Some films don’t need a lot of time to leave a mark. Chambers Street, an eight-minute short by director Scott D. Keenan, hit me in a way I didn’t quite expect. It’s experimental, yes, but never in a way that is inaccessible. Instead, it’s haunting, beautiful, and quietly devastating. A reflection of how love, when it ends, doesn’t really leave. It lingers like a shadow.
The film begins simply like this: a young man lies on his side in bed. City noise hums in the background, and everything is bathed in a blue, melancholy light. There’s an immediate sense of stillness, but also something unsettled. It’s like a moment suspended in the aftermath of something big. We don’t know much about him at first, but we don’t have to. We’ve been there. That state where the world moves, but we don’t. Where you say you’re “fine,” but you’re not.
Then she appears. Not in a dramatic entrance, but quietly, subtly - just out of the corner of his eye. The woman, his ex-girlfriend, follows him, mirroring his movements. She’s not really there, of course, but in his world, she never really left. And that’s the emotional core of this film: how memory sticks to us, plays tricks on us, becomes part of us. Losing someone when they’re still alive, just no longer yours, is a kind of grief we don’t talk about enough. Chambers Street talks about it, without ever needing to say much at all.
What struck me most while watching is how visually rich the film is. Keenan, who has a background in cinematography and commercial work, clearly knows how to tell a story through images. The contrast between the present and the past is stunning - the main character’s world is grey, cold, and drained of color, while memories of her are filled with light and warmth. One scene in particular gutted me: he sees the real her on the street, picking tulips in front of a store. She’s glowing, happy. He watches, stunned. Then a van passes and she’s gone. That moment felt so real, like seeing someone you used to love smiling in a world you no longer share.
The subway scene is the emotional peak of the film. They meet at Chambers Street station, and what follows is part-dance, part-breakup, part-dream. It’s like watching two people try to hold onto each other, knowing they can’t. The choreography by Max Cookward is fluid and emotional, with each movement feeling like a word left unsaid. A violin plays softly in the background - performed by musician Coleman Itzcoff - and the music becomes the language between them.
When the train arrives, the girlfriend places a black coat over his shoulders and steps back. It’s such a simple gesture, but it left a huge impact. There’s no big goodbye, no dramatic monologue. It’s just her quietly dressing him for the life he now has to live without her. He’s left standing alone, out of breath, and so are we.
Chambers Street feels like a dream, but one you wake from with a weight in your chest. It captures something raw and true about the aftermath of love - not the anger or the closure, but the part that’s soft and aching and hard to explain. If I had to summarize it in one sentence: it's not a story of a relationship; it’s the story of what’s left behind.
I didn’t expect eight minutes to move me this much. But Chambers Street reminded me that some stories don’t need a lot of time. They just need truth, care, and a little bit of quiet.
Chambers Street screens with the feature Broken Pieces at the 2025 New Jersey International Film Festival on Saturday, May 31st. These films will be Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7 PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ. Both directors and members of the cast and crew will be on hand to do a Q+A with the audience at after the in-person screening. Tickets are available for purchase here.
The 30th annual New Jersey International Film Festival will be taking place between May 30-June 13, 2025. The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing select in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VOD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person when both are offered. Plus, we are very proud to announce that acclaimed singer-songwriter Mike Kovacs will be doing an audio-visual concert on Friday, June 13 at 7PM! The in-person screenings and the Mike Kovacs concert will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program.
For more info go here: https://2025newjerseyinternationalfilmfestival.eventive.org/welcome
