Toronto poet/composer Benjamin Hackman teams with Barcelona animation house Alla Kinda to recount a personal commuting mishap that leads to a frenzied yet thoughtful monologue on the rush of modern life and what it all might mean.

A hit on the festival circuit, winning the Audience Choice Award at the 2023 Cannes Short Film Festival and Best Animation Award at the 2023 London International Short Film Festival, the film was directed by Alla Kinda CD/co-founder Txesco Montalt and is fueled by an original orchestral score from Hackman’s musical ensemble The Holy Gasp.

For the record, the Algonquin Island bridge is real. Built in 1938, it is a wooden pedestrian trestle bridge connecting Algonquin Island with Ward Island just south of Toronto in Lake Ontario. I have walked it myself in the rain and managed to stay upright.
 
 

 
Production: Alla Kinda
Director: Txesco Montalt
Writer/producer: Benjamin Hackman
Illustrator/Animator: Txesco Montalt, Mayte Sánchez

Music: Benjamin Hackman, Anthony William Wallace
Conductor: Robert W. Stevenson
Narrator: Benjamin Hackman
Producer: Anthony William Wallace, Benjamin Hackman
Mixed and Mastered by James Paul at Rogue Music Lab
Edited by Anthony William Wallace and James Paul

Recording: Revolution Recording Studio

Financial assistance and support: The Toronto Arts Council, The Ontario Arts Council, The Canada Council for the Arts, and FACTOR, Joe’s Fruit Market, Café Pamenar, Ozzy Burger, Abu Humus, Pantry Foods, The Historic Kiever Synagogue, Revolution Recording.