Debut: ‘O Black Hole!’ Renee Zhan’s Alluring Short Film About The Art Of Letting Go
Filmmaker and animator Renee Zhan delivers an enchanting twist to a cosmic phenomenon in the animated stop-motion short film O Black Hole! Stop-motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small movements between camera shots to provide the illusion of motion when the frames are played in sequence. Recent feature films to utilize the technique are Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) and Netflix’s Wendell & Wild, written by Jordan Peele.
O Black Hole! begins with a question: “Have you ever wondered how a black hole is born?” The story then shifts focus to an Eve-like character unable to accept losing everything she loves to its eventual end and consumes them in hopes of preserving and keeping them forever inside a warm and dark embrace. Her subsequent actions become chaotic as the consumption turns her into a black hole that eventually absorbs everything around her. Centuries pass inside the black hole until the film’s hero, Singularity, embarks on an adventure to teach the black hole to appreciate mortality and release everyone in order to live their temporal existence like they are meant to. The film ends with one final saying: “We’re just dreams that the universe dreamt.”
The media mixing of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art styles instantly captivates the eye, and the artistic detail in every scene gives the story its whimsicality, reminiscent of big claymation hitters like Coraline (2009) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). As the story unfolds, Zhan uses these mixes of art styles and visuals to focus on the film’s message of letting go and accepting that nothing lasts forever. The world outside the black hole is all in two-dimensional visual art styles like watercolor and charcoal, representing mortality. Meanwhile, all the visuals inside the black hole are in third-dimensional solid clay media, representing eternity and lack of time inside it. When the black hole consumes its victims, they are altered into solid primitive creatures devoid of light and life.
The philosophical themes of existentialism and nihilism can be challenging to tackle in visual storytelling, but Zhan’s approach with a dark-musical-fantasy world aesthetic in stop-motion animation manages the themes spectacularly. The exquisite outer-worldly detail in every shot is perfect for this fable-like creation story. The film’s dialogue is spoken in rhyme and melody and accompanied by Harry Brokensha’s haunting orchestral score. The short film features the voice talents of singer-songwriter Emmy the Great, Gabrielle Brooks, and Loré Lixenberg, and its production crew includes cinematographer Adam Singodia and film editor Armiliah Aripin.
Since its release, the magnetic claymation short film has garnered significant recognition across many film festivals. It won in categories at the Watersprite Cambridge International Student Festival, Aspen Short Fest, British Animation Awards, and SXSW Film Festival. In January 2023, the animated film was named one of Vimeo Staff Picks Best of the Year for 2022 releases, making it the third of Zhan’s animated films to have been awarded Vimeo Staff Picks. Zhen shows no signs of slowing down in filmmaking and animation already working on other projects, including a horror-comedy live-action-animation hybrid short film with BBC Films.
IMDB
O Black Hole! is part musical, part mind-bending visuals, and all-around a great watch.
