This film ruins everything.
Wildlife: A Storytelling Manifesto is a groundbreaking and radically new sui generis documentary exercise that will change the way you watch films, making you second guess everything you’ve ever loved about classic films.
This film is a contentiously contrarian neo-Marxist critical essay about the past century of cinematic storytelling, tackling the difficult issue of modern socio-economic discontent and gender and racial disparities across class and culture.
We explore how the influences of Sigmund Freud and Syd Field enabled the Hollywood studio system to craft a storytelling system that culminated in the production of not just lovable blockbusters, but the crippling modern social stagnation and control of consumers by a handful of corporations.
This is a polemic, both a storytelling manifesto and a manifesto that tells a story, with two layers always playing simultaneously onscreen: a fictional narrative film exercise overlaid with an aggressive critical deconstruction of its reliance on modern story mechanisms to reveal why we watch (and consume) what we do – romantic comedies, road trip films, comic book franchises, premium television series, digital shorts, and even animated GIFs.
IMDb: Wildlife: A Storytelling Manifesto (2017)
About the Filmmakers:
Director, Writer, Producer:
Jean-Paul Tremblay
WILDLIFE: A Storytelling Manifesto, is Jean-Paul’s feature-length directorial debut. The film is a synthesis of his interests in both original storytelling and academically examining the perils of the modern world. He has also produced a series of original news programs and segments for Fusion/Univision/ABC News, as well as two network TV pilots for NBC and MTV and one dramatic feature, LONG GOODBYE.
Producer:
Danielle Bufalini
This is Danielle’s debut as a feature-length film producer after working at NBCUniversal/Comcast.
Associate Producer:
Jeremy Kotin
Jeremy co-produced and co-edited Academy Award nominee Dana Adam Shapiro’s MONOGAMY, and the 2017 drama, BLOOD STRIPE. He also edited 8 short films for Baz Luhrmann’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Impossible Conversations: Prada & Schiaparelli.
Director of Photography:
Christopher Vernale
Chris is a Brooklyn-based cinematographer and artist who recently completed his dramatic feature-length directorial debut, LONG GOODBYE.
Editor, Associate Producer:
Brad Waskewich
Brad is an Emmy-nominated editor with hundreds of TV commercials to his credit, including numerous original Super Bowl campaigns and work with directors like Peter Berg and Samuel Bayer.
Soundtrack:
Alessio Natalizia/Not Waving
As Not Waving, Alessio has released several albums and EPs on daringly modern dance labels like Diagonal and Ecstatic. And as half of Walls, Alessio also has numerous releases on Germany’s Kompakt Records. This is his debut original score, and it’s a doozy, with more than an hour of pulsing electronic compositions undergirding the film’s essay and visuals.
Performer:
Damian Lanigan
As a writer and producer, Damian produced SHARING, an original TV pilot for NBC, and was part of IFC’s development slate in 2013. As an actor and performer, Damian appears in BREAKUP AT A WEDDING and HAMSTERS, which won in competition at the New York Television Festival in November 2012. His first TV series, MASSIVE, aired on BBCThree in Autumn 2008.