Fresh Air is an original cross between kitchen-sink drama and comedy. A precise depiction of relationships between lovers, friends and family in the big city: they are nearly thirty, have no career, children or substantial income. They do enjoy life, but the question is: how much longer? Or, as one of the characters puts it: ‘I keep having the feeling that I am in the wrong line at the supermarket.’ Jack is an insignificant film-maker who has just lost his job but doesn’t mind, because he didn’t enjoy it anyway. He dreams of being a hero: fireman, football player or maybe guitarist in a rock band. He loves racing through town. Jack’s girlfriend Kit is however a principled pedestrian and enthusiastic user of public transportation. She plays the accordion and works part-time in an Asian deli to pay for her painting. They share their house with Kit’s best friend E., a part-time student and musician without a job or a band who dedicates most of her time to Pretty Ugly, a magazine about herself. The jumpy editing and the use of photos and film fragments give Fresh Air a collage-like structure. Mansfield, who worked on the screenplay for this film for six years, portrays the dreams, doubts and pleasures of the so-called Generation X with great humour and sympathy.
