Animation,
6:00 minutes,
No dialogue,
ON,
2008
Synopsis
In a weird forest, a robot drone drills into the earth to siphon oil from a sacred artifact. Little does he know that his work has awoken a vengeful spirit bent on teaching a lesson to the gluttonous socialites who gorge on his bounty.
Wicked puppetry brings this phantasmagorical world to life in a tale of conspicuous consumption gone too far.
The Last Feast is a combination of stop-motion, classical and computer generated animation with live-action puppetry. It is essentially an experiment in fusing traditional film making mediums with current digital technology.
Creative team
Writer/director/producer: Marc Beurteaux
Personal statement
Marc Beurteaux says:
"The Last Feast is a film about wasting resources and the inability of a society to see its forthcoming demise. The society in the film is based on our own. The characters are ourselves. Each character represents a segment of our society.
Irving, the drilling robot, is the worker who carries out his tasks without asking questions and lives in fear of his masters/employers. His ending is symbolic of so many workers stuck in a capitalist workforce - he goes around and around, going nowhere.
The Soldier represents that sector of society that protects from "The Other". In The Last Feast, The Other are the Ghosts which represent environmental catastrophe. The Soldier, tired of fighting and finding solace in distractions (porn magazines, video games) has ceased to care.
The Ghosts are representations of destructive environmental forces that are unleashed when a culture cares nothing for the sanctity of nature.
The Masters are us. Consumers who are addicted to a way of life and will not change.
I chose to do this film in animation and puppetry because I was hoping to add a little fun to what is essentially a gloomy film. It's a dark piece, but that's really how I feel about our current cultural and environmental situation."