Young Bodies Heal Quickly
At the age twenty, Older (Gabriel Croft, Fake It So Real) escapes incarceration and seeks out his ten year old little brother, Younger. Clearly the bad influence, Older gets the boys mixed up in the “accidental” killing of a young girl and they are forced to go into hiding as they wait for their mother to rescue them. Thanks to their mother, the brothers now have a car and enough money to begin their bizarre road trip. Along the way, they encounter a host of people ranging from their unwelcoming sister (Kate Lyn Sheil, Sun Don’t Shine and House of Cards) to a troubled maid and her violent lover. Eventually, they wind up on the doorstep of their father’s compound, wherein the three of them are quickly reminded why they are estranged in the first place. Just as the walls are about to close in, their father packs up his brood and takes them on a road trip of his own. They join several militaria enthusiasts in a remote forest where they reenact actual Vietnam War battles. Once in the “jungle,” the three of them revert to hostile tendencies building up to a final confrontation between father and sons, leaving the audience to decide what is real and what is make-believe. In addition to writing, directing and editing Young Bodies Heal Quickly, Betzer also color-graded the film himself, taking advantage of his experience with, proximity and access to high-end equipment to imbibe the super 16mm footage that he and his director of photography, Sean Price Williams, shot with a breathtaking visual thrust rarely seen in low to mid- budget independent film. Color, focus and detail propel Betzer’s picaresque saga of two brothers on the run in rural Maryland.