#Postmodem (Short)

Lucas Leyva & Jillian Mayer

BY Robert BellPublished Jan 16, 2013

7
"Everything I do will be forgotten" and "Everything is meaningless" are just a couple of the statements made by children—ironically placed outdoors—during the opening of #Postmodem, which, for the most part, works as a more playful thematic variation on Small, Beautifully Moving Parts.

These simultaneously amusing and devastating existential assertions are juxtaposed with a variety of single-serving, pop-infused snippets of a not-so-distant-future where people upload their identities to the void of the internet to avoid mortality.

But rather than dote specifically on the nature of a digitized God as cure for humdrum annihilation anxiety, Lucas Leyva and Jillian Mayer apply their didactic to infectious pop tunes, music videos and home shopping infomercials. Interestingly, this jumpy, disjointed style mirrors the culture they criticize, wherein memory is fleeting and people are connected to various devices and gadgets rather than each other. #Postmodem notes the short attention span of a point, click and "like" generation, by making its sarcastic, albeit observant, point accessible to the very audience it criticizes.

And while this short entertains on its own, despite dragging and losing some focus towards the end, it addresses the nature of digital connection as a pacifying, limiting social factor contributing to a mass zombie ethos: "When you're in public, you never look up from your phone."

Alas, lest this entertaining short film fulfill the ultimate irony and go "viral," it's unlikely that this important message will extend to, or last with, the indifferent, blogging masses.

Below is a brief clip of #Postmodem.
(Borscht Corp)

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