DARK BLOSSOM RISES AT HOT DOCS 2021

It’s easy to stereotype and misunderstand the Gothic culture and their dark nature and passion for pain. Not many would identify with them. It’s because of their love for looking outlandish or their punk perspective of how to live life. This changes when watching director Frigge Fri‘s documentary Dark Blossom premiering at Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival.

The film focuses on a trio of Goths by the name of Jay, Josephine and Nightmare. They all struggle to grow up in a small town in Denmark but have found each other for friendship. Their time and effort into looking and feeling different from others causes them to alienate from the social norm. This is hypocritical of our society as these three confront their growing pains better than most. Dark Blossom makes the case that just because you look different does not mean you don’t feel the same emotions. They deal with the suffering and the pain differently. This allows them to express their love and friendship to each other that much deeper because emotions are not repressed.

Josephine

Josephine is the heart of the trio. The female Goth blends her look from being electrifying and postmodernist futuristic. She is the most photogenic of the three as you can see in her social media posts in this documentary. She created an Instagram account called “Girly Goth” where she was able to connect with others like her. This universe allowed for her to connect with Nightmare and Jay in which they all found a sense of belonging.

She has everyone’s heart at bay. Although, once she discovers a different type of love for her own self, things begin to change. Especially when it comes to Nightmare who is passive aggressive with her decision to pick up a boyfriend from Tinder and move in with him in a matter of months. Her new life with her boyfriend forces her to work as a cashier at a local store. She slightly starts to steer from the Gothic culture that she was deeply embedded in.

Nightmare

Nightmare is the soul of the trio. He went through much bullying in his school years. Growing up as a Muslim and Pakistani did not bode well with his family once he came out gay. He was lost all contact with them and found a new community within the Goth Culture. In order to survive all the chaos that goes through his mind, he expresses himself through the way he looks. Nightmare is also a musician to express his Muslim roots which has been forbidden in his family.

Throughout Dark Blossom, you can sense that Nightmare is the soul of the trio. He is the curator of the trio’s emotions and knows when things are up and or down.

Jay

Jay is the one that keeps the trio together. He gets duked out even more than the other two but there is something that different about Jay. Despite finding this Gothic culture in a small rural town in Denmark, Jay is a Christian from the US. Coming from an Inner Mission Home, his family always wanted to protect from the darkness and sins of life. Whereas Jay embraces this because he knows this is part of his introverted personality.

Jay was always great in school even though he went to 10 different ones in the US. He expresses himself through this containment from his family and religion by dressing up as an old school Goth. With high hair, makeup and black leather outfits, Jay is confident of who he is and where he comes from. He has beliefs in a higher power that brings light to others even though they can be as dark as him. He has more structure to his life than the other two. But he keeps the structure together amongst his trio of Goths.

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Dark Blossom is a film that celebrates those differences in people and in communities such as the Gothic culture. The documentary is crafted so well with experimental yet Gothic transitional sequences that allows for the audience to come to admire these three. Slotting social media sequences to show the obsessive universe that we live in is seamlessly interwoven. Dark Blossoms does dare to be different but also dares you to embrace these differences.

Director Frigge Fri’s documentary can bridge that gap amongst those locked into their groups of whom they identify with. That appreciation is not there and it needs to be cultivated especially if we want to survive these difficult times. Together we must form like these three rather than apart in order to make progress. Those rose-colored glasses need to come off first though.

www.friggefri.com

Please click on the video below to watch our FERNTV interview with director Frigge Fre who discusses her film Dark Blossom

Watch Spirit to Soar now at Hot Docs by clicking this link