Fantasia International Film Festival 2023 – White Noise barely relents in its 16 minutes. The short follows protagonist Ava (Bahia Watson), who is disturbed by sound. When she tries to address the problem through an experiment, it goes horribly wrong. This short  succeeds in illustrating Ava’s deep discomfort and putting the audience squarely in her perspective, making for an emotional psychological thriller.

Directed by Tamara Scherbak, who co-wrote the short with Christina Saliba, the film begins with Ava seated in a college classroom. As the art professor (HoJo Rose) begins his lecture, Ava’s anguish amplifies. She immediately looks distressed, and Watson excels at conveying emotion both through her body language and facial expressions. You truly feel her character’s pain. Nothing she tries with her doctor (Ryan Hollyman) eases her intense distress, so she signs up for a sound experiment, hoping it will cure her problems. However, the experiment doesn’t quite go as expected, leading to a potent and powerful ending.

There are two factors here that really make this work. Watson’s performance carries this short, conveying her character’s physical and emotional pain. As mentioned, she largely does this through her facial expressions and body language. The sound design deserves a lot of accolades, too. There are quiet moments when Ava puts on her headphones, and incredibly tense and loud moments when they’re off. Everything about the world, be it conversations or a car zooming by, feels noisy and excruciating. Because of this, Ava can’t function.

While White Noise feels like a complete film, I wouldn’t mind seeing this as a feature-length. Watson is one heck of a young actress, and this is a creative concept. Whether or not this gets made into a feature, I’ll be paying attention to the lead’s future roles and Scherbak’s work. This is a nail-biting and disquieting short with quite the ending.

8 Out of 10