Rob Munday
Everyone appreciates having a degree of control over their lives, but some crave that sense of authority more than others. The issue with insisting on such dominance over your daily activities is that it only takes one minor disruption to throw everything off balance. This is precisely what happens to Shell, the protagonist in Jacob Motz’s (Doubles) inventive short film Pink Eye, when she contracts the titular eye condition.
As Shell’s day of photoshoots and sexy birthday surprises for her partner falls apart, her life quickly begins to unravel. Just as her frustration reaches a breaking point, she encounters her friend’s abusive partner, providing her with an outlet for her pent-up emotions. Pushing the situation to the extreme, Motz transforms Shell’s eye condition into a kind of antagonist within the story – even giving it a few lines of its own!
“I wanted to push a character through a similar gauntlet, with a tinge more focus on the fallacy humans have around being able to control their lives day to day”
With the inspiration for the narrative coming to the writer/director after he read Nikolai Gogol’s short story The Nose, which tells the tale of a man who wakes up to find his nose missing. Motz was captivated by how the satire “spoke to how absurd human nature can be when faced with what should be fairly existential issues.” He was particularly intrigued by the character’s obsession with how the absence of his nose would affect how others perceived him. With Pink Eye, Motz aimed to push his protagonist “through a similar gauntlet, with a tinge more focus on the fallacy humans have around being able to control their lives day to day”.
Jesse Burgum (L) stars alongside Zach Gilford in Jacob Motz’s Pink Eye
Driving by a stellar central performance from Jesse Burgum, as Shell, despite it’s surreal nature, Pink Eye delivers a gamut of emotions leaving its audience reeling, in many different ways. However, alongside Burgum in stealing the show here is the makeup work of Ally McGillicuddy, whose gunky detailing on the eye had Motz “retching” throughout production whenever they would push into a close up, describing it as “truly disgusting in the best possible way”.
As a filmmaker who sees “the experience of making each film far outweighing any expectations for the project once we finish”, Pink Eye has the feel of a fun collaboration where Motz got everyone involved to really buy into his surreal premise. Hosting its World Premiere on Short of the Week today, we’re also honoured to play a part in sharing Pink Eye – just be careful, it’s very infectious.