The Anachronism @ 60k

Since it’s online release in April, my short film The Anachronism has been viewed by 60,000 viewers in 100 countries around the world. Even without subtitles, the film has inspired blog posts in a number of languages, including Japanese, Russian, Polish, French and German. Which blows my mind! Thanks for all the love, intertron.

Here are some choice reactions from the (english-language) blogosphere:

“A Beautiful Steampunk Vision comes to life” - QUIET EARTH

“The Anachronism is more than worth the 15 minutes you need to set aside to watch it.” - GIZMODO

“We want to live in this Robot Squid Submarine” - IO9 (Also check out the I09 gallery of stills from The Anachronism.)

“As haunting as it is beautiful.” - THE DAILY GUMBOOT

“Very wonderfully designed.” - MAKING THE MOVIE

“The latest full-blooded Scientific Romance in a long line. That it stars children leads one to implicate it favourably with other children’s films of emotional, philosophical and aesthetic heft, such as The Adventures of Mark Twain and the works of Karel Zeman and Hayao Miyazaki.” -VOYAGES EXTRAORDINAIRE

“The only thing wrong with it is that it isn’t longer. … I’ll just give you one warning: this is a filmmaker who, unlike many others, knows how to let a mystery rest undisturbed. Yes, the film leaves you curious as heck, but in the end, I think that’s a much better place to be than stuck with an ultimately disappointing/implausible overexplanation that drains the film of its atmosphere. So I’m torn. I’m love to see this expanded into a full-length feature film. …and yet I think it’s perfect as it is. Let’s hope that either way, we see a lot more from Long.” -BIOEPHEMERA

“A well told little tale, with a surprisingly sinister ending. What it really comes down to is this: mechanical squid. Like you’re going to pass that by.” - COILHOUSE

On the Verge: TRANS-NEPTUNE

My 2007 camp extravaganza Trans-Neptune (or The Fall of Pandora, Drag Queen Cosmonaut) joins a host of other queer transgressions on the verge, Frameline Distribution’s new cult shorts DVD collection.  You can ORDER ONLINE if you’re into drugged-cross-dressing-sci-fi-melodrama.

(Carmel Amit in the Gas Den)

I’m so fond of this short, the first project I tackled after film school. We shot in the fall of 2005, mostly in the basement of a house I had rented with some friends, many of whom appear in the film. We got the footage in the can for less than 2k in cash. The BC Arts Council provided postproduction funding to help us finish it.

(Drag in Space: Ryan Steele, Dusty Hagerüd, Patti Wotherspoon, Nelson Wong)

The film was called “a Rocky Horror opium dream” (Frameline 31 Guide) and picked up the Gerry Brunet Memorial Award for Best Short by a BC Filmmaker at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival in 2007. The jury cited the film for its “interplanetary ambition and imagination.”

(Carmel Amit, Rodrigo Gonzalez as The Scientists)

Even though I think you can still catch a shortened  version of Trans-Neptune on Logo Channel from time to time in their “alien bootcamp” shorts package, I can’t help but recommend the unedited DVD version.

(All photography by Santiago Yanez – 2005. Property of Anachronism Pictures.)