The Secret Diary of a High Rise
2023 · 3m · United Kingdom
Directed by Stephen James Ong
Genres: animation, essay film, experimental
Tones: contemplative, theatrical, whimsical
The brief memoirs of a high-rise tower block finding its way in the big city, told from the building's own perspective: it catches up with old friends and remembers relationships from years gone by, narrated in first person by Sasha Goguel. Anthropomorphized buildings experience the ups and downs of city life amid bold colors, jazzy lighting, and a smoky spoken-word-poetry atmosphere.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone's going to call this whimsical and charming, but what's actually subversive is that Ong commits *completely* to the bit—a building's memoir as earnest lyric essay, no winking, no irony escape hatch; it's weird enough that it shouldn't work, and somehow it does.
The spoken-word poetry narration and anthropomorphic conceit situate this squarely in the lineage of city-as-character essayism, but the formal rigor is in the color and lighting design—each frame feels considered, almost painterly, in service of a building's emotional temporality that most animators wouldn't dare attempt.
The entire film hinges on Sasha Goguel's vocal performance—that particular register of nostalgia and weariness in her narration transforms what could have been mere visual whimsy into something genuinely melancholic, and it's that tonal specificity on a 3-minute budget that makes the whole thing breathe.
Reviews
Bold colors and impressive lighting create a fun, nightlife atmosphere. First-person narration from the High Rise is accompanied by a jazzy soundtrack - scored by Jon Hugo Ungar - making the short feel like it was recorded inside a smokey club during an open-mic spoken-word poetry night.
Warm, vivid colors create an exciting urban, nightlife atmosphere, which is complimented by the film's jazzy soundtrack, composed by Jon Hugo Ungar.