The Projectionist /

If all you read is the first few lines of a video review to ascertain whether or not to invest the two to ten minutes to watch the darn thing, then… you may have to read on a bit because there is a great example to be made of this video. But if you must know now, then indeed it is a great Danish short film well worth the eight minutes of your precious and decisive life.

For starters, there is something absolutely amazing about Openfilm.com that I feel should be addressed when it concerns short films like this one. Zarije's channel, it should be noted, has been up for two years and his one and lonely video has only 224 Views; yet it is a great short from abroad. Openfilm finds films from across the globe and we viewers and contributors share these with the hopes that they be found by that right person and I, for one, like to find neglected videos like this one, patiently waiting to be found by someone who loves great stories. That is the power, the reach, and appeal of Openfilm.com; helping those great shorts to be found, and with dignity, to be viewed in their best possible online presentation. Not enough attention gets paid to films like this that get lost in the shuffle, one can only imagine, what’d it be like to try and find this video in YouTube, with bad bit rates, refresh speeds, saturated with unqualified content, etc.

With that said, I'd like to make it clear that, unlike other web video hosting sites, just because it doesn't have a million views, doesn't mean it's no good. Openfilm makes damn sure no gibberish gets on the site and The Projectionist is a prime example of how a great short on Openfilm can be found, loved, and nurtured. Due to the language barrier, I'm not all that clear on who shot it, who directed it, or a whole host of other questions I would usually ask myself during the review of any video, but what I do know is that it lives up to high quality standards and delivers a thoroughly entertaining tale with a sci-fi twist that only adds to the creativity of the subject matter. We first meet the main character, Frank, at a local watering hole fretting over the results of a recent HIV test (we all know that can be scary), and he sits with two friends, the both of them finally getting him to fess up as to why he seems so morose. As the dialogue progresses, the film reveals that it is all playing on a big screen in a packed movie house. ENTER our projectionist, a young man obviously bored to bits and pieces of his job, drinking coffee out of his Disney character cup, immersed in the daily's funny pages, done changing the reel, watching the scene for what seems like the ten thousandth time. The acting is well under played, the shots simple, and the plot jumps from the seemingly mundane to a sci-fi world of trading places in time space in a very short leap. From funny to just a bit sad, it has a few layers that will tickle anyone's bone, no matter what your niche.

Now, ENTER the magic of the story, Steffen drops the toon cup on the ground, and it disappears, only to re-appear ONSCREEN! What?! Yeah, that's what I said. So our projectionist follows through with the logic of the anomaly and winds up himself... Oh never mind, if I continue I’m only going to ruin it for you.