This short film sees a promising African-American baseball player heading home when he realizes he is being followed by someone, who then pulls up and gets his attention. The focal point of the film is this moment, and although it has a start and an ending there too, this is its core. Although much has been said over racial profiling in the news, and in particular the treatment by police of minority men walking home through their neighborhoods compared to white people doing the same walk, this short film does not ever get up on a soapbox but smartly presents it reasonably matter-of-factly.
The opening is natural but a bit too keen to present the lead character as a promising athlete; I guess the point is to make sure we understand how much could be a risk from even a minor infraction on his part, but I think it didn't need to add this element as clearly as it did – ultimately it doesn't matter if he is just a normal kid with good grades, or heading to the Yankees, the risk is the same. The police stop itself is well presented because as viewers we are on edge throughout, not sure what will happen or how it will go. Wisely the film shows it ending like the vast majority do – no issues and the subject sent on his way; and in doing this we understand the impact on a community and individuals, because this tense confrontation is just normal business.
The ending has a nice single-take delivery, but at the same time I think the meaning and what occurs is unclear and ends up being a bit distracting from the rest of the film as a result. This is not helped by the film using natural lighting. On one hand this gives the film a very natural feel, so it does come over like it is real life captured, but at the same time it also makes it very hard to see for a lot of the time – I watched it twice, and the second time I took my laptop to the darkest place in the house, just to try and make the picture as clear as possible. The hand-held camera approach is the same - adds to the natural feel but is not to everyone's taste.
Stop is good in terms of what it does with the police stop, and for this the short is worth a look, however it needed a bit more clarity (in many ways) to allow the key aspects to work in a way that they are not totally able to do here.
