Nate and John
2024 · 7m · USA
Directed by Jumai Yusuf
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A young Black barber's apprentice named Nate and a rebellious white teenager named John form an unlikely wordless friendship in a 1960s barbershop, with their bond deepening silently across decades of haircuts spanning from 1966 to the present day.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Wordless lifelong cross-racial friendship from 1966 to present in a barbershop, recreating the Joseph Louw MLK-assassination photograph — that's a heavy historical move and the dialogue-free decision is bold. Seven minutes. Worth it.
Wordless cross-racial barbershop friendship across decades, with a Joseph Louw photograph recreation moment — that historical-photograph specificity is what saves the premise from sentimentality. Seven minutes; a Golden Globe-winning composer behind it.
7-minute lifelong cross-racial friendship told entirely without dialogue between the principals, jazz score by Golden Globe winner Pedro Osuna, recreates the Joseph Louw Lorraine Motel photograph — Unity Animation Project with full Bickel-brothers script and a substantial design/animation pipeline. Ambitious in conception and credibly produced.
Reviews
Friendship and loyalty are skillfully conveyed through body language alone — accomplishing this feat is challenging even with live actors, let alone animated ones.
Irresistible... absolutely NECESSARY in contemporary society. It showcases the importance of people being willing to actually SEE one another, with a jazz score that functions as a character on its own.
Festivals
- Tribeca Film Festival 2024
- American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes 2024, Gold House Cultural Impact Award
- HollyShorts Film Festival 2024
- Naples International Film Festival 2024
- Austin Film Festival 2024