AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH

I keep coming back to how easy it is to spend a day in a dopamine loop and be absent from it entirely. There is something unsettling about the ease of that comfort now, particularly for whoever is left in the room.

The film follows a father searching for his son in an underground city of endless pleasure. Every attempt to reach him leads through another machine, another form, another procedure. The city keeps functioning while the people disappear into themselves. And gradually, its comforts become more appealing than the search. I am interested in that moment when you finally look up and realize something has passed you by. Perhaps something you thought would wait. Perhaps your whole life.

What fascinates me about filmmaking is how image, sound, and time can shape what an audience feels, even subconsciously. The sets in this film float in a black void. I want those images to feel lonely and isolated, with sound giving that emptiness a presence. A world you can hear but cannot quite reach. I am curious about more than how that looks. What happens to a viewer after spending an entire film in that darkness? What effect would it have psychologically?

That curiosity shapes the pacing, too. For the first 40 minutes, I want to hold back and let the slow, meditative rhythm draw the viewer into a trance. Then the film changes in an instant. I want that sudden intensity to hit harder because of the stillness that came before it.

Collaborating with the other artists is the real heart of making this film. Sets, images, performances, music and sound all change what I thought I was making. Together, we are making something none of us could have made alone.