The third film we’ve featured from the Late Night Work Club collective’s Strangers anthology (after Nicolas Ménard’s Wednesday with Goddard & Sean Buckelew’s Lovestreams), Alex Grigg’s Born in a Void is an existential 7-minute animation based on the filmmaker’s own experiences.

The story of a being born into a void and its growing obsession with its own reflection, Grigg’s film was inspired by the 3-months he spent in Tokyo in 2015 as part of the JAPIC artist residency. The director saw this project as chance to explore the feelings of loneliness, creativity and self-obsession he experienced in his time away from home.

Becoming somewhat frustrated trying to develop his narrative during his days in Japan, Grigg would spend his evenings working on experimenting with new mediums and techniques. Realising these playful tests were becoming “much more interesting” than the work he was doing on his film, Grigg soon began developing a series of “weird self portraits” that would prove instrumental in the progress of Born in a Void.

“I could immediately see a story forming through the drawings and I was really excited about the style”, Grigg explains in this in-depth ‘Making of’ post. “I spent the next few days making little animation tests in the style and quickly fell in love with the process”.

Living on the outskirts of what we’d usually feature on Short of the Week, Born in a Void’s experimental form and approach means it’s somewhat of a puzzle to put together narratively, but it still feels such a rewarding watch. Aesthetically captivating, Grigg’s film perfectly captures that feeling of isolation we all would have felt at some point in our life, meaning it manages to feel both relatable and challenging.

Though Alex says the process of creating Born in a Void isn’t one he’d be eager to repeat, he admits it was a huge learning experience and hopes that by revealing his process through that extensive ‘Making of’ guide his journey will provide encouragement to others.