COVID

Artistic commentary on COVID, politics, and both the global and local impacts of this devastating and unprecedented time in history.

  • Thomas John Thorspecken
    Director
    Lion King, Pocahontas, John Henry, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Brother Bear
  • Andy Matchett
    Writer
    Key of E
  • Thomas John Thorspecken
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Music Video, Short
  • Genres:
    Horror, Animation
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 16 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 11, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Orlando International Fringe Festival
    Orlando
    United States
    May 19, 2023
    May 19, 2023
    Official Selection
  • Film Slam
    Orlando
    United States
    June 18, 2023
Director Biography - Thomas John Thorspecken

Thomas Thorspecken (Thor) is an artist, urban sketcher, muralist, illustrator, animator, instructor, and a journalist. He attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, before working as a freelance illustrator designing magazines and publications.

Thorspecken relocated to Orlando as an animation artist for Disney Feature Animation. Over ten years he worked on films such as The Lion King, Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas, and Lilo & Stitch, to name a few.

Since January 2009, as a New Year’s resolution, Thorspecken created at least one watercolor or digital sketch a day documenting arts and culture in Central Florida for his blog, Analog Artist Digital World, culminating in more than 4,000 individual works of art illustrating the vibrancy of this community and beyond.

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, he shifted his focus to creating a daily artistic commentary on COVID, politics, and both the global and local impacts of this devastating and unprecedented time in history. The paintings in this short are just a fraction of the work created during the ongoing pandemic,

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Director Statement

“We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us. From the start of the COVID pandemic, minimizers falsely claimed the virus was no worse than the flu. After more than a million COVID deaths in America and mass infection becoming the accepted norm, minimizers persist,” Thorspecken cited as part of the rationale for his having created the jarring revue. The artist completed the film on May 11, 2023, when the United States officially lifted the COVID Emergency, despite Covid’s persistence. The paintings combat the willful denial and obfuscation of the facts of the past three years. The airborne virus cannot be seen, but in these paintings it takes center stage, a statement that ignoring the virus is deadly.

Thor collaborated with local musician Andy Matchett who had written the song for Key of E, a post apocalyptic rock musical.