Strange Beasts
2023 · 10m · Australia
Directed by Darcy Prendergast
Genres: animation, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tense
A mixed-media documentary about the meteoric rise and fall of the Bacchus Marsh Lion Safari, a wildly popular but poorly run big cat park in 1970s–80s Victoria, Australia, told through the eyes of the director's father, who was an 18-year-old keeper there.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Director's father was an 18-year-old big-cat-keeper at a 70s Australian lion safari, told through 16mm and era-specific animation techniques. The personal-archival-hybrid does what it should here — a memorable, specific subject and a real craft idea.
Prendergast layering archival footage with scratch-on-film, paint-on-glass, and stop motion to recover a 1970s Australian lion safari through his own father's testimony — this is the Brett Morgen mode of mixed-media biographical exhumation. Personally rooted, formally restless.
Layering scratch-on-film, paint-on-glass, stop-motion, and 2D — all shot on 16mm — with archival to chronicle a 1970s lion safari park through the director's father's POV: the era-specific animation techniques are literally doing memory work. 10:23; the craft inventory IS the period.
Reviews
Masterfully achieves balance between narrative and technique, grounding visual innovation in a remarkable true story.
A fascinating 10 minute mixed media short film that pairs well with Netflix's Tiger King, both offering depressing looks at poorly run big cat parks.
Festivals
- Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival 2023
- DocEdge, Best Short Film