Travelling Distribution

Create; Survive

A film by

Alex Anna

Synopsis

How can you continue to create when you can barely feed yourself? Alex Anna presents their film SCARS at a sunlit festival, but behind their apparent success hides a ceaseless fight with their own mind. Expressing the brutality of loneliness through a poetic act of cinematography, CREATE; SURVIVE confronts our virtual and public identities against the intimate reality of depression.

Highlights

Tags

2024

No items found.

Animation

Documentary

Genre

No items found.

Country

Canada (Quebec)

Year

2024

Length

20'00"

Themes

Mental Health

Arts

Distribution
Alex Anna

Production
Kélyna N. Lauzier (La 115e)

Cinematography
Jonathan Strutz

Editing
Valérie Tremblay

Sound
Stéphane Debien

Music
Lass, Jon Onj, Pomme

Director's statement

CREATE; SURVIVE is a self-documentary born from the infamous pressure of making “a second film”, the fear of disappointing that comes with it, and the absolute necessity to create, even through a deep depression. I wanted to keep on breaking taboos about mental health, but in the present time, in a context where everyone is expected to smile : a film festival. The duality between this happy and sunny event, exposed and perceived on social media as the reflect of an artistic and personal success, and the raw brutality of a daily battle against one’s own mind, is exposed through Instagram stories and an animated “double” ; the mental projection of the protagonist.As I like to use short films as a way to experiment and play with hybridity, in this film I decided to explore how written words and cinematographic language could meet ; offering to read inside of Alex Anna’s mind while facing the deafening silence they are going through. The intimacy of their exhausted thoughts overlaps with the appearing lightness of their public apparitions. I believe and hope that it is inside the cracks of this dissonance that lives a part of universality, stroking the complexity of human interactions, the way we present ourselves, and our intimate ways of surviving.

Alex Anna

Alex Anna is a director in love with cinematographic language and words in all their beauty. A queer and feminist filmmaker, they use art to give a voice to silenced subjects. Their short film “Scars” premiered in TIFF 2020 and won over 30 prizes in more than 90 festivals.

Filmography

Social media

No items found.

Festivals

‍

Press Inquiries

Press Kit

Social media

Back to catalogue