Monument
2024 · 5m · USA
Directed by Joshua Johnson, Tim Maupin
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
In a near-future ravaged by climate change, a family pilgrimages to visit one of the last remaining trees on Earth.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Family pilgrimages to one of the last trees on Earth — Malick + Children of Men comparison is doing all the work, and the climate-grief short has been done to death. Pretty enough; been there.
The pre-COVID origin lending unintentional resonance to a climate-pilgrimage premise is the kind of accidental prophecy that gives certain shorts a second life. Johnson and Maupin's Malick-by-way-of-Children-of-Men register is competent but trails its influences.
5:23 climate-drama where the VFX lead is also co-directing — that consolidation suggests the future-tree imagery had to be designed in concert with the family blocking, not bolted on after. Modest view count, but the craft credits read like a proper production.
Festivals
- Nantucket Film Festival 2024
- Sedona IFF 2024
- Kansas City IFF 2024
- Saint Louis IFF — Best of Showcase, Best Drama, Best VFX 2024