June 15, 2017

A malignant spirit forces a girl into a perilous journey through a watery underworld.

ATLAS WORLD screened at NFFTY 2017 and took home the Best Music Video Jury Award.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Morgana McKenzie is an award-winning director and cinematographer. Her short films have screened at over 100 festivals and won over 35 awards. Her music video ATLAS WORLD has won nine awards including Best Music Video at NFFTY 2017, and Best Director and Best Film from the young filmmaker division of TIFF. In 2014 Morgana was awarded the Best Emerging Female Filmmaker award by NFFTY.

A Brief Interview with Morgana:

Why did you decide to make this film?

I get nightmares, constantly. The type that cause me to jolt upright a few times in the night. But given how very visual and fantastical they are, I wanted to do something constructive with the ideas I was getting. I knew I wanted to do a music video as my next project, so I started to develop a story around interesting locations, the visuals in my dreams, and a dress made of severed fingers. After many drafts, I came out with ATLAS WORLD! It was a truly weird experience developing the script.

What was your favorite part about making it?

Hands down working with the kids in my cast. The three leads I casted were two 14 year olds, and one 10 year old, but in many ways they were mature beyond their years. Throughout shooting I got to see them grow, and it was a very personal experience given how close we got. They are so talented, and in many ways carry the film on their backs. But, they were also cool and hilarious kids, so every shoot was guaranteed to be a blast (even when it was 2am in a cave)!

What are you working on now?

Currently I’m in pre-production for my next short film "Wild (Indomptable)”, a supernatural short film set in rural 1930s, mixing a period-piece look with bold visuals inspired by Suspiria and Neon Demon.

Given it’s complex set builds, production design, and period setting, the film’s budget is way out of my reach at the moment, so I’ve started a Kickstarter to raise the funds needed. There is no fallback, no safety net for this film in terms of funding, so plainly speaking failed Kickstarter = no film (I know we can all cringe at that thought). The majority of my crew are creatives working on a volunteer basis for their belief in the project, even the owners of our farm location are planting a cornfield JUST for this film. We’re all excited and on board, and I hope you will be as well.

LINK TO KICKSTARTER: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/morganamckenzie/indomptable-wild-a-supernatural-period-piece?ref=9h6smb

Find Morgana and ATLAS WORLD online:

Website Atlas World: http://morganamckenzie.com/atlas-world/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morganafilms/
Twitter: @MorganaFilms / https://twitter.com/MorganaFilms
Instagram: @MorganaFilms / https://www.instagram.com/morganafilms/