https://vimeo.com/224326254
(NSFW: this film contains some nudity and sexual language.)
The Art: Yes, God, Yes
The Artist: Karen Maine
About the Work:
Most films about sexual awakenings have three things in common: they’re filled with hijinks, take place in a world where teens are expected to be sexually active, and are primarily targeted at men.
Yes, God, Yes is the exact opposite, and that alone makes it worth a watch.
This slice of life short stars Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer as Alice, a teenage Catholic school student who inadvertently discovers the joy of masturbation via an internet chat room.
Of course, Alice’s religious background stands in opposition of her newfound self-pleasure. Threatened with eternal damnation, she must find a balance between her guilt and raging hormones.
Dyer is fabulous in Yes, God, Yes. Her Alice is intelligent, curious, and overwhelmed, and says more with an upturned eyebrow than her minimal dialogue. Maybe it’s due, at least in part, to Dyer’s youthful looks, but she demonstrates the ability to play young better than most actresses who have appeared in similar roles. We believe in her innocence. We empathise with her fear that she might be doing something wrong. Dyer brings us back to the days when we were Alice and, most importantly, her performance is sure to allay some of the uncertainty that young women face today.
Yes, God, Yes was written and directed by Karen Maine, whose 2009 short film Obvious Child, and its subsequent 2014 feature adaptation, provided an equally honest and clever look at abortion. Maine is currently working on the feature version of Yes, God, Yes. We look forward to seeing it.