Animus

Dialectic dia.lec.tic n.
1. The art of discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation

Animus emerged from a nightmare — an instinctive, bodily response to a pervading sense of inauthenticity, the uncomfortable truth that we are not okay. In a world built on comforting lies, the truth sounds madly unhinged, and we are all probably hiding a scar or two.

I have worked on the film for six years with much pleasure and pain. At times it has been the only thing that has made sense to me. The initial plan was simple: pit two opposing perspectives against one another and see which survives. What could be more entertaining than that? I had explored a similar concept in my first film, but this time the material pushed back. What began as a controlled two-hander grew into something far more expansive.

Developed amid the societal rupture of the early 2020s, Animus bears the marks of its time. At it’s core it is a confrontation between two people who fundamentally disagree. Beyond this, it becomes a visceral reaction to an increasingly abrasive global climate and a world under environmental strain. Yet regardless of my intention, the film remains unavoidably personal - any real meaning drawn from the film rests in the performances of its characters, and I would be glad to know that their questions had lingered after the lights came up.

The story unfolds in a world eating itself, while its characters dissect one another. Meaning is carried through performance rather than exposition; the setting is inferred through behaviour, language, and tone. Rather than orienting the audience through scale or spectacle, the film asks them to read the world through the people it produces.

In its form, Animus is a chimera: a collage of in-camera performance, hand-drawn animation, archival footage, and AI-generated imagery. From the outset I was instinctively drawn to mixed-media, before understanding how much it would ask of the work. In the end, I’m grateful for the persistence it took to dismantle the cut again and again — pulling it apart, melting it down, and refining what survived — until it no longer needed me.

The late inclusion of Generative AI, used sparingly as another tool at the bench, was not a choice I came to lightly, but it did feel an intriguing paradox to explore given the themes of the work: the evolution of a species that is both selfish and altruistic, a morality that is both innate and constructed, a medium that is simultaneously the antithesis of the manmade and the result of it.

Filmmaking is a constant battle, and arriving at what exists within these 24 minutes using the limited means we had at our disposal feels truly earned. I am deeply grateful to the brilliant cast, crew, and collaborators whose commitment made the film possible. Animus now meets its audience, and it is about time. As I unleash it, I can only hope that its bark is worse than its bite.

-James Murray, Sydney, January 10, 2026