Welcome to “Your Weekly Short,” a LakeFrontRow.com feature that showcases one short from a Wisconsin filmmaker all while stretching the definition of “weekly.” Brace thy face.
Last May marked the two year anniversary of Adam Yauch’s passing. Better known by his stage handle MCA, Yauch’s death also marked the end of the Beastie Boys in any official capacity. (Collaborators Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz’s informal “retiring” of the influential rap group confirms as much.) A year after Yauch’s death, Brooklyn’s Palmetto Playground was rechristened Adam Yauch Park — fitting given that the park is where Yauch first learned to ride a bike.
Madison’s Paul Iannacchino, Jr. fashions his own tribute — both to Yauch and the park — in “Two years and a day.” Placing serene passages of urban ambience next to stylized street elements, the short film finds peace and rhythm in the rolling of a train or basketball in equal measure as it drifts in and out of consciousness, bubbling up bits of Beasties tracks over Brooklyn’s natural soundscapes.
As a surprisingly spiritual two and a half minutes (Hello, Dalai Lama), “Two years and a day” doesn’t require the same precision found in “Wisconsin,” Iannacchino, Jr.’s docushort on the capitol protesters that played at the 2012 Wisconsin Film Festival. Like the impetus behind Adam Yauch Park itself, he uses place as its own kind of remembrance. There’s peace somewhere between a steady breeze and the beat of a boombox.