Western Shore

An animated short that follows the tragic journey of the Fu-Go, incendiary bombs that targeted the forests of the Western United States, leading to the only civilian casualties suffered on America's mainland during World War II.

  • Jacob Pander
    Director
    Selfless, Subtext, Painted Life, Honesty
  • Arnold Pander
    Director
    Selfless, Subtext, Honesty
  • Jacob Pander
    Producer
    Selfless, Subtext, Painted Life, Honesty
  • Arnold Pander
    Producer
    Selfless, Subtext, Honesty
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Music Video, Short
  • Genres:
    World War II, Animation, Drama
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 35 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 2, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 2d Animation
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Jacob Pander, Arnold Pander

Portland, Oregon based sibling team, Arnold and Jacob Pander are graphic novelists and filmmakers who write and direct feature films, write and illustrate original and franchise graphic novels, and create visual artwork and public murals.

Nominated for the Eisner and Manning awards for groundbreaking artwork in the comics medium, the Pander Brothers distinctive visual style and unique collaborations with some of the industries’ top writers have solidified them as a major creative force in the graphic novel medium. The Pander Brothers creator-owned graphic novels have been published by Image, DC/Vertigo, Dark Horse Comics and Oni Press, and their franchise projects for Marvel and DC Comics, including Batman and Nightmask.

Their award-winning debut feature film, “Selfless,” premiered at ComicCon International in San Diego and was pick up for domestic distribution in 2010 by Entertainment One. Among other honors, selections of their collaborative and individual film and video work have been screened at the prestigious London Institute for Contemporary Art, taken top prizes at the New York and Chicago Underground Film Festivals, and toured Europe and Japan. Their award winning music videos have been broadcast on MTV, and domestically released on DVD by Island/Palm Pictures. The brothers have directed commercial spots for adidas Originals, Panasonic and LG.

The brothers’ public artworks include the Tri Met Arts and Culture Bus (In collaboration with father Henk Pander), murals at Radio Room Restaurant, Rialto Poolroom, VoiceBox Karaoke, Masu Sushi Restaurant, Hale’ Pele’ Tiki Bar in Portland, Oregon, and for the Standard Hotel lobby in Hollywood, CA. The Panders most recent large scale mural was completed in 2021 for the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland, Ore.

Their latest original graphic novels, "GirlFIEND" and “Dissident X”, are out now from Dark Horse Comics.

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Director Statement

Western Shore began as a collaboration with the band Wonderly when they approached us to visualize their haunting whimsical song, Balloon Bomb. More of a short film than a music video, Western Shore follows the journey of a "Fu-Go" aka balloon bomb, from the hands of its young maker, across the globe, and into the unwitting hands of its tragic victims. Growing up in the Northwest we were drawn to the lore of the World War II Japanese balloon bombs that had been sent to the U.S. mainland to ignite massive forest fires along the western front. Largely unsuccessful the experimental assault did however result in the only known casualties suffered on the American homeland during the war. A group of five youths on an afternoon picnic outing near Klamath Falls, Oregon discovered one of the grounded balloons in the woods and detonated the strange discovery, killing all five. We were unaware that the balloons themselves were assembled by children in Japan, creating a darkly ironic parallel between the balloon bombs' senders and recipients. With this in mind we approached the short as a children's storybook-like animation echoing the innocence that ultimately became a casualty of war.

www.panderbros.com
www.wonderlymusic.com