Directed by Sam Fleischner | Starring Jesus Sanchez-Velez | Not Rated
Playing at Cinema Village
For proof that a work of art’s size need not be commensurate with its ambitions, look no further than “Stand Clear of the Closing Doors,” a microbudget indie shot in the Rockaways and throughout the Subway system before, during and after Superstorm Sandy.
Writer-director Sam Fleischner follows autistic 13-year-old Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez), lost underground in a kaleidoscopic world of heightened sights and jarring sounds, a universe onto itself. Images dissolve into specs of rushing light set against an abiding darkness. The grayness of the sky outside, as seen through the eyes of Ricky’s mom (Andrea Suarez Paz) while she searches for him, is a relief from the overwhelming underground nightmare.
The film achieves the improbable feat of depicting a world millions of New Yorkers experience each day in a unique way.
