When it comes to reviewing major indie Film Festivals such as Tribeca it’s often the shorts that make the most powerful punches and are what remain in your memory sometime after.  I’m Not Home is one such film. You get immediately pulled into writer-director Elena Parasco‘s 12-minute touching drama, and it’s actually annoying to reach the final scenes so quickly.

Filmed in one afternoon in Queens, it’s the touching tale of two really close friends who became estranged after one night that changed everything, and they finally get to reconnect after too long a time. Rather than focus on their own truths, they spend the time listening to a second-hand answering machine and all the highly personal messages that strangers have left. They somehow use this to awaken the truths that the two of us have tried to silence.

Kudos to Julian De Niro and Eli Brown, the two very talented actors, for their subtle, realistic performances, and to Parascso for allowing us the joy of filling in the rest of the stories with our very active imaginations.