by Douglas
Messerli
Esteban
Bravo and Beth David (screenwriters and directors) In a Heartbeat / 2017
[4 minutes]
In only 4 minutes
of animated narrative, writers and directors Esteban Bravo and Beth David present
a story of gay love that children of all ages can easily comprehend. The film
was so well done that it was nominated and chosen as one of the finalists for
the 2017 Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film, and won special
recognition at the GLADD Media Awards, as well as being popular on the LGBTQ
film circuit.
The
story is a simple one. A red-haired young boy, Sherwin hides in a tree awaiting
the arrival of Jonathan, a self-assured young man upon whom he clearly has a
crush, his heart beating heavily and even escaping his chest as Jonathan walks
past below while reading a book and juggling an apple.
As often happens in real life, Sherwin’s
heart jumps ahead of his ability to speak and express his love, suddenly
escaping his hand and rushing after Jonathan. Sherwin, embarrassed for what his
heart might reveal, runs after it, grabbing it way from Jonathan’s hand where
it as perched, replacing his apple, at the very moment the boy is about to bite
into it.
Once more the heart moves ahead of Sherwin’s
body, squeezing into the school just a second before it closes behind Jonathan.
Sherwin follow in an attempt the retrieve it from Jonathan’s fingers to where
it has attached itself.
As the two boys fight over the heart,
falling to the floor, other students begin to notice and stare, Sherwin even
more determined to grab his heart back and hide it in his chest where it
belongs. But as he pulls if from Jonathan’s finger, the heart breaks in half,
leaving him with that well-known idiom we describe as a “broken heart.”
Sherwin retreats to the tree under which
he sits in tears.
Almost without him even noticing, Jonathan
comes up to him offering the other half of the heart back to his friend. The
two parts of the heart immediately clicks back into place, and spring to life,
and as the two boys sit beside one another, both their hearts beating with joy and
anticipation of becoming a single, larger heart.
This film is so professionally
accomplished that it’s almost difficult to believe that this was a senior
thesis project of at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.
Originally the two creators had imagined that it would be a work about a boy
and a girl, but suddenly realized that it could become a more personal work for
both of them if they shifted to a same-sex story.
With music by Artur Cardelús and the few
words of dialogue and mutterings by Nick Ainsworth and Kelly Donohue, this work
brilliant reveals how love has a way of making itself known even when it
attempts to hide itself or to deny its existence.
Los Angeles,
December 21, 2025
Reprinted from My
Queer Cinema blog (December 2025).
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