Monday, March 12, 2012

Her Master's Voice

Nina Conti was ten years into her stand-up ventriloquism career when she decided to give it up. Before she had a chance to tell her mentor and former lover Ken Campbell - the man who introduced her to her career - he died, unexpectedly leaving her his entire collection of books, tapes, and puppets. She deduced to make one last trip, to a ventriloquist convention in Kentucky, and to donate one of Ken's puppets to Venthaven, a museum and resting place for puppets of dead masters.

That's the plot, at least, but it isn't the story. What really matters is that Nina is at a crossroads, scared and unsure, yet she shares her deepest most inner thought through her puppet Monkey and through those of Ken she voices. A lot of the film is her having conversations with herself - and it works. It really works well.

Her Master's Voice
2012, 59 minutes, directed by Nina Conti

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