Without Air

Shay lives in Memphis. She is going out with Radio, the guitarist, and sings in his band. The relationship drags on, the days go by in a haze of sex, drugs, jealousy, quarrels and feelings of despair. Nobody has got the energy to make a change for the better. Shay travels in between her sleazy pad and a porn-club where she strips in order to pay for food and drugs. Her only true friend is the black trumpet player Harry, played by Nokie Taylor, who lets her sing in a jazzclub. Shay is scared of change, instead she prefers to stay and suffer in her semi-lousy relationship with her boyfriend. She is constantly avoiding having to deal with her inner self. Her pain is soothed by her singing, her one talent that never lets her down. The director Neil Abramson is a promising newcomer within the raw, uncommercial American independent film, who tries to depict the dark side of society and peopleÍs torn lives. His debut feature, Without Air, is based on a true story about the life of blues singer Lauri Crook, who also plays herself in the main character Shay. The people who know Lauri were convinced that she would one day make it as a blues singer. Her grating Janis Joplin-like voice became well-liked and was considered something out of the ordinary. That she never got a break could be explained by several things, maybe mainly her love „ hate relationship with the music business. She loved to sing but at the same time dis-liked everything that had to do with the music business. Both parents were in the music business, she remembers her childhood as a noisy wandering life, an eternal wait and the fact that people envied her, however nobody saw what her life was really like. She started drinking at the age of ten. Neil Abramson is known as a music video director. He met Lauri Crook by accident, became fascinated by her life story and got the idea to make a feature film. He could probably have made a more commercial film with no financial problems. Instead Without Air is a low-budget film in the vein of uncompromising independent film at its best. Together with the beautiful black and white photography the style captures the right mood. Shay and Radio watch exhausted as life rolls by. It is cold and greyish outside, at least inside you are able to curl up in bed in between rows and forget everything, for a little while. JR

Premiärstatus
Europeisk premiär: Medverkande
Lauri Crook, Nokie Taylor, Jack May: Producent
John Bick: Manus
Neil Abramson: Foto
Neil Abramson: Musik
Kennard Ramsey: Talat språk
English