Posted by 
SYNOPSIS
Moon River is an experimental short film that tells a story of heartbreak, loss and love. Through an animated dreamscape, it follows a couple as they drift and spin through a moonlit cosmic void. The rules of time are irregular, and we are carried through their story as it drifts from periods of wonder, solitude and reconnection. Moon River’s sense of exhaustion and undeterred desire gives way to hopeful determination as the characters’ individual struggles forge a collective unity within their celestial microcosm.
ABOUT THE FILM
My wife introduced me to “Moon River” in High School. She loved Audrey Hepburn and she showed me “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” for the first time. Since we moved our family back to our home town over two years ago, I get a strange and bittersweet sense of nostalgia when I look across my street and see the high school where we first met and fell in love. It transports me daily to that past moment when we had our whole lives ahead of us. Yet simultaneously I’m rooted in the present, fully aware of the meandering and difficult paths we’ve had to travel to get to where we are now.
During one of these reflective moments, Frank Ocean’s cover of “Moon River” was playing, and all of these thoughts began to take a narrative shape. Frank’s incredible track, which was in my daily playlist, had a very different feel to it than the original version. I started to channel all these meandering thoughts and struggles I’d been having into this song structure and my personal connection to its history.
With this structure as a blueprint I began building imagery based on the “concept” of the song and its significance to our own life and memories. I equally tried to keep it abstract and universal enough so that other viewers could potentially see themselves in the film as well. As the design and narrative became more clear I decided I wanted the film to be its own visual interpretation of the song, not a music video for another artist. I then hired Josh Smoak and Alex Admiral Collier of Eastward Music to approach the imagery and concept with a unique musical vision.
Directed by Andrew D. Zimbelman (USA)