Attention, Go!

Theresa Alessio

United States

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Synopsis

A women's crew team works together as one as they race to the finish.

REVIEW

This non-narrative short was the senior project for Syracuse film student Theresa Alessio, who is also a member of the university's women's crew team. The film employs sounds and images to recreate the sensory experience of training and racing with this team of rowers. Alessio's camera glides over shimmering water like the oars of a boat. She presents her teammates in the midst of training--rowing in unison on gym rowing machines, mimicking the actions that they will execute in a boat on the water. She interweaves audio from races--crowds cheering, oars slicing into the water, the rhythmic chant of the coxswain leading the team to row together during a race. The film is a tribute to the team's hard work, and a subtle sensory examination of the sights and sounds of rowing crew.

-Michael J. LoPresti

What follows is the director's narrative accompaniment to "Attention, Go!":

Steady at the line, we calm ourselves and take a breath, the wind trickles whispers down the pacing river, this is it, I wait for the call. Every second changes everything, we fight for pride that is measured in inches, we fight for each other, for every moment of dedication given and remember that eight must become one or alone we will all fall.  Here we feel alive as the water rushes by, here we put to test what lies within, this is a race to the finish and these are the moments that we live for.