The first few shots set the scene: a young girl (Britany Orozco), an older boy (Leo Zapata), and the streets. We’re in Cerro de la Compaña, in Mexico. Guns are in sight. There is a fight going on. The girl watches it unfold from behind a car, and we already get a feeling that this story might not end well.
Then she starts running. The boy appears and joins her, before taking the lead. It’s a different scene, but still in the same neighborhood. The two of them aren’t being chased, they just have somewhere else to be: their own haven, away from everyone else, away from the violence.
Heartbeat isn’t your typical music video. It feels more like a short film, with a score that fits its storyline perfectly. As we watch both youngsters splash around in some waters, then play and laugh in a field, we gather that they are close-knit siblings. And it’s all so endearing, making what comes next heart-breaking. “I cannot feel my heartbeat anymore / I cannot feel my heartbeat next to yours.” slenderbodies’ hauntingly beautiful words say it all.
But Heartbeat wasn’t actually written with this brother-sister bond in mind. When you look closely to the lyrics, you can see that it’s actually about a withering relationship. But when she heard the song, British director and long-time slenderbodies collaborator Savannah Setten had a different interpretation that she brought to the American duo and managed to gracefully bring to life. Despite being fictional, the story she tells through these images is rooted in the reality of the location it is set in.
“After receiving the final cut, our perspective was expanded regarding socio-political and economic issues in parts of the world that we are not familiar with, wrote the band on Instagram, a day prior to the video’s release on May 13th. As two creators coming from a place of privilege, we deliberated on how we would share this.” And so, they decided to use this as an opportunity to encourage their fans (and whoever else might watch) to donate to three relevant organizations they picked, one global, one national and one specific to Cerro de la Compaña.
When creating Heartbeat, Max Vehuni and Benji Cormack might have not have intended for it to be what this short film ultimately turns it into: a gut-wrenching, emotion-twisting, captivating piece of art that is really about life more than anything else.
slenderbodies will be celebrating the release of their forthcoming album Are We? with a livestream show on May 21st (May 22nd in Europe). All the details.
Leave a Reply