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WINNER Oregon Short Film Festival 2023
OFFICIAL SELECTION Locals Only Film Festival 2023

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Starring: Kayla Hanson, XelosXelos Marchandt, Marissa Sanchez
Director: Dawn Jones Redstone
Producer: Ashley Song
Executive Producer/Singer-Songwriter: Stephan Nance
Director of Photography: Sean Conley
Production Designer: Alexandra Friedman
Editor: Dawn Jones Redstone
Colorist: Jasmine Vazquez
1st AC: Patricia Pahinag
G&E Swing: Haley McCoy
PA: Antonia Fogg
Thanks to Leah Benson!

Huge thanks to the Regional Arts & Culture Council for the Make|Learn|Build grant that helped fund this project!

Lyrics:

Hush! hush!
Listen to the Varied Thrush
The freezing rain has
Pushed them down into the valley
With the rest of us
Flushed
From the comfortably lush
Forest floor
They draw their bows across
Serrated edges of
Musical saws and crush
The frigid, sharply pointed hearts
Of icicles like us

Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush,
Crush, crush, crush...

Swish! swish!
The Osprey hovers seeking fish
The glassy pond
Displays the menu but won't serve the dish
To birds who wish
To linger when
The air turns cold
Defying pressure
To defer to Cackling Geese
And Western

Gulls, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish,
Wish, wish, wish...

Who doesn't wish they could
Begin
To leave?
Who doesn't wish they could
Believe
In letting something end?
We have these wishes
But we're hung up
On a superstitious
Focus on the family
We see in Collared Doves
With love much stronger
Than we probably
Should ever hope
For ours to be.

Are we a "we are" today?
Will we be a "we will be" tomorrow?
Were we a "we were" already
Long ago?
We don't know
What price makes sense to pay,
So we settle for indebted sorrow,
Never knowing we could dine and
Dash into that nullifying snow.

Thrash! thrash!
The so-called trash birds
Taking baths
Betray their cuteness
In the recklessness with which
They lash
Their lustrous feathers
Petroleum with flecks of ash
In an unseasonable
Puddle
Glaciating fast

Splash, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, freeze,
Splash, splash, splash,
Freeze, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, splash,
Splash, splash, freeze,
Splash, splash, splash...

Hush! hush!
Listen to the Varied Thrush
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!
Listen to the Varied Thrush,
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!
Hush! hush!

Recording Credits:
Music & lyrics by Stephan Nance
Arrangement by Stephan Nance
Piano/vocals/synths/snaps - Stephan Nance
Percussion - Mathias Kunzli
Strings - Yoed Nir
Upright bass - Jeni Magana

Varied Thrush song recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller on 8 Jun 1995. Sung from the top of a dead Port Orford Cedar. Location: SE of Powers; Coquille Falls Coos, Oregon. Licensed through the Macaulay Library. Background species: Pacific Wren, Brown Creeper, Hammond's Flycatcher, Swainson's Thrush, Wilson's Warbler.

Mixing & mastering by Thaddeus Moore, Liquid Mixing & Mastering