Orion Carloto's "Film For Her" is A Poetic Ode to Growing Up

In an age where poetry is deemed unnecessary and considered a "dying art," Orion Carloto's writing stands out. Her new book, Film For Her, is a book made for a romantic, for a person who is so deeply invested the prosperity of their future and who is still dreaming of their past. Carloto’s collection spans in much of her life, and speaks with many of her own lived experiences. The imagery and emotion is the kind of honest that pulls the reader into apartment E3, or a French cafe, or onto a beach in Malibu. There is a story in these pages, littered with truth and life and mess. That’s what Film for Her represents: finding the freedom in valuing the relationships that give you strength.

Carloto, as a poet, has always been one of the champions of love; the love that is found, the love that is lost, the love that heals you, and the love that destroys you. Her first novel, Flux, published in 2017, was about dealing with the heartbreak that came from the dark place of her first love and writing. According to Carloto, "one thing you learn from heartbreak is to recognize parts of yourself that you must to be familiar with in order to grow." This theme of self growth is explored greatly in Film For Her. By using imagery and emotion, Carloto paints a picture of love and loss.

But as a writer, Carloto shows off her talent as she weaves together a story that runs in the form of short stories, essays, prose, and poetry in Film for Her. The story is her own life, from her childhood spent in the very white city of Bethlehem, Georgia with immigrant parents , to the days she spent finishing the book in Paris. Film for Her guides us through the years of Carloto’s early adulthood, following her across the country and the world as she discovers both new places and herself, and herself in those new places.

Filled with longing, love, and heartbreak, Orion Carloto manages to write down her feelings in a way that makes the reader feel as if they were feeling them themselves. Using a mixture of poetry, prose, and pictures, she finds a way to create tender and moving beauty out of her worst moments. After all, this is the point of Film For Her, to look at the past with fondness and to look at the future with hope.