Watch Suitcase of Love and Shame

Suitcase of Love and Shame is a 2013 documentary film directed by Jane Gillooly. The movie is about a suitcase filled with audio recordings made by a young couple in the 1960s. The recordings were found in a trash bin in Philadelphia in the early 2000s by a filmmaker named Jane Gillooly. Gillooly took the tapes and decided to make a movie about the couple and their relationship.

The film is a fascinating look into a time when recorded sound was still a relatively new medium. The tapes in the suitcase were recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and the quality is not always perfect. However, the imperfections of the sound only add to the charm and authenticity of the recordings.

The couple on the tapes is not named in the film, but the audience gets to know them intimately through their conversations. The couple is in their twenties and is clearly in love. They talk about their hopes and dreams and their plans for the future. They also talk about more mundane things like their jobs and their friends.

What makes the recordings so interesting is not just the content of the conversations but also the way they are recorded. The couple often whispers to each other, knowing that they are being recorded. They also occasionally play music or sing together. All of this adds to the feeling that the audience is eavesdropping on an intimate conversation.

The filmmaker Jane Gillooly does an excellent job of weaving the recordings together into a narrative. The film is not just a collection of recordings, but a story of a relationship. Gillooly adds context to the recordings by interviewing people who knew the couple and by showing archival footage of Philadelphia in the 1960s.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film is the way it shows how relationships have changed over time. The couple on the tapes is clearly in love, but they also fight and argue. They have insecurities and doubts about their relationship. However, the way they communicate with each other is different from how people communicate in relationships today. They don't text each other or send each other messages on social media. Instead, they talk face to face or on the phone.

The film also touches on larger themes like memory and nostalgia. In a world where everything is recorded and documented, the film asks the question of what it means to keep these recordings as a memento of a relationship. The film also shows how memories can change over time, and how we often remember things in a way that is not entirely accurate.

The film has a melancholic feel to it. The audience knows that the relationship on the tapes didn't last. They are left wondering what happened to the couple and whether they ever listened to these recordings again.

Overall, Suitcase of Love and Shame is a fascinating and touching documentary. The film is a tribute to a time, a place, and a relationship that no longer exists. It is a testament to the power of recorded sound to capture the essence of a moment in time. The film will make the audience laugh and cry, and it will make them think about the nature of love, memory, and relationships.

Suitcase of Love and Shame is a 2013 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour and 10 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.1.