-like quality, the most unique effect that ‘Candid Love’ has on us however is to question whether it’s a documentary at all.

 Maybe it’s just us but we get a sense that this film is actually a well staged performance, perhaps based on real events and if so it would explain the apparent lack of any real intimacy and chemistry that should come out through the screen, if so we would commend the performances of the characters involved but if we’re making incorrect assumptions then maybe it’s the 55 minute running time that limits what can actually be captured of a real relationship.

 If real, we question the motives for this couple to allow Frausun this kind of access to their lives, there’s also the question of the director’s motives which he candidly addresses in his on-camera piece, but whether you harshly judge any of their actions or not you can’t deny that for what it is, ‘Candid Love’ is surprisingly captivating.

 Either way it seems that this is an ultimately doomed relationship and whether real or not it’s surprisingly engaging, it just happens to be about a gay couple in this instance but could be about any couple coping with loss and resentment within a real-world 21st century scenario.

Trailer for Candid Love, a documentary from Frausun Productions from Kurtz Frausun on Vimeo.

Watch the full film on Vimeo

Candid Love: A Documentary From Frausun Productions from Kurtz Frausun on Vimeo.

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