We Are Not Alone
2024 · 11m · Canada
Directed by Adebukola Bodunrin
Genres: animation, experimental, sci-fi
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal, tender
Wumni, a solitary Nigerian immigrant in Canada, retreats deeper into isolation until a mysterious celestial object approaching Earth's orbit seems to promise connection — testing whether the universe can fulfill what human relationships have failed to provide.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
16mm Ektachrome hand-painted and etched directly onto the film stock, alongside a Nigerian-immigrant-in-Canada loneliness sci-fi. The form alone is a reason — "slightly alien marks as second language" is a strong sell.
Bodunrin shoots Ektachrome 16mm and then directly paints and etches hand-drawn animation onto the stock — the material hybridity is the formal gesture, and SXSW confirms the festival recognition. Exactly the kind of cross-tradition experimentation I'd program.
Short of the Week + SXSW selection, 11 minutes — and if Bodunrin really did paint and etch directly onto Kodak Ektachrome 16mm stock, that's the rarest possible execution choice in contemporary indie sci-fi. The Nigerian-Canadian immigrant-isolation framing earns that material commitment.
Reviews
Stands out as one of the more original pieces of recent science-fiction filmmaking we've encountered.
We Are Not Alone is a lo-fi sci-fi parable about connection and expectation, but underneath it's about the false promise of the American Dream.
Festivals
- SXSW 2024
- Refocus Film Festival 2024
- Oak Cliff Film Festival 2024
- Atlanta Sci-Fi Film Festival 2024