Short of the Week
johnFrum

The Return of John Frum

A mind-bending trip through the unconscious loosely based on a polynesian prophecy.

A really exciting independent student animation, creator Christian Schlaeffer managed to find the geek buttons hidden somewhere on my body and hit them so hard that they overrode my brain—which told me that this film makes no f—ing sense.

I don’t think an explication of the underlying mythology helps much, and a primer from Schlaeffer website does only a little. Instead what we get is eye candy  in a hyper-cool and stylized 7 minute piece that seems ripped from the subconscious of a hopped up hippy.

Character designs reminiscent of Peter Chung, (a source Schlaeffer was unfamiliar with) combine with the floating camera, odd perspectival motion and fluid speed of experimental anime (Studio 4°c, being an inspiration he readily admits).

Many thanks to SotW fan Matt for directing us this short. Check it out at Vimeo via the Play link, or download a 1080p version from the website.

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Sondhi approaches films from the perspective of an uber-fan, knowledgeable film academic, and occasional filmmaker. His tendency to over-think his film criticisms is due to a background in Philosophy, but he is putting useless intellectualizing aside for this site.
  • Derecto

    Wow. way too original…

  • http://nofilmschool.com/2010/05/the-return-of-john-frum/ The Return of John Frum « NoFilmSchool

    [...] [via Short of the Week] [...]

  • http://www.polymixmedia.com Andrew S Allen

    This is very cool. It’s really not your traditional story—more like a poem that’s been very well visualized.