Validation is the short film that you need to watch to kickstart your new year. It will give you the positive boost that you need to give to yourself and to the world. Take fifteen minutes out of your day to watch Validation and I assure you that you will be feeling upbeat and giddy about life.

When I was in fourth grade I was having a really rough time so my Dad consoled me and said for me to go up to three people and give them a genuine compliment. That very day at school,  I knew what would ensue; smile and laughter.

With the arrival of the new year, I think we all should put our self- centered resolutions aside and just try to focus on adding positivity to the world by smiling more because a smile is a curve that sets things straight.

Sometimes we forget to smile and that is really unfortunate. There is a phenomenon of continuous negativity in the world right now and I truly believe that if people took the time to smile more than positivity would ring back right around the corner and 2017 will be an amazing year for everyone.

​Validation is a short film that reminds us of the power of smiling and the butterfly effect that this slight action triggers for everyone else in the world, affecting the overall outlook and attitude on society.

This short film follows Hugh Newman, a parking attendant that stamps tickets for validation, while giving out wonderful compliments for dreary people, making their day.

Hugh has a positive attitude about life and he thrives off of making people smile and the audience gets to witness his rise in the world through just getting the most sincere smiles from everyone.

This goes to show if you put good into the world that good will come out of it.

​But, even the most happy-go-lucky people in the world forget to smile sometimes. Hugh later encounters hardship when he falls in love with Victoria, a DMV photographer who doesn’t smile.

Hugh finally meets his match. Victoria is his yang to his yin. The more he falls in love with her, the less he smiles and forgets that what makes him happy; being a positive force in society.

​This causes him to become another boring parking attendant who hates his job, further leading him to lose his job. Now, he has no compliments left, job, love or even anything for him to smile about.

When he hits his breaking point and gives up on her, he overcomes the obstacle of heartbreak by fixing himself. We learn that fixing the self can help you fix your relationship with others. This is because of the butterfly effect of how adding positivity to the world can come to full fruition in order to create the resolution that we sometimes may be looking for in the beginning. Sometimes the result is direct and in other cases, it may be indirect.

I don’t want to beat a dead drum but, Hugh reminds us why it is so important to smile because you may never know how it might affect someone’s life. My best friend of 9 years recently told me how suicidal he was when we first met when I was 14. He was in a severe situation with access to no help and out of respect, I will not go into detail.

Completely oblivious to his situation back then, he told me how important it was that I went out of my way to make conversation, joke around, give him a hug every day at school. He told me how cool it was that I would give him compliments and how it would make his day a lot better and life would be just a little more tolerable for him. Little did I know when I was 14 that this guy was going through some serious “ish”.

I was shocked when I found all of this out a few months ago. He said he never brought it up because he thought I always knew through my innate clairvoyance. The truth of the matter is that since the fourth grade, I always wanted to bring people together by making them laugh and smile.

It’s sort of my thing.

You never know how your attitude can change someone’s life and that is what Hugh Newman teaches us through smiling and free parking.

In conclusion, this short film is a snappy beatnik rhythmic work of art that will spark your optimism for 2017.

Always keep smiling my friends.

Remember,
“The Zos Knows”.

David Zosel
The Cat of Cinema