Remi R.M. Moses’ short, Saving Art completely blew me away with its beautiful scenes and heart wrenching story.

Inspired by true events, Saving Art follows a father and son duo, Brian (Michael Salami) and Arthur (Pierre-Laurent Vawah). Trying to maintain positivity despite Art’s leukemia diagnosis and the passing of his wife due to cancer, Brian tells Art that the chemotherapy treatments will grant him superpowers. Similar to Art, another girl in the ward is told by her father that she has an apple tree growing in her belly, and the chemotherapy will help it grow.

After the girl passes away, that’s when Art discovers the flaws in his father’s lie, outright calling him a “liar.” Brian is completely broken by this and admits that he is a liar. This leads to Brian confronting the ward’s nurse, where he tries to understand how all of the darkness doesn’t weigh down on her. Although she is rightfully offended, she doesn’t take it to heart, instead explaining that sometimes the best thing you can do for children is to remain a beacon of hope and positivity. Brian struggles with this realization, but ultimately embraces it, playfully inviting the other children to discover Art’s “invisibility” superpower.

Despite being 15 minutes, Saving Art successfully shares so much story in such a short timeframe. We learn of Brian and Art’s past (the passing of Art’s mother), while likewise learning about other characters in the film. Each actor really blew me away with their performances; Michael Salami and Pierre-Laurent Vawah felt so natural and believable. You couldn’t help but feel how personal this film was, and I think Moses’ personal connection to the subject really made it such a strong film. While the subject matter is overwhelming, it still maintained a glimmer of sweetness and hope. I couldn’t stop crying throughout the film and continued to cry even after its completion.

Saving Art is such a beautiful and poignant film, and I look forward to seeing the progression of Moses’ career as a filmmaker.

We give Saving Art a 5/5.