Undervalued Movies You Might Have Passed Up: "Strange Frame"

Directed by G.B. Hajim, “Strange Frame: Love & Sax” follows the couple, Naia and Parker, in 28th century Ganymede. This uniquely animated sci-fi takes place in a universe that predicts that Earth will become unhabitable and humanity will colonize Jupiter’s moons. The moon, Ganymede, is the most heavily populated. Refugees from Earth paid for their transportation by becoming indentured servants or “debt slaves” and undergoing body modifications. Someone working construction, for example, might be given extra arms.

Naia, voiced by Tara Strong (credits Timmy Turner from “Fairly Odd Parents“ and Tommy from “Rugrats“) had her lungs genetically modified so she could work in the mines for longer hours.

During a protest, several debt slaves were freed from their prisons, Naia included. Eventually, she meets Parker (voiced by Claudia Black, credits include Artemis from “God of War” and Angela Kostapas from “City Life”). The two women save each other’s lives, fall in love, and live together. They are also musicians and sing music of rebellion. Parker plays the saxophone, Naia plays guitar, composes music, and sings.

Their sound catches the attention of Dortan Mig (voiced by Tim Curry, credits include Dr. Frank. N. Furter from “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and the Butler in “Clue”), an upscale music producer. This producer wishes to sign the band and turn them into a mainstream act. This intention becomes a reality, and suddenly, Parker’s world spirals into chaos. She says “If I have to break every law, I’m going to steal it all back to the way it used to be.”

“Strange Frame” first caught my attention through its cut-out animation style. No other movie, to my knowledge, has animated a film to these exact specifications.

Second, I found the casting to be brilliant. A serious project involving Tara Strong, Claudia Black, Tim Curry, George Takei, and Cree Summer caught my attention right away as someone who loved early 90′s cartoons and “Star Trek.”

Third, it was a representation of an LGBT+ couple that I had not yet seen in film. One can argue that some common tropes were followed or that the portrayal was overly sexualized. I found the relationship between Parker and Naia to be more complex than it’s given credit for. To my mind, the tropes exist, but only in such a way as it advances the plot. There is romance, love, and intimacy, but the importance lies in the way the society of Ganymede operates and the two women’s respective places in it. The obstacles in the plot have nothing to do with Parker and Naia being an LGBT+ couple. They have more to do, to a smaller extent, with the effect of mainstream media on niche artists that are picked up by large record labels. They have more to do, to a larger extent, with the dangers of a government going as far as to alter a human body so that it can be more easily exploited in a system that is already against them. The fact that Parker and Naia are an LGBT+ couple is just that — a fact.

When Hajim and Shelley Doty first decided to collaborate on this project, they decided two things. The collection of protagonists in this project had to be gay, bisexual, trans, and omnisexual. Also, all persons would be of color. Both race and sexual orientation, they decided, wouldn’t be timely concerns. Here’s why, because of governmental interference, much of humanity’s history would be either censored or forgotten. That doesn’t mean that any spirit of rebellion has died, far from it. Parker and Naia’s original intention through their music was to drive that rebellion.

This brings me to my fourth point, the music. It’s a fusion of jazz and punk. What’s interesting is that the styles, while different, aren’t as far apart as they seem. Jazz stems from African percussive music, and jazz, as we know it today, was brought to the United States with the trade of enslaved people. The rhythms, harmonies, timbre, and all elements come from African traditional music.

BBC’s coverage on the beginnings of jazz omits this information and hail Jelly Roll Morton as a 20th Century jazz pioneer. However, his famous rendition of “The Maple Leaf Rag,” what Morton is mostly known for, was only a rendition. The original is by Scott Joplin, known as “The King of Ragtime.” Come on, BBC, you can do better than this. We can all do better than this. While the origins of punk are widely debated, it is agreed that the first punk groups were limited in their knowledge of the rules of music. That’s one central idea of the punk subculture, breaking societal or other rules because existing rules are either limiting or unjust.

So, because these early punk bands weren’t limited by musical rules, they expanded the idea of what music is. Let’s look at a specific example of one punk subculture. “England’s punk scene had political and economic roots. The economy of the United Kingdom was in poor shape, and unemployment rates were at an all-time high. England’s youth were angry, rebellious and out of work.” While iconic jazz is often improvised upon, there is a kind of structure. Punk subcultures symbolize people unsatisfied with the conditions of their society and have little structure.

The music of “Strange Frame” is not solely a mix of the music itself, but a mix of the cultures associated with them. It’s interesting to view this movie through the lens of the jazz and punk cultures while also understanding the role that history plays in the movie. As a science fiction concept, and this is common, readers and viewers are never directly told all of the inner workings of the world in which the plot takes place. So, some elements are meant to only be picked up on or “lived,” in a way. While there’s certainly a great deal more to unpack, these are some personal highlights that I’ve taken from “Strange Frame.” To view one of my favorite scenes from the movie, click here.