It took writer and director Liz Garcia over a decade to see her film, One Percent More Humid, come to fruition and appear at the Tribeca Film Festival, which I was fortunate enough to see last week (as well as the cast members!)
The film explores the friendship amongst Iris and Catherine, who turn to all kinds of twisted, numbing outlets to express their pain in losing their friend Mae. Whereas Iris aims to make sense of her grief through writing, she ends up lost in a confusing romance with her thesis advisor. In contrast, Catherine engages with Mae’s brother, who lets out his rage on her while she admits that she, unlike Iris, at least knows that their trysts have nothing to do with love. While both protagonists turn to self-harm as a way of coping, in the end, they appear free as they plunge into the lake that Catherine has always been afraid of diving into.
At the end of the film, Liz Garcia delved into the main purpose of producing such a gripping narrative. She shared how when people are really suffering, they try to cover up their sorrows and deal with tragedy in a way that is not the most healing or beneficial. She advised that instead of being judgmental to these outbursts and strayed ways, that we look at people’s lives and be compassionate, instead. We are all human, after all; and it can take something as small as a raised level of humidity that can tip us over the edge and cause us to drown.