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[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Ms-Blue-by-Mary-McDade-Casteel.jpg” alt=”Ms Blue by Mary McDade Casteel” title_text=”Ms Blue by Mary McDade Casteel” _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” header_3_text_align=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
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How can a film with a single character delivering just six minutes of conversation with the world have so much to unpack? That\u2019s the compacted depth of Ms. Blue<\/a>, the short film by Mary McDade Casteel<\/a> starring Adella Gautier<\/a> in one of her final film roles before her passing in August of 2021.<\/p>\n Ms. Blue is an eccentric, enigmatic Black woman who resides on her blue porch adjoined to her blue house where she sits and talks to a\u2026not blue, ordinary neighborhood cat. But this is a film anchored in conveying emotion through color.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_video src=”https:\/\/vimeo.com\/588595953″ admin_label=”Video” _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||4px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_video][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”0px||||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Ms. Blue – Full short on Vimeo<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.5″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Ms. Blue exists in a bright, sunlit neighborhood with the gentle hum of a lawnmower and intermittent shots of sunlit, peach-colored flowers. The timbre of her conversation is vibrant and alive, but her mannerisms and words display a person who has experienced loss\u2014or abandonment. She talks to the neighbor, and they don\u2019t respond. She talks to the whirling fan\u2014no response. She talks to the cat, Mr. Oscar, and receives no sense of reciprocated warmth. She seeks connection with everything within speaking distance, and a sense of accepted sadness surrounds her in a world of cool blue.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” header_3_text_align=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n When Ms. Blue says this to Oscar, the curious neighborhood cat, it\u2019s easy to wonder if she is talking to someone else in distant memory, a loss that has never been reconciled. It\u2019s a striking use of contrast by Mary McDade Casteel<\/a>. The audience feels a sense that no matter how much brightness surrounds a person, on the inside, they may feel cold and discarded.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Ms-Blue-by-Mary-McDade-Casteel-02.jpg” alt=”Ms Blue by Mary McDade Casteel” title_text=”Ms Blue by Mary McDade Casteel” _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.5″ hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n The irony of Ms. Blue\u2019s unheard voice is that in real life, Ms. Blue\u2019s voice was frequently heard and listened to by children and adults all over the world. Adella Gautier<\/a> was a New Orleans-born performer familiar in the NOLA Performing Arts community as a lifelong storyteller, known colloquially as \u201cAdella Adella the Storyteller\u201d. She traveled internationally to tell stories of tribal histories and West African folk tales. Locally, she performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival every year since 2009 and was honored by the Big Easy Awards<\/a> with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Adella Gautier, a person who lived the storytelling spirit of New Orleans, became Ms. Blue, a person who embodies a hidden story that lives beneath the surface of quiet shades of melancholy blue.<\/p>\n Ms. Blue<\/a> was an Official Selection at the 2021 New Orleans Film Festival<\/a>. It won the Jury Prize at the 2021 Arkansas Shorts Festival<\/a>, a night dedicated to screening short films for a packed-out drive-in audience. Mary McDade Casteel<\/a> is also known for her work on The Hunt<\/a>, Queen of the South<\/a> TV series, and her first directed short film, Into the Green<\/a>, which also incorporates a strong sense of emotion conveyed through color.<\/p>\n The surface takeaway is that this is a well-crafted, intriguing monologue by a person who has seen things. Then there\u2019s the beneath layer\u2013that in a world of isolation, you can still carry a spirit that endures. Or as Ms. Blue says:<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” header_3_text_align=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”30px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/fable-house-logo-shadow-2.png” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve been waitin\u2019 for you to come by and see me but\u2026you don\u2019t come by.\u201d<\/h3>\n
\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not gonna let anything take away my sweetness.\u201d<\/h3>\n