Featured in the Short & Mid-length program of the 2022 IFF Rotterdam, Andrew Norman Wilson’s Impersonator looks at an interesting, complex and multifaceted character while pushing the boundaries of filmmaking.
With a selection of over 100+ films, this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is underway from January 26 to February 6. With an abundance of films to be watched, IFFR is the first international festival to jumpstart the year for cinema. Placed after Sundance and right before the Berlinale, IFFR’s vast selections has a movie for everybody interested in film. Whether it be retrospectives of filmmakers you may have never heard of (Cinema Regained section), the young exciting voices of up-and-coming filmmakers (Bright Future section), or the competition sections (Tiger and Ammodo Short Tiger Competition), plus many more that’ll be highlighted in future dispatches, the IFFR has a unique program that isn’t bounded by world premieres or A-list celebrities, but for the love of the artform.
As one of the most interesting young American filmmakers, Andrew Norman Wilson has been a IFFR regular every year since 2019. His latest and most structurally straightforward film, Impersonator, is an exercise in manipulation and its many ways to do so. Dressed in a knock-off storm trooper costume, our protagonist wanders starting from Hollywood Boulevard where street performers and impersonators go to use its existing characters for their monetary benefit to the Hollywood hills. As radios and police wander in and out of this short film, background of a serial killer labeled, the Stranger, is afoot around the Hollywood area. Wilson carefully crafts the term impersonator as both an exterior and interior motive to the protagonist. As we walk in the day of the life of the impersonator, we see that his life outside impersonating in Hollywood, goes deeper than making money, but a darker motive. Part of the ambiguity behind Wilson’s Impersonator helps this character building in this limited short film. It won’t surprise me if this character is explored in a feature, but as a stand-alone short film, Wilson continues to push his ideas and boundaries of filmmaking.
