In his latest review, Will Penn chases Niamh Barry's powerful documentary.
What does it mean to chase a storm? Niamh Barry's short film Something in the Air, recent winner of the Best Short Film Award at the Manchester Film Festival, is heavy with that question. It, of course, is a literal profession for many in rural America; the story follows Raychel Tanner, a trans storm chaser and environmental advocate, across rural Oklahoma. Her online platform, "Tornado Titans", functions as a form of documentation and community-building; after all, she insists that "the weather is for everyone". As she discusses her role in a predominantly cis industry, the screen fills with images of rusted road signs, clouds stretching into the heavens, and roads reaching as far as the horizon, where clouds are already gathering. It is beautiful stuff, as though from the B-roll of Paris, Texas or a photographic exhibition.
But the sky, as any storm chaser knows, can change fast. It hadn't always been like this, Raychel confirms; her fear of being followed out of a petrol station, or that looking the wrong way at someone might result in her endangerment, is one with which she reckons daily. Indeed, she lost over a million YouTube subscribers when she came out, and she details the truly marginal life that she leads, from not being able to change her birth certificate to restricted access to healthcare.
There is something that the film chases that feels profoundly optimistic. Raychel seems all too aware that to hide would be to cow to the hatred that now abounds. But in the simple mantra that the weather is for everyone, Something in the Airfinds its silver linings. Raychel describes, with quiet relief, the community that she has built around chasing the weather. The irony of the online exposure that brings hate Raychel's way is that it is also an opportunity to build community. She describes the affirming messages from fans, and the steadying support of her father. How she navigates this contradiction isn't immediately clear; but what is clear is Barry's singular voice as a filmmaker and photographer, evident in beautiful, considered shots from the vantage point of the passenger seat that lend the film an intimacy and immediacy, as though we were racing along into the gathering clouds with her.
It is both a success, and a broader rallying cry to the local film scene, that this short leaves us with so many more storms to chase. Niamh Barry and her impressive team leave their audience blinking, with plenty of road ahead and the horizons enormous.
Something in the Air had its world premiere at the Manchester Film Festival, where it won the Best Short Documentary/Best Short Film Award.
