I’m a big fan of animation, so I just had to share this wonderful animated short called Ninety-Five Senses from the team behind films such as Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, Jared and Jerusha Hess.
The short is one of the 2024 Oscar short film contenders, and features a death row inmate finishing his last meal as he reflects on what we know about our senses and how they shut down in death. The following quote sums it up:
It begins as a gentle exploration of the body’s five senses. But when Coy makes a shocking confession, the story takes a troubling but contemplative turn, as he thinks on his own final moments, wonders what waits for him after this life, and whether then we might have access to “all our ninety-five senses”.
The short is actually split into six parts – each of them dedicated to a sense and with animation from different artists – and seems like quite a profound watch. There’s none of the humour you might have come to expect from the director.
On the story itself, Hess told Cartoon Brew:
The film was inspired by footage of death-row inmates awaiting lethal injection in Texas’s Huntsville Unit. It’s the busiest execution chamber in the United States. Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer, writers we’ve known and worked with for years, had been doing research in that area, studying ‘exit interviews’ with condemned men. They imagined a prisoner reviewing his life through each of his five senses. When we read what they came up with, we knew it was special. Funny, sad, smart.
You can watch the trailer below:
This instantly got my attention, and I’ll be sure to make time to watch Ninety-Five Senses when I get an opportunity.
Source: GeekTyrant
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