Experiencing Interruptions?

The Klatos Paradox

An incompetent time traveler must team up with his unpredictable alternate self, to fix a paradox which is now slowly destroying the universe.

  • Mars Fargo
    Director
    Recent Developments, Waiting Room, Fried
  • Mars Fargo
    Composer
    Recent Developments, Waiting Room, Fried
  • Mars Fargo
    Writer
    Recent Developments, Waiting Room, Fried
  • Mars Fargo
    Key Cast
    "Archibald Klatos/Klatos B"
  • Blake Laisure
    Key Cast
    "?"
  • Lauren McBride
    Key Cast
    "Catherine"
  • Kennedi Hobbs
    Key Cast
    "Security Guard"
  • Reagan Kacmar
    Key Cast
    "Aria"
  • Mars Fargo
    Producer
    Recent Developments, Waiting Room, Fried
  • Avery Lenz
    Producer
    The Adventures of a Hollywood Slate Guy
  • Noah White
    DP
    Romeo and the Spacemonsters, Stargazers
  • Mars Fargo
    Editor
    Recent Developments, Waiting Room, Fried
  • Davis Cameron Chu
    Compositor
    On a Dime, Internalized
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Feature
  • Genres:
    Tragedy, Found-Footage, Lo-Fi, Surrealism
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 56 minutes 30 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    1,100 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, iPhone 7, Nikon 3300
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9, 4:3
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Mars Fargo

From IMDb:
Some say he was banished from another dimension; some claim he escaped from Area 51 on their watch; if you ask him, he’ll likely tell you he recently came back from a bistro, where he partook in Pheonix style coffee. Our top men have been unable to uncover more regarding his origins; on the subject, he simply claims he came from “a uterus.”

Having studied acting professionally under alums of Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, at perhaps the finest vocational school committed to the craft in Northeast Ohio (The Chagrin Falls Academy for the Performing Arts), he quickly discovered his otherworldly artistic tendencies. On such short films as “Stargazers,” “Waiting Room,” and “Fried,” he quickly discovered his passion for his nonchalant presentation of the bizarre; one regarded a man on trial by invisible voices in a lobby, another regarding a chain-smoking time traveler who accidentally kills a man with an omelet.

Through this he also discovered his musical passion, fixating on the scores of his short films with such certainty he eventually wrote them himself. This dual passion has carried over into his feature films, or “symphonies” as he calls them; with his first, “The Klatos Paradox,” on the way and another, “The Hourglass Cup,” soon to follow, he optimistically awaits the future and what it has in store for him.

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Director Statement

It’s funny that a film about the end of the universe should be so intimate in scale.

This was always my intention, as I believe we’ve seen the universe getting blown up for approximately the 85 ½th time. We’ve seen the apocalypse dealt with by the collective masses several times... but then it occurred to me we’ve never seen it from the perspective of just one person.

As I was writing it, I discovered the film isn’t simply about a UNIVERSAL destruction but a PERSONAL destruction. After all, is there not an entire complex universe inside every one of us?

This film is meant to be a realistic answer to the scientific question “what would happen if the universe died.” But more importantly this metaphor asks the larger question “what would happen if the universe inside someone died?”

For a first time feature filmmaker, this was a lot to confront. Nevertheless, I knew I couldn’t move on until I did. The screenplay evolved from a short film, titled “Recent Developments,” which I directed for CSU’s Cell Phone film festival. I couldn’t help but feel when I finished it there was more of story to explore in that initial concept than I originally had; a time traveler stuck in a time loop, depicted as a repeating scene in a single continuous long-take (that scene is recreated in this film, with some exciting twists).

I can sincerely say I learned more about filmmaking in the two weeks we shot this film than the entire two years I was in film school, informing my decision to leave. This film allowed me to discover how I create, distinctly from other creators. It allowed me to discover the improvisational expansion that can happen on set, encouraging more active creation. I discovered, if nothing else, who I am.

It is not my place to answer the question of why a universe dies, in regards to the film itself. In regards to MY self, it might have something to do with discovering my stage name: “Mars Fargo.” This name is truer to me than Noah White, the name I had when starting the project. Perhaps just as the death of Noah White needed to occur to allow the birth of Mars Fargo, my interpretation of the film might be that a universe inside ME needed to die... so that another one could be born in its place.

I would encourage viewers to concoct their OWN answer to the question... “what if someone’s universe died?”