By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Making an effective Western that stands out can be a challenge. All the tropes have been done to death and how can any filmmaker offer a tale that’s new? Foreshadow Film‘s (formerly known as Affolter Entertainment) The Undertaker’s Son is a very impressive work which I believe deserves number one place if I was to say which one of the 2018 Victoria Film Festival‘s BC Shorts Program (which played Weds night) I enjoyed the most.
This piece began as a challenge under the auspices of Vancouver’s Crazy 8’s challenge — to make a film in eight days. Since finishing this project a year ago, this nugget of gold has been making the film festival rounds.
With this tale, young Christopher’s (Darien Provost, The Whispers) anxiety shows when he knows that one day he is to train and be the next in line to continue the family business. In the days of the Wild West, death can be anywhere. Whether that’s a matter of surviving in untamed frontier or the lawlessness that’s around, we hardly learn about those on the sidelines or has the thankless job of burying the dead at Boot Hill. This short film looks at the life of a young lad — who clearly has interest in a girl he meets along the way to the morgue — and also his relationship with his father, Jonathan (Louis Ferreira, Breaking Bad & Stargate Universe).
Continue reading “[VFF2018] The Wild West Tale is Redefined with Undertaker’s Son, A Short Film”