The Sunday Short: Battling Big Mountains With Queenie
Every lazy Sunday we select an excellent local short film from Lightbox’s Show Me Shorts catalogue.
Queenie is an animated short film by Paul Neason, following a geography lecturer Danny Mulgan as he works with his students on a mysterious personal project. Through talking heads (that immediately bring all the humanity and agony of David Brent to a flat piece of cardboard), Danny tells us about his passion for mountains – both internal and external, trying to ignore the pictures of his ex-wife on his computer screen.
He’s working on something called ‘Queenie’, but you’re never quite sure what exactly it is. “Queenie is my worldview” Danny says. His eager-to-please students are always at his side, going above and beyond to work on this project which has promised them extra grades. Is he building a shrine to his ex-wife? Or working on something more sinister…
The film concludes with a tense meeting of minds behind Danny and his ex-wife Helen. I won’t spoil it, but things will fall together in a very painful type of way. For a film made entirely out of cardboard, it all just feels too damn real.
Alex Casey
Alex Casey is a senior writer at The Spinoff with over a decade of experience writing about popular culture and social issues in Aotearoa. She lives in Ōtautahi and likes watching reality TV and walking the dog, occasionally at the same time.
