BENGALURU: It is common for people to use the phrase ‘vibing with someone’. While many might have their own idea about it, director Mark Tyler Renfro captures this in his silent short film, The Vibes. Though the movie was produced in 2019, it was screened at different film festivals. The film has garnered 10 awards and 17 nominations worldwide and is soon going to be on OTT platforms for public viewing. The movie has been written and shot in the interest of emphasising the effects of the vibrations that we share and absorb around us. “I have taken an interest in spirituality for 12 years now.
When I don’t have much work, I practice meditation for 10-12 hours. In due course, I have discovered the power of the vibrations which is what the film is about,” explains Renfro, who originally hails from Pune, but currently resides in Bengaluru. The film is based on two Caucasians who see each other from a distance in a room but hesitate to start a conversation because they don’t know each other. After they see each other in the same pool-side restaurant, the two of them share the same hotel room, leaving the viewers confused by their closeness.
Only towards the end of the film, it is revealed that it might look like the two individuals are in the same room, but they are living on two different days. “The demonstration here is that when the first person shares his vibration in one day, the other person absorbs it in the second day,” explains Renfro. He also reveals that the movie was shot in one day in a resort, on the outskirts of the city. After creating this movie on a unique subject, Renfro has already started working on his next project, Of Our Own, which is centered around the LGBTQIA+ community.
Actors like Aruna Irani, Shashwat Tripathi, and Uday Tikekar are in talks to be part of the movie. The film deals with how people from the community continue to face discrimination when it comes to parental rights. “Same-sex parents still face issues while adopting, and children with same-sex parents are also outcasted by other children. The core purpose of making this film is to bring about further changes in the perspective of common people towards the LGBTQIA+ community,” says the director.