I just got an email from one of the ladies behind the locally produced film Belmont, letting me know that if one more article is written about the project, it'll meet IMDB's stringent listing criteria.

Since they were kind enough to let me visit their trailer shoot over the summer, it's the least I can do, right? (I meant to write about it ages ago, but sometimes shit gets busy.)

Written and directed by Katie Rasmussen and Caitlin Dwyer, Belmont is about five friends who move to Portland after graduating from college. Four of the friends get a house together and pursue aimless lives of Portland slackertude; the fifth joins the army, goes to Iraq, and dies. Cast with local actors, featuring clothing donated by local stores, and music from (you guessed it) local bands, the project struck me as ambitious and professional--they filmed the trailer in August, and plan to shoot the film itself next summer.

I was most impressed that Belmont aims to take a serious look at a segment of the population that is usually depicted as nothing but trite. Instead of the increasingly tedious hipster-flick formula in which a hoodie-clad indie rocker gets in a frosting fight with Zooey Deschanel while listening to Noah and the Whale, or whatever, Belmont takes an earnest look at the relationship between personal happiness and sociopolitical obligation. Talking to Katie about it, I was reminded a quote from n+1 editor Keith Gessen, speaking in the Times about the "proper function of the novel: to hold up an honest mirror to society, no matter how frivolous and unserious that society may be."

"Young people in big cities like New York, Mr. Gessen said: 'are willing to acknowledge that they're a class only ironically. So they'll have their ironic kickball games. Their ironic magazines.'

'They're willing to have the privileges of their class,' Mr. Gessen added, 'to go to a good college, and be subsidized in their New York lives by their parents, but maybe not willing to be written about.'"

The result, Mr. Gessen said, is that the everyday lives of young urban adults are no longer considered appropriate subjects for ambitious novels.

Substitute "film" for "novel," and I think the point still holds true.

Here's the trailer:

Hit the film's website for more info, and look for Belmont on an IMDB near you.