Private Project

Feeling the Apocalypse

A psychotherapist struggling with climate anxiety explores what it means to live in a dying world.

  • Anderson Todd
    Interviewee
  • Chen Sing Yap
    Director
  • Nikolai Osborn
    Producer
  • Tarneem Allati
    Director of Photography
  • Sarah Saunders
    Transmedia
  • Rebecca Foss
    Composers
  • Leah Hidalgo
    Composers
  • Dominick De Villon
    Sound Editor
  • Chen Sing Yap
    Editor
  • Holly De Vaal
    Assistant Producers
  • Poppi Fella Pellegrino
    Assistant Producers
  • Laura Johnston
    Assistant Producers
  • Victoria McGlynn
    Special Thanks
  • Ruby Davies
    Background Art
  • Rowan Mikolic-O'Rourke
    Animation & Art
  • Jean Carlo Laiton
    Localization
  • María del Pino Aínsa
    Localization
  • Alexa Thobo-Carlsen
    Localization
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Documentary, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Environmental, Animation, Documentary, Climate change
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 2 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 2, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    40 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Sheridan College
  • Canadian Film Fest
    Super Channel (screened for 1 day, geo-blocked to Canada)
    Canada
    March 26, 2022
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
  • International Environmental Film Festival
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
    June 1, 2022
    South American Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Oakville Festivals of Film and Art
    Oakville, Ontario
    Canada
    June 25, 2022
    Ontario Premiere
    Runner Up, Best Student Film
  • International Alexandria Short Film Festival
    Alexandria, Imathia
    Greece
    June 29, 2022
    European Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Smaragdni Eco Film Festival
    Bicycle tour through Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina
    August 23, 2022
    Premieres in the following countries: Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Official Selection
  • Mighty Niagara Film Festival
    St Catharines, Ontario
    Canada
    August 27, 2022
    Niagara Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Edmonton International Film Festival
    Edmonton, Alberta
    Canada
    September 24, 2022
    Western Canada Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Durham Region International Film Festival
    Oshawa
    Canada
    October 1, 2022
    Oshawa Premiere
    Best Student Film
  • Chatham-Kent International Film Festival
    Chatham-Kent, Ontario
    Canada
    October 1, 2022
    Chatham-Kent Premiere
    Official Selection
  • EKOFILM International Environmental Film Festival
    Brno
    Czech Republic
    October 12, 2022
    Czech Republic Premiere
    Official Selection
  • SCAD Savannah Film Festival
    Savannah, Georgia
    United States
    October 29, 2022
    US Premiere
    Global Shorts: Jury Award for Unique Storytelling
  • SUNCINE: Barcelona International Environmental Film Festival
    Barcelona
    Spain
    November 2, 2022
    Spanish Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Forest City Film Festival
    London, Ontario
    Canada
    October 21, 2022
    London Premiere
    Official Selection
  • New West Film Fest
    New Westminster
    Canada
    October 23, 2022
    British Columbia Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Vancouver Asian Film Festival
    Vancouver
    Canada
    November 5, 2022
    Vancouver Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Sustainable Living Film Festival
    Istanbul
    Turkey
    November 22, 2022
    Turkey Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Hamilton Film Festival
    Hamilton, Ontario
    Canada
    November 8, 2022
    Hamilton Premiere
    Official Selection
  • #NarrarElFuturo 2022
    Bogota
    Colombia
    November 8, 2022
    Columbia Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Slow Film Fest
    Rome
    Italy
    November 20, 2022
    Italian Premiere
    Official Selection (FINCA)
  • Green Fest

    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    November 21, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Gimme Some Truth
    Winnipeg
    Canada
    December 7, 2022
    Manitoba Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Cineco
    Alicante
    Spain
    December 10, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Wild & Scenic
    Nevada City
    United States
    February 16, 2023
    California Premiere
    Szabo Award
  • Colorado Environmental Film Festival
    Golden
    United States
    February 26, 2023
    Colorado Premiere
    Official Selection
  • American Conservation Film Festival
    Shepherdstown
    United States
    April 22, 2023
    West Virginia
    Best Student Film
  • Belleville Downtown Docfest
    Belleville, Ontario
    Canada
    March 4, 2023
    Official Selection
  • Les Bois Film Festival
    Boise
    United States
    April 8, 2023
    Idaho Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Chen Sing Yap

Chen Sing Yap grew up in Singapore, where he worked as a picture editor in factual television for 4 years. He gravitated toward long-form documentaries that covered topics such as dementia, poverty, and conservation. In 2019 he moved to Oakville, Canada where he began directing short films. Currently, he is in his final year of Sheridan College's Bachelor of Film and Television degree program. In recent years Chen Sing’s attention has turned sharply towards the issue of social, economic, and ecosystem collapse, and how these larger issues affect the lives of everyday people. In 2020, his short film “Shift”, about the mental health toll of COVID-19 on a nurse, won First Prize at the International Students Creative Award in Osaka, Japan. He has also experimented with stop-motion animation in “Feeling the Apocalypse”, a short documentary about managing climate anxiety. Chen Sing’s current goal is to create work that helps people put words to the terrible existential dread we often feel but rarely address.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

When you talk to most people about this stuff, even people who do not deny climate change or it's effects, they don't want to look into the abyss. They would rather go on with their lives, business as usual, with the assumption that the "end" will come suddenly and swiftly, with them having no way to affect the outcome of their personal lives. Either all life on Earth will be extinguished dramatically or we'll fix it with magical technology.

I think part of the problem is that we've been led to assume that a collapsing or post-collapse world is one not worth living in. That if climate change isn't reversible then there's no point preparing for it or caring, that it is meaningless. And so we shy away from having very important conversations with our friends and families. That's one of the fundamental aspects of the conversation I want to change - the wrongful idea that full acknowledgement of the effects of the climate crisis is defeatist. We can have hope without resorting to toxic optimism.