Night's Necromantic Rose

In the short film "Night's Necromantic Rose", a pensive young woman (Ana Harrison) plucks the petals from a rose and tries to make sense of a love affair just ended. "I'm not looking for the moon," she tells a friend on the phone, "just someone with astronaut potential." But as she drifts off to sleep, the scattered petals and the moonlight conspire to work their own magic.

Writer/director Brian Nohr uses minimal dialogue to reveal a feminine sensitivity and insight that's surprisingly on-target.

Ms. Harrison's expressive face and luminous smile succinctly convey her character's heartache and resiliency.

Director of photography Keith J. Duggan and editor Julie Morgan create vivid vignettes of severed lovers standing back to back, rose petals falling like tears, and wistful memories reflected in a mirror. Production designer Kristen J. Stratton uses a palette of white and red and a very basic set to highlight the mystical mood. Ramon Balcazar's original music precisely underscores the film.

For those of us who have wished for a "12-step program for people who get too drunk on moonlight," the charming "Night's Necromantic Rose" offers a ray -- or moonbeam -- of hope.