Great Things is a short dramatic film about the psychological blowback of the kind of militaristic brutality that shocked the nation after Abu Graib. The film takes place late at night in the laundry room of the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia where a menacing maintenance man (Jimmy) has cornered a young woman (Chimi). A third character (Carlina) appears in the film in non-human guise. Following a highly compressed dramatic arc, the back and forth between these two reveal deep fissures in the American psyche, and also an urgent longing for connection. While the film has a darkly comedic and surreal tone to it, its concerns are ultimately about a powerful need for redemption. As with writer/director Zimmerman’s film entry Pronghorn in 2011’s Fringe Festival, Great Things features actors (Mickey Swenson and Alana Dietze) who have worked with him over many years in LA theater. Cinematographer and Editor Brad Cooper deploys stylish hi-def cinematic technique to bring this vivid dreamscape to life on the screen.
