Erik Gernand | Tech Support / 2009

the sound of your voice

by Douglas Messerli

 

Erik Gernand and Jenny Hagel (screenplay), Erik Gernand (director) Tech Support / 2009 [10 minutes]

 

A young woman is having a serious problem with her computer and is more than a little frustrated with the fact that she can’t transfer her files from her own older laptop to the new one she has just purchased.

    After a great deal of telephonic-computer interchange with demands that she press various numbers, she finally reaches a real person, a tech support woman who, after all the niceties that go along with the pretense of being a truly helpful human being, she insists that our central figure (Jenny Hagel) is “putting it in the wrong hole,” which, by coincidence, is what her girlfriend, who has just dumped her, declared.

     The tech support person (Niki Lindgren) suggests what I have done in frustration many a time, that the customer log onto their website whereupon she can help control the devices and lead her customer to complete satisfaction.

      The conversation spills over to her own unhappiness, the fact that she’s moved into a new world where she doesn’t even know the neighbors, and can’t even now connect her new computer up the world that might possibly put her in contact with the rest of the world.

       Out international tech support individual obviously has similar feelings. And since the transfer of her files might take 2-4 hours the two strangers wait it out together.

      The two drink tea, blueberry spice, and share articles that they’ve mutually read. They remember high school and college experiences together, exchange recipes, and read out what appear to be sexual texts—although the tech support seems to be reading from her technical net guide (“to clear a paper jam, open the rear door”).

      With side-by-side images, US director Erik Gernand puts the two closely in touch as they discover a true kinship through the internet, where these days so many lonely same-sex couples encounter others. They engage in bad musical performances and even stapler versions of Morse code. They even drink together, out of matching glasses.

       As the customer reports, “This has been the most amazing 2-4 hours of my life,” the tech support responding, “Me too.”

       Finally our heroine is ready to say, despite her hesitations, “I love you,” but the connection is suddenly cut.

       Our heroine attempts to call back to other Pomegranate tech supporters without any success. But she finally meets up with her love in her next-door apartment dweller.

       If this little simply-filmed satire is not truly profound, it is nonetheless a comedic treat.

 

Los Angeles, February 11, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2025).