About
Download the h.264 720p ‘The Lift’ trailer here.
Visit “The Lift” on IMDB.
The Lift” is Robert Kohr’s first professional film after his student film “I Am.” The idea of this film is based on the fact that everyone has been guilty of small misdeeds at one point or another – most of the time we don’t even give our actions a second thought because of the insignificance of these minor events. The Lift explores the consequences of one all too common act of not holding the elevator door for someone or worse – pushing the close button. An elevator interaction goes wrong, prompting a young woman to learn about being insensitive and to hold open the elevator door the next time around. In this short film, the main character experiences the consequences of her misdeed and learns to be more conscious of her actions. Although the act of holding the elevator door should come out of kindness, sometimes a little fear can help push the character down the right path. More importantly, this film seeks to raise awareness about callous acts and encourages a tinge of pro-activeness that can help to make someone’s day easier. Random acts of kindness benefits everyone.
While we are often asked for a link to the entire film, all we can post for now is this trailer. Some festivals have restrictions on films that are first made available for public consumption on the internet. For now you can purchase The Lift on DVD in our store.
The Story
The film starts off with the main character, a young woman returning from a long day of work. She enters her apartment building, collects her mail and gets on the elevator. She sees an old woman walking towards the elevator and instead of holding the door open, she chooses to push the close door button to save a few seconds.
The next day her alarm rings, she wakes up and heads off to work. She enters the elevator and finds that the old woman from the day before already inside. The old woman smiles at her, causing the main character to suddenly recall the elevator incident. She is hit with a moment of guilt but then becomes distracted by the ding of the elevator’s bell. The old woman exits the elevator first and drops one of her earrings on her way out. The young woman picks up the earring and runs out of the building in search of the old woman. She walks down the street and into an alley where she finds the other earring near a manhole cover. She kneels down to pick it up when suddenly water shoots out of the manhole enveloping the girl in a bubble of water. The water bubble gets sucked into a sewer, which then ejects out into the sky of a fantasy world where whales and fish float by. The water bubble speeds towards the ground and the girl grabs onto a water droplet to break her fall. When she finally lands on the ground, she finds the old woman waiting for her. The old woman raises her arm and summons the earrings, which she then absorbs. This causes the old woman to transform into a giant that towers over the girl. The old woman places a box over the girl, capturing her inside.
Inside the box the girl finds no openings and is instantly petrified. Suddenly an expanded version of the old woman’s face comes out of the wall, she gives the girl a wide cheeky smile, lunges at her and swallows her whole.
In the next scene, the girl wakes up and finds dozens of doors. She attempts to enter each one searching for an exit out of the fantasy world but all of the doors are slammed on her. Then a really large door appears but she gets shut out again. However after those doors slammed, the girl finds herself back on the floor of the elevator in her building with the door opening and closing on her head. She notices an old man walking towards her and immediately lunges at the door and pries it open with all her might and waits for the old man to get in.
Based out of Brooklyn NY, Robert Kohr is the owner of