Director Madi Stine takes on an interesting drama in OUT OF WATER. This short film about a disaffected mermaid-for-hire (in a fantastic performance by Marlee Learner) who meets a dour child at her birthday party. The child (played precociously by Anabelle Murphy) stows away, mistaking her party guest as a real-life mermaid, forcing the young woman, Sandy to play along with the young girl’s imaginative delusion.

In due course, what starts as a fun little friendship soon turns into something a bit more serious as Sandy’s issues with being dismissed by the people she entertains as nothing more than a parlor trick, or a variant on a party clown. The idea she brings forth of “just wanting to bring a little magic” into the world is something everyone with a creative impulse struggle with. Sandy just wants to “matter”. It means something to Sandy that she matters to Camille, the young girl. It reminds me of something another filmmaker, Joe Wilson once said “we’re all famous to a few people.”

The cinematography is wonderful, the score is equally good, and in the span of less than twelve minutes the director really made me care about these two characters. The writing is spot-on as is the casting. There is little negative to say about OUT OF WATER other than wishing it was a feature.