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Red Gaia

Alone on the dying red planet, among the ruins of human civilization, one last android desperately guards the last essences of life. In her pursuit for meaning, she finds her own soul hanging in the balance.

Red Gaia is a tone-poem meditation on life, death and rebirth, destruction and creation and the cycles of existence, drawing inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita, Dante's Purgatorio, the Kabballah, the Tibetan Bardol Thodol as well as the legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

  • Udesh Chetty
    Director
  • Udesh Chetty
    Writer
  • Udesh Chetty
    Producer
  • Natasha Loring
    Key Cast
    "The Android"
  • Daniel Mitchell
    Editor
  • James Matthes
    Original score and Sound Supervisor
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short
  • Genres:
    Sci-Fi
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes 50 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 1, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    South Africa
  • Language:
    English, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Tibetan
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Udesh Chetty

South African, born and raised, now based in Los Angeles. Passionately immersed in Design, Directing and Visual Effects.

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Director Statement

Red Gaia is my first narrative personal project after 20 years of honing my skills as a designer and visual effects artist. It happened to be the emergence of covid19 and the subsequent lockdown which inevitably presented me with some quiet time at home to put pen to paper and stylus to wacom tablet. I can also say that the permeating specter of mortality accompanying the pandemic lent more than a subconscious influence to the theme of the story.

The mammoth task of producing a short story, in the CGI medium on my home desktop computer, was cast to the back of my mind as I enjoyed researching the cultural, historical, and religious subject matter whilst blending science fiction into the mix. The countless long days, weeks and months of designing, texturing, animating, rendering, and compositing melted away as I could see the story take shape.
I was fortunate enough to have some friends come on board to help with editing, audio and character animation, areas in which my pencil still needs a lot of sharpening. Dan, James, Juan as well as Natasha, (who brought the character to life with her voice) helped elevate the project immeasurably.

An integral aspect of the character in the film, her multilingualism, came through a chance conversation with a friend, who led me to meet two university professors in the fields of eastern religious studies. They were instrumental in helping me with the Sanskrit and Tibetan languages and associated religious content which feature prominently in the film.

Creating this short film has been an immense labor of love, I hope this fact shines through.