Lakes Tender is a short, narrative, 16mm black & white film that focuses on the interaction of persons in a contemporary urban setting. The film is about closeness and camaraderie between the three main characters, individuality, and a spirit of loneliness and its superiority over geniality. The main characters cannot bring their outer and inner lives to work in unison, but find the patience to endure and acquire confidence in that which is difficult and marginal, and in their solitude among others. One evening Ellis and Effie find themselves uncomfortably enduring ordinary social situations. They withdraw and inevitably find each other later that same evening. Their encounter is by no means fabled, as each character’s experiences, premonitions and emotions thus far renders each of them deaf to the other’s words.

Lakes Tender is a film about communication and various manifestations of discourse in film - from letters recited, characters interacting directly with the camera, to a mumbled and subtitled dialogue scene.

Directors: Tomasz Werner and Jon Swinehart

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