Two Florida film students have drawn praise for their animated short film “In a Heartbeat,” which depicts a young student coming to terms with his attraction for a young, male classmate.
Esteban Bravo and Beth David were students at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, when they came up with this idea during their junior year, according to the New York Times. They had noticed that the concept of childhood crushes was typical movie fare, but including homosexuality within that crush was rarely traversed.
Bravo and David started the project with little more than the idea and their own skills but were able to raise $14,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to help finance parts of their short film. One of the key components of the production was the original score from iconic composer Arturo Cardelus.
Once finally completed, the short film took the internet by storm. It was posted to YouTube July 31 and by the end of that first week, it had gathered more than 14 million views. As of this writing, it had surpassed 21 million hits.
The story centers around a middle-school boy named Sherwin, a redhead who has a crush on the most popular boy in his class. Sherwin has yet to come to terms with his own sexuality, but in the film, his heart literally beats out of his chest to embrace to Jonathan, his crush.
The theme of the short film was straightforward and simple: the heart wants what it wants. And the reaction from around the internet has been nothing short of overwhelming.
Both Bravo and David were stunned by the amount of positive feedback they received for “In a Heartbeat.” Their film has been so successful that the duo recently signed to a talent and production agency in Los Angeles.
“If anything we’re just glad that we’re getting to release it right now because I feel, and we both said, it’ll help change some people’s perspectives around the amount of controversy and hatred that’s been going around lately,” Bravo told the New York Times.
“We just hope that this helps to change, or begin changing, what people think about people in this community and try to understand them better.”
Bravo is a gay man and David, while she didn’t explicitly identify one way or another, said she felt she belonged to the community.
The story told without words but rather beautiful animation and a sensational score resonates in a very basic way with viewers, describes David.
“I think audiences do like discovering something that’s not built to bowl you over, but just kind of unexpectedly does,” she said.
Their hope is that their film helps other young people who struggle with their own coming-of-age experiences, and Bravo and David will likely continue producing beautiful work as their careers take off.
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