The Elevator Operator

In Jonathan Skurnik's brief profile, we see shy Russian emigrant Eugene Sheiman transporting people from floor to floor in a Manhattan office building while he talks in short snippets about his recent U.S. citizenship, joys of fatherhood, and former life in Russia where he worked as a journalist in Kiev. Although he came to America to start a new life six years ago, the mostly optimistic Sheiman wonders aloud at one point whether it was all worth it. Having recently self-published a novel in Russian about a “person who couldn't find himself,” Sheiman reveals that he has “one big dream” left: to see his book converted into a Hollywood movie. As a sad parable about the disparity between the reality of the immigrant experience and the myth of the American Dream circa the turn of the millennium, The Elevator Operator is an engaging—if also too brief and a bit scattershot—non-narrated short that is very simply shot. Whether there's enough ideological meat on its slim cinematic bones, however, to truly justify a university spending $189 for purchase is questionable. DVD extras include four minutes of bonus interview footage. Optional. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)