MONSTR
2023 · 6m · Canada
Directed by Tank Standing Buffalo
Genres: animation, drama, horror
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic, surreal
A young Indigenous artist confronts his inner demons while apprenticing with a northwest totem carver following the sudden death of his beloved. Drawing on director Tank Standing Buffalo's real experience of grief after his partner's death from a brain aneurysm, the film weaves Northwest Coast Indigenous carving traditions with psychological horror to explore loss, survival, and the meaning of life.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Autobiographical animated horror about Tank Standing Buffalo's real grief after partner's brain aneurysm, merged with Northwest Coast carving traditions, with Corey Feldman voicing — wait, Corey Feldman? That's the strangest casting choice in this entire list. Curious.
Tank Standing Buffalo using animation as literal confessional — depicting his own BC-coast grief walk after losing his partner — and merging Northwest Coast carving traditions with psychological horror is unusually personal indigenous animation. Six minutes; sincere and specific.
6:09 autobiographical animated horror by Tank Standing Buffalo processing his partner's death from a brain aneurysm, voiced by Corey Feldman, with Northwest Coast Indigenous carving traditions integrated — the confessional-as-craft, master-carver-Phil-Ashbee real-life mentor frame is the substantive element. Crooked City Studios production.
Reviews
Standing Buffalo's signature style is to hide meaning and personal history behind horror and fantasy.
Through the supernatural teachings of the forest shared while totem carving, MONSTR explores the meaning of life and death, of love and loss.
Festivals
- Calgary International Film Festival 2023, Devon Bolton Memorial Award — Best Alberta Short Film
- Calgary International Film Festival 2023, Audience Choice Award — Best Alberta Short Film
- Edmonton International Film Festival 2023, Best Animated Short
- Hollywood Blood Horror Festival 2023, Best Director, Best Sound Design
- imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival 2023
- American Indian Film Festival 2023