Chicago-based filmmaker Jim Vendiola's 11-minute short film Library Hours had its world premiere this past month at Vancouver's Rio Grind Film Festival, an appropriate venue for the film's uniquely inspired, genre-defying story weaving together elements of arthouse erotica and hints of Resnais, Sappho and just a smidgen of that godawful 50 Shades drivel.

The good news? There's nothing godawful about Library Hours, which finds the recently widowed Camille (Cam Damage) falling into a rather peculiar long-distance courtship with a librarian named Delphine (Melissa Vento) who, it just so happens, was her dead husband's first wife. 

Library Hours is impeccably photographed by Anthony Francis Moorman with accompanying music by Miranda Lehman that lends the film a sort of gothic quality that is charmingly seductive. Everything 50 Shades has done wrong, and that's a lot, Library Hours has managed to do right thanks to Vendiola's subtle yet intimate dialogue and performances by Damage and Vento that are perfectly attuned to every nuance of this romantic, kinky gem of a film. 

For more information on Library Hours, visit the film's Facebook page. I have a feeling this is one short film that will have a long life on the festival circuit.

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic