BLANC DE BLANC

Before you start, check out the trailer.

It all starts here. A blur of white. A solitary man in the center of a dome, the camera spinning around him. He's at the center of travel into downtown Pittsburgh, a Public Works project from the depression that bills Pittsburgh as a hub connecting the Midwest to the East Coast--Pittsburgh's Penn Station.

He looks a bit confused, overwhelmed. We've met him mid-journey. But a journey to where? From where?

During the winter, the Rink is a happening place with an ice skating rink and a big old Christmas tree all lit up. In the summer, however, the ice and the tree are gone, replaced by a rather phallic-looking obelisk surrounded by mirrored buildings.

Fun fact: it's apparently illegal to film there.

On the corner of Penn Ave and 7th Street, you'll find the sculpture Magnolias for Pittsburgh, by Chicago-based artist Tony Tasset.

To quote the artist: I wanted to simply create a little magic, fairy-tale moment in the daily hustle and bustle of downtown Pittsburgh.

“The work has a classic structure with comparisons made between art and nature. ‘Magnolias…’ is meant to have a dynamic relationship with the environment, always looking different as the stillness of the bronzes emphasizes the change of the seasons. Theoretically the trees will almost disappear into nature for a brief time in the spring as the real magnolias bloom.

“In addition ‘Magnolias…’ has several levels of perception. Some people will walk by and not even notice the trees are fake. Some will see the trees aren’t real, but think they were cast from a real tree. And finally the real attentive ones will know or discover that the trees were hand-sculpted.”

Pittsburgh has a lot of these (like, a hell of a lot), and you'll spend a lot of time walking across them. On this one, David pauses to look at PNC Field as a bus flies by with photos of missing children. Is it a clue, or is it a commentary on the roster of the Pirates? Why the Andy Warhol Bridge and not, say, the Rachel Carson Bridge? Hmm...

Allegheny Landing on the provides one of the more popular views of the Pittsburgh skyline. Occasionally boats will stop here, but generally it's a spot for fishing and something to float past in one of the kayaks you can rent nearby. Also, the very cool architecture of the Alcoa Building is right there.

Behind the landing, is a sculpture court, an interesting juxtaposition of palm trees nudes in obvious distress. Information on the artist is virtually impossible to find online, but what's perhaps most interesting is how the nudes exist in a blind spot on Google Street View. Go ahead, try and find them. It's as if they don't exist.

They do exist. Honest. David found them. He sat among them and started to look through his things, chiefly a photo ID littered with clues, too many to put here.

The Agnes R. Katz Plaza houses the fountain and statue of eyes by renowned artist Louise Bourgeois, the creator of confessional art. Her art comes primarily from childhood trauma, from a oppressive, unfaithful father and a mother who decided her life would be a lot happier if she just looked the other way.

It is on these eyes that David and Jude bond over the simple sounds of a comb kazoo (an homage to Kieslowski's THREE COLORS: WHITE). Their meet cute quickly turns awkward.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Bourgeois

Generally speaking, if you're new to Pittsburgh, you aren't going to randomly end up at Plum. It's a bit of a hike from Downtown (although right on the express EBA bus line, so it's not impossible), and it isn't as well-known as the nearby Kelly's, but it is one of the nicer restaurants in town, a perfectly priced place with a beautiful interior and fantastic sushi.

It's telling that David would find his way here.

Here we meet Matt (Joshua Justice Thomas), Jude's friend who's under-dressed for Plum, and clearly out of his element. He and David hit it off right away--two people in places where they're uncomfortable. It's an odd friendship.

This is all Matt's fault. Or maybe it's James' fault. Regardless, somehow David ends up in Jude's apartment, unsupervised. He befriends the cat (well...he bribes the cat with food and attention). He cooks dinner. Little by little, he becomes part of the fabric of Jude's life.

But the longer he stays, the harder it is for him to leave. And the easier it is for him to be found.

Across the street from the Harris Grill and their iconic Bacon Night, Spin is a gay bar that makes some of the best martinis in town (or, as we tell our homophobic friends, "a great martini transcends sexual orientation"). Their cocktail list is simply a wheel that you can, yes, spin to get a random drink, but the bartenders (ask for Chuck) will make you pretty much anything, and it will be awesome.

There's a nice little patio in the back, perfect for more...uh...intimate conversations and frank discussions over martinis (or, in David's case, a mojito). It's also a good, casual place to get to know someone better, and maybe that's why Jude made this little meeting happen.

Or maybe not.

You have to wonder. Does Jude tend toward situations like this because she's a nurse, or is she a nurse because she's hard-wired this way?

There's nothing pleasant about an empty parking garage. The light is terribly off-putting and the sound echoes in that way that evokes every scary movie ever made. Just the idea of it can put a person on edge.

Nothing good can happen here.

Walnut Street is the shopping Mecca of Shadyside--a perfect place to watch rich white people with their ridiculously over-sized strollers blocking the sidewalk and frustrating the hipsters on their way to American Apparel and the Apple Store.

But like any busy street with lots of foot traffic, it becomes oddly serene around 3am, after all the bars have let out and everyone has gone home for the night.

Well...almost everyone.

David has on him a key to a locker, and seeing as how this place is across the street from the dome where he started, he figures the locker must be here. Only, the lockers here are all digital. So that's not going to work.

In the end, we've come full circle. As we fade to white and Jerome Wincek's score fills the space, we're left with more questions, more theories, something to ponder on the way home. There's more clues to be discovered, more mysteries to be solved.

www.blandeblancfilm.com