Moon Under Water
2024 · 15m · UK
Directed by GRANDMAS
Genres: drama
Tones: melancholic, tender, tense
Jack, a young man who expresses himself through dance, is anchored to his apartment by the full-time care of his Uncle Glenn, who has severe dementia, until a chance encounter with an old school friend offers a flicker of the life he has been denied.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Comedy directors deliberately suppress every instinct that made them successful to make a grief film shot on expired film stock — that's not a short film, that's an act of creative self-immolation, and I'm here for it.
GRANDMAS shot on expired 35mm to mirror dementia's disintegration — a comedy duo proving themselves dramatically without a single joke. Aftersun-adjacent material with a real formal idea behind the look.
Shooting on expired 35mm to physically embody dementia's disintegration is the kind of medium-as-meaning choice that BBC Film/BFI/Kodak don't usually green-light, and a comedy duo deliberately stripping out jokes for an Aftersun-adjacent caregiver drama is a fascinating self-imposed constraint. Cast looks rock-solid.