TOAST
2023 · 5m · USA
Directed by Douglas Riggs
Genres: animation, experimental
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, whimsical
An experimental animated poem exploring the daily internal negotiation humans have with themselves every morning about the seemingly simple act of getting out of bed, and the massive consequences that ripple out from this tiny decision. Narrated by Ella Purnell and driven by stream-of-consciousness poetry inspired by Jack Kerouac and Jackson Pollock, the film treats the banal as existential.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Five minutes about getting out of bed, narrated by an actress from Arcane, animated by an Emmy winner — this is the kind of unhinged resource allocation I will always vote for.
Ella Purnell narrates Douglas Riggs's animated poem about getting out of bed — the refusal to treat the mundane as metaphor for anything is the formal gamble, and a five-minute existential bedtime piece is a fair scope for it.
An animated poem narrated by Ella Purnell about getting out of bed, treated not as metaphor but as the existential terrain itself — that refusal to allegorize is the bet. The video is private so I can only judge the pitch.
Festivals
- Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2024
- RiverRun International Film Festival 2024
- Phoenix Film Festival 2024
- Sidewalk Film Festival 2024