Interview: Josh Shaffner

Josh Shaffner is an independent American director and animator. His work is diverse in both form and content - he creates music videos and short films, and he also draws and paints. His most recent animated film, In Dreams (2023), influenced by surrealism, won the Grand Prize at the New Chitose Animation Festival. Thanks to his unique creative approach, Shaffner is considered a major talent to watch for the future. He will attend this year’s Anifilm in person, serving as a jury member and also curating the program focused on American independent sci-fi. „I can’t wait to visit the Czech Republic! I love architecture so I’m looking forward to exploring the cities. As far as specific names or works at the festival, I feel that everything in the program is going to be fantastic with plenty of new works to see,“ Shaffner said in an interview for Anifilm.

This year at Anifilm, you’re curating the American Independent Sci-fi program. Can you tell us which creators and works you’ve selected, and why?

I tried to select a diverse pool of filmmakers with the intention of showing an experimental and playful approach to the genre. While researching my own sci-fi film, I found literature from the 1950s onward from the US and UK to be an inspiring and reflective source of future projection. Many of the films I chose share a kind of everyday and disorienting entry into the future that I had been loving in books by JG Ballard or Philip K Dick.

Most audiences associate sci-fi with the sagas like Star Wars and similar franchises. Isn’t that a rather narrow view of the genre? In your opinion, what other expressive possibilities does it offer?

As the future we have perceived through popular science fiction stories collides with the present, I think it becomes obvious as to how narrow this view is. As the common saying goes, reality is always stranger than fiction so I think that pressing at the boundaries of future scenarios is important and can help prepare us for the unknown and sometimes terrifying twist that the future may hold for us human beings.

Your films are introspective (in the context of sci-fi, the term "inner space" comes to mind), unsettling, noir-ish, and at times surreal. While watching them, I was reminded of the recently deceased David Lynch, who, like you, was both a filmmaker and a painter. Was he an influence? Or rather, which artist has had the most significant impact on you, and why?

Yes, Lynch has been a primary influence of mine for many years. We have lived in many of the same places over the years. He was born in Missoula, Montana (which is the town I grew up in) then moved to Philadelphia for a number of years, and coincidentally so did I, and finally we both ended up in LA. I’m not at all following him around but I think that places always affect my work and sharing these cities and landscapes with the great David Lynch has helped to connect me with his ideas and sentiment.

I also draw a huge amount of inspiration from comics. This medium is the perfect place to catch ideas for animation and I also appreciate the one to one aspect of one creator and one reader. This kind of intimate relationship with a work is very honest and there’s nothing better than settling down with a great graphic novel. I aspire to create that kind of connection with my films.

Science fiction often deals with modern technology and its impact on humanity. In your short film Service, civilization is portrayed as a megalopolis and the individual as an alienated component within it - yet there’s also irony and a subtle sense of humor. Was that meant as a warning for the future? How would you describe the state of the world today?

‘Service’ is a film made out of fear. I was afraid for my future as I was attending an expensive art school while working as a waiter, barely making enough money to survive and anticipating a hefty student loan payment. There were many young people I worked with who had similar stories so I felt it was an important thing to talk about. Both ‘Service’ and ‘Flaws’ are short films I made about hopelessness in service industry workers. These days, fear is on the horizon especially for working class people and as a consequence we need humor more than ever as a counterpoint.

Your films are multi-layered and resist straightforward interpretation. Without asking directly about their meaning, what’s most important for you to communicate as a creator? Imagination, style, music, visuals...?

I’m not too conscious of how people will interpret my work as I’m making it. Most of what I’m focused on while working is solving visual problems to make the most compelling and conjuring sort of images. I think all the things mentioned above are important to me but most of all I’m interested in using the medium of animation to tell stories in new ways, utilizing the bizarre and expressive qualities of the medium. I think the space where animation can do something that live action can’t is what interests me the most.

Your range is broad—you create films, music videos, paintings, drawings, and digital animation. Is there a common thread that connects all your work, or are you simply driven by the urge to try new things?

Typically, I’m not conceptually driven, it’s more intuitive and emotional responses to things happening around me so a common thread would be a form of autobiographical document. Trying new things is always fun because I love problem solving and working within the constraints of a given medium. I do feel a bit scattered at times but I’ve come to accept that most of my work is process driven so I try to just engage with projects in a fun way knowing that many things I do will never make it to an audience.

At this year’s Anifilm, you’ll also be present as one of three jury members evaluating works in the music video, VR, and abstract animation categories. Are you looking forward to visiting the Czech Republic, and what are your expectations? Are there any names or works you’d recommend seeing?

I can’t wait to visit the Czech Republic! I love architecture so I’m looking forward to exploring the cities. I only hope that people aren’t biased towards Americans given our destructive politics these days. There are still plenty of reasonable people in the US so I hope I can leave people with some warmer sentiment. As far as specific names or works at the festival, I feel that everything in the program is going to be fantastic with plenty of new works to see.

Your latest film, In Dreams (2023), is your longest and most complex work to date. How long did it take to make, and did you do everything yourself? And what are you working on now?

‘In Dreams’ took about six years to complete. I do everything on my own which allows the stories to be flexible while I’m creating. I played around with the film a lot before finding the central aspects of the story. I would like to work with others but I’ve never had a budget to make a film so this way is just easier and I think that there are special results that come from doing everything yourself.

Right now I’m working on a new mystery, detective type film set in Los Angeles. I’ve lived here for over a decade and I find that the city is a fascinating relic of cinema nostalgia. This new film is many things but one selling point is that it is an homage to the LA noir genre and famous film shooting locations. It’s also a bit of a look at the homeless crisis and the film industry collapse but as always, surreal and dreamy.