SODO EXPRESS

Ezra is a street artist who feels time is running out to succeed in the art world. With an unhealthy obsession with social media he is followed online and encouraged to go around town, take pictures and repost work in exchange for likes. Ezra starts to do what this online personality wants pushing him into daring and dangerous scenarios.

  • Suridh Hassan
    Director
    Foul Play, Soka Afrika, Bassweight
  • Ezra Dickinson
    Key Cast
    "'The Street Artist'"
    Dinosaurs and Seahawks, Capitol Hill
  • James Longley
    Music
    Iraq in Fragments, Angels Are Made Of Light
  • Tim Grabham
    Editor
    Films To Break Projectors, The Creeping Garden
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    23 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    May 14, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    14,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4k
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Suridh Hassan

Suridh Das-Hassan worked his way up from the bottom rungs of the UK media industry, via national broadcasters ITV and BBC and onto film sets before a stint as a video paparazzo and now a documentary filmmaker and author.
For the past 10 years, Suridh has split his time between Europe and Asia shooting and directing award-winning documentaries and commercials including
Soka Afrika, which won best picture at the Kicking & Screening Festival in New York and was shortlisted for Best Documentary at the One World Media Awards. His work has appeared on TV, in cinemas, museums and galleries worldwide. He has been featured in Bloomberg, Complex, The Economist, The Guardian and Wired amongst others.
Find me on IG here @shazdirector
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https://shazdirector.substack.com/

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Director Statement

Swipe, swipe, swipe, double tap, like, swipe, double tap, like. How many times a day do you do that? We’re in a trance and can’t escape. Add a layer of collapsing ecosystems, extinction, migrant crisis, polarising societies, screwy politics and you have to admit we’re living in mad times.

I met artist EZRA DICKINSON soon after I moved to SEATTLE and it was clear we needed to collaborate on something. A film, a performance, an exhibition – something. Mentally I was in a strange place, coming out of living in a corporate bubble and running a pseudo creative corporate business, I needed to get back to what I know love. Film, art, expressions, ideas.

I’d love to say I woke up one morning and all my emotions about everything poured out of me and I wrote SODO EXPRESS, but i’d be lying. The truth is, I can’t pinpoint where the concept came from, but our dependance on tech, social media and the way it lends itself to anxiety, mental health issues and behaviour modification is something clear to see and that something needs exploration.

People are simply distracted (I know I am) and we’re distracted by everyone else. Our need to be part of a community and feel accepted is being taken advantage of by unseen algorithms. Technology has financialized every part of our daily life and as a species we haven’t had to time to adjust to these changes.

SODO EXPRESS is my exploration of this (on a low budget). The start of the film shows everyday life for most artists I know – riding the bus or the train, putting up work, checking if it’s received well online – it’s the simple existence most artists live and breath on the journey to success. Our characters sees a tool in tech and social media but the reliance and the relationship evolves into something darker – a journey of unexpected occurrences, at times intense stillness, other times explosive movement. With animation to accent the film and take us into another realm, SODO EXPRESS is a unique film that has little comparison to anything else out there.