Drone Pilot has a Crisis of Conscience
2022 · 8m
Directed by David Ehrenreich
Genres: drama, experimental, sports
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
A young woman competing in an upstart drone racing competition experiences an existential crisis during a repair break. Shot on Super 16mm, the film transforms a futuristic sport into an art film — surreal, atmospheric, and deeply disinterested in sports movie conventions.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A drone racing film that couldn't care less about drone racing — the sport is just the weird backdrop for something much more interior. Genre bait-and-switch executed beautifully.
David Ehrenreich treating drone racing as legitimate sporting subculture is a Christopher Guest premise played straight; the genre tag 'sports' is itself a small joy.
Drone racing competition as the setting for an art-house existential portrait, shot on Super 16mm with VR-style helmets — taking a futuristic sport and refusing the sports-movie conventions is exactly the kind of weird discipline I trust.