I'm Really Scared I'm Dying TBH
2024 · 15m · USA
Directed by Lindsay Calleran
Genres: drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic, tender, tense
An anxious young man named Gabriel convinces himself he is dying after experiencing mysterious panic symptoms, trapping him in an endless cycle of health anxiety and obsessive googling. Unable to articulate his internal turmoil to those around him, he unexpectedly finds connection and support in an unlikely place.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Calleran's formal decision to revive the silent film grammar in service of a distinctly contemporary malaise — OCD rendered as fragmentary screen-life — demonstrates the kind of disciplined conceptual rigor that separates a formal exercise from genuine artistic vision.
A silent film about health-anxiety googling rendered in split-screen chat overlays — every formal choice screams "please notice my formal choices." The 2,000 views suggest the algorithm noticed and moved on.
Contemporary silent film rendering OCD-inflected health anxiety through split-screens and chat-feed overlays instead of dialogue — fifteen minutes of language-bypass that's exactly the right formal answer for the subject.
Festivals
- Palm Springs ShortFest 2025
- Nitehawk Shorts Festival 2025, Audience Award