PILGRIMAGE
2026 · 5m
Directed by Mason Charles
Genres: drama, experimental, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, mythic, surreal
Shot on 35mm, an abstract experimental film follows a dead man on a spiritual journey through the wilderness.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Dead man spiritual journey on 35mm sounds like every pretentious MFA thesis ever—but if Mason Charles actually found a way to make abstraction *weird* instead of just slow, I'm listening; experimental cinema needs more teeth and fewer navel-gazing priests.
The decision to shoot 35mm for an abstract experimental work signals a deliberate conversation with structural cinema and the materiality of film itself—a formal commitment that anchors the mythic register and distinguishes this from digital-native meditation.
Five minutes on actual film stock is a resource choice that immediately changes how you compose for grain and texture; if Charles is using that physicality to *feel* the pilgrimage rather than illustrate it, that's the decision that matters.