“Catnip: Egress To Oblivion” Wows at Sundance
Tucson filmmaker Jason Willis’ journey to indie credibility reached an apex of sorts with the recent Sundance Film Festival screening of his short film “Catnip: Egress To Oblivion.” Willis, who grew up on a steady diet of low budget educational films in his home in Kansas, has become a sought-after freelance filmmaker with clients including the band Heavy, who hired him for their video of the song “Can’t Play Dead.” That video featured Willlis’ signature stop motion animation created on an iPhone blended with vintage Halloween imagery drawn from vintage sources. His commercial work, which he described as “ephemeral, and of a specific genre” enables him to bring the “iconography of another era to modern audiences who may not be familiar with the source material”, by using the old classroom educational films he so masterfully spoofs in “Catnip”, for example.
At this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, his short film played to full houses in three screenings in front of a Roger Corman produced film titled “Virtually Heroes.” This double bill was a unique opportunity that left fest audiences cheering. The seven minute-long short film examines the effects of catnip, through the prism of the infamous anti-narcotic educational films of the 70s. Presented in monotone narration and featuring odd scientists, trippy visuals and cat testimonials, the film was a hit in all of its screenings in late January at the Festival.
The film had its genesis as a self-assignment to help Willis learn an editing program. Three weeks later he submitted the film to the Loft Cinema’s First Friday Shorts where it won after a heated battle. It played next at the AZ Underground Film Festival and then was accepted to the AFI Fest in Los Angeles where it caught the eye of Sundance programmers. The film is now on its way around the country to other film fests, and Willis is still in awe of what has happened with his film.
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark III, and costing just $25 (for catnip, or is it called craft services?), the film was a labor of love with friends’ cats providing the on-screen talent for the 3 week shoot. Since its debut on YouTube the film has chalked up over 400,000 views. This total was enough (by over 100,000) to win the short film a coveted Sundance audience award, beating the closest competitor by over 100,000 views. While collecting cheers from audiences, Willis also attracted some scorn from other filmmakers who saw the cat video as less than serious fare, however the winning combination of cats, the internet and drugs is hard to beat. Ironically, some viewers are taking issue with his depiction of psychotropic drugs as a serious condemnation of their benefit, but honestly, the film depicts talking cats and trippy imagery, mixed with expert testimony from authors of imaginary studies.
Willis says the film is “95% factual” and stands by his version of the story of catnip.
He said he researched the substance extensively prior to writing the script (which the cats refused to follow) and found little conclusive evidence to its evils or benefits. Much like the educational films of our youth, we are left to draw our own conclusions about the benefits of a cat’s best friend—catnip.
“Catnip: Egress To Oblivion” can be seen on YouTube.
Category: Film
