I recently encountered a nice short film entitled "Skyborn" in a MOOC that I was working on. This film by Jamie Stone, supported by the National Film and Television School of the UK, shows the struggle of a Father and Son as they try to free themselves from the life they have in a post-apocalyptic smog filled world.
Our story begins with the father, Gideon, telling his son, Blue, a story of how the smog came to be. As cities grew, the smog became thicker forcing people to build their cities even higher. Some were left on the ground facing the challenges of a smog filled world. Eventually, those on the surface died except for Gideon and his son Blue. It is with this premise that Gideon casts the vision of building a flying machine so they could rejoin the other humans in the cities above the clouds. The task of building and trying out flying machines proves daunting, driving Blue to discouragement. Blues discouragement turns into outright resentment towards his father, thinking that Gideon loves the vision more than his son. Blue acts on his feelings by creating a tree that has plastic bags "growing" from it, in an effort to disprove his fathers idea that the bags are evidence of a city above. The boy then has a change in conscience and eventually works towards realizing his fathers dream.
What I like about this film is that it has a clear, concise story line that has an escalating level of tension as the story goes. When you think there is a good ending in sight a twist happens that makes the film memorable and powerful. Skyborn has a very effective use of drama in the development of a credible emotional experience for our main character Blue. His father also plays a consistent yet benevolent opposing character which eventually wins the young Blue by the mentioned traits.
A recurring theme in this film is examining the evidence. Gideon has a hypothesis that there are cities above the clouds as stated by the stories passed on to him from previous generations. The presence of plastic bags with elaborate markings are considered by him as evidence to support his belief. Blue tries to dissuade him from his beliefs by fabricating false evidence. Gideon is saddened at first but responds by closely examines the evidence to address his doubts.
Watching this film was truly enriching experience for me. Please share your insights in the comments section below.
Skyborn from Jamie Stone on Vimeo.
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