Visualizing the quiet ruminations of life marks the work of Pranay Noel. Inspired by directors such as Kenneth Lonergan, Mike Leigh, Edward Yang and Kelly Reichardt to name a few, Noel’s stirring feature debut Height Markers follows a young man as he drifts about his city over the course of two days. Before leaving the home he shares with his mother, Aaron (Gabe Meacher, Firecrackers) is stewing with restless energy. Between his love life and the haunting space left by his father’s (Jesse LaVercombe, Violation) passing, Aaron struggles to communicate with a mother (Maev Beaty, Mouthpiece) enveloped in her own grief. She is stilled in time; he is troubled by stillness.

Using beautiful long master shots, Noel understands space simultaneously as its own character and as a stand-in for those no longer present, whether off screen or through death. Woven throughout the film is camcorder footage of the father, atmospheric frames of the city, and Aaron as he is trying to find his own footing. The city breathes and the grass rustles as the living moves forward.