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“103 Shots” is a powerful short film about the Orlando Pulse tragedy

Artist Heather Cassils (who is also known for being the object of Lady Gaga’s affection in the “Telephone” video) created this powerful expression of what the Orlando tragedy sounded like. “103 Shots” was filmed during San Francisco Pride at Delores Park, and Performance Studies Scholar Julia Steinmetz penned an essay to accompany the short, which you can read at Huffington Post.

An excerpt:

“We depend on our brains to make sense of sound, to interpret it instantaneously and tell us what it is indexing. In a nightclub pulsing with music and sweat and heart beats, elevated by dancing to match the beats per minute of the music, we are listening for desire and sociality and escape. The sound of gunshots can’t be heard in this space – they register instead as the popping of balloons, opening champagne bottles, or setting off fireworks. In an inversion of the hypervigilance characteristic of PTSD, in which ordinary sights and sounds are falsely interpreted as a threat, the queer of color nightclub invites a welcome illusion of protection from racism, gay bashing, transphobia, and police violence.”

For more on Heather Cassils, visit their Facebook page.

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