Yosemite is a delicate story about three 5th graders growing up in 1985 in Palo Alto, where a mountain lion is on the loose. It's simple plot may seem incomplete at first, but with some imagination the film is a rich exploration of our own constructed fears.
The film allows you to fill in the space with details. It's pace surrenders control over to the viewer, to allow the mind to create suspense where there is none, subtext where it just doesn't exist. Demeestere and Franko play on our darkest fears of protecting our children and pit off parenting in 1985 against the backdrop of helicopter parenting today and even the most free range parent will find themselves in agony at the thought of what might happen to these children. Were the children in any danger, or have we created these horrors in our mind?
The film strews clues that the viewer can't help but to try and piece together with our own worst fears, and this is where the film excels and becomes complete. Demeestere seems to know that we will fill in the blanks and lays out the traps that we inevitably fall into. She exploits the fact that we have been conditioned to place fear at every turn so what is a simple story about boys doing what boys do holds us in suspense. The mountain lion is a fitting metaphor for this misplaced fear. In the end we end up killing it, reminding us that we are the predators damaging the world and our children with our fear.
The film allows you to fill in the space with details. It's pace surrenders control over to the viewer, to allow the mind to create suspense where there is none, subtext where it just doesn't exist. Demeestere and Franko play on our darkest fears of protecting our children and pit off parenting in 1985 against the backdrop of helicopter parenting today and even the most free range parent will find themselves in agony at the thought of what might happen to these children. Were the children in any danger, or have we created these horrors in our mind?
The film strews clues that the viewer can't help but to try and piece together with our own worst fears, and this is where the film excels and becomes complete. Demeestere seems to know that we will fill in the blanks and lays out the traps that we inevitably fall into. She exploits the fact that we have been conditioned to place fear at every turn so what is a simple story about boys doing what boys do holds us in suspense. The mountain lion is a fitting metaphor for this misplaced fear. In the end we end up killing it, reminding us that we are the predators damaging the world and our children with our fear.