That's Absurd!
A short film comprised of five short sketches about life, Death (the entity) and ridiculous things happening. And also Fred. He's just there.
About the Film
This film was shot over six days between December 2023 and February 2024. Originally just one sketch, I grew this idea into five that are set in different scenarios but have essentially the same themes. Shot in Canberra (at Perform Australia and St. Alban’s) by (young) Canberra artists, this film explores life, Death and some guy named Fred who we haven’t quite figured out what his part is yet.
The Sketches
Job Interview (8:40)
Things go awry for Jo when she turns up to a job interview where the interviewer is just a little bit odd.
Cast:
Kayden – Leo Amadeus
Jo – Grace Blomfield
Fred – Ashton Casha
Death – Nadia Thivy
Picnic (4:35)
Staring Death in the face is usually quite unpleasant. Here, it leads to a nice picnic with no food or drink. But there are probably teacups.
Cast:
Jo – Zoe Smith
Death – Nadia Thivy
Fred – Ashton Casha
Singer – Hannah Nolte-Crimp
News Report (6:15)
Breaking News: There’s an earthquake and also it’s international connectedness thingy day. But is it all staged? Find out now.
Cast:
Eve – Annabelle Smithers
Jo – Gabriella Heron
Kayden – Rebekka Boddeus
Fred – Ashton Casha
Death – Nadia Thivy
“Director” – Mikkie Martinez
“Technician” – Livvy Brooks
Sermon (9:30)
Unfortunately for the priest, things are not going their way and so they celebrate with a nice meal of eucharist.
Cast:
Priest – Sean.
Fred – Ashton Casha
Death – Nadia Thivy
Interrogation (8:20)
It’s Kayden’s turn to deal with the odd things. They’ve arrested Alejandro, but apparently that’s not his name. We’ll see about that.
Cast:
Kayden – Aniah Gwyneth Nogaliza
AI – Marcel Cole
Afterword
After the premiere of the film, a lot of people asked me what it was about, and what I was trying to say with certain bits of it. The answer to that is nothing. This film is not trying to say anything or be commentary about anything. This film is borderline surrealism, where things don’t make sense and happen because that’s the weirdest thing that could happen at that point. If you are asking questions about what the film’s about, then the way you’re consuming the material is wrong.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t ask questions. After watching something, I personally like to think and ask questions. So I tried to make the questions you should ask about this film really easy. Like, “What was that?” and, “Who decided this should be greenlit?” and, “How can I get my money back?”. That last one won’t make much sense if you watched the film on YouTube for free.
Anyways, if you enjoyed the film, great. If you didn’t enjoy the film, I don’t really care. It’s a weird film and I know it’s not for everybody.
Thanks for watching. Or not. If you’re reading this without watching the film, you should go watch the film. The link’s up there. You can click it.
Also, a big thank you to Oakelani Edmonds, Rylee De Salis and Marcel Cole for performing with their various talents in the entertainment before the premiere.
The next project I’m doing is going to be taking another swing at making an album. But this one’s going to be so much better than the first one.