THE ENDLESS
a film by Rusty Sheridan
QUICK INFO
"The Endless" is a 16mm short film noir written, directed and co-produced by Charlotte-based filmmaker Rusty Sheridan. The film has shown at the Charlotte International Film Festival and the Lone Star International Film Festival, and will be shown at the Dam Short Film Festival in February of 2012.
SYNOPSIS
"The Endless" is a short film noir which follows Victor, a jaded voyeur who travels the streets of an unnamed city over the course of a night observing the silent chaos and destruction that has swallowed it. In the midst of a torrential downpour, he witnesses the decay of a civilization from the crimes that take place, the disenfranchised who hide in the shadows and the desparation that permeate every dark and dangerous crevice in the city. As Victor navigates his way through these bleak vignettes, he is faced with the question of if there is any hope or purpose in existing at all.
TEASER TRAILER
Click on the video below to view a teaser of "The Endless"
CREDITS
Writer, Producer, Director, Editor: Rusty Sheridan
Cinematographer: Erik Murphy
Co-producer, 1st AD: William S. Davis
Starring: Brett Gentile, Michael Ruff, Heather Osborne
Production Manager: Rachel Sheridan
Gaffer: Marc Overton
Assistant Camera: Christian Simpson
Key Grip: Shaun Donaldson
Grips: Dustin Pegg, Jeremy Garcia, Nellis Overton
Video Assist: Josh Yates
Videographer: Nicole Driscoll
Vehicles: Linda Foster
Stunt Coordinator: Shaun Donaldson
SPFX Coordinator: Ray Bivins
Locations Manager: William S. Davis
Key Production Assistant: Andy Shelton
Production Assistants: Josh Yates, Katie Kocher, Nicole Driscoll, Deena Simpson
ADR Talent: Anthony Burnette
Camera and Dolly: Harris-Chewning, Emulsion Arts
Grip Truck: Darkwood Productions
Laboratory Services: Alpha Cine
Filmed With: Aaton, Kodak, Zeiss
Special Thanks: Mayor Robert Johnson, Bart Hayes, Wilkes Co. Commission, Sam Hinnant, The Town of North Wilkesboro, North Wilkesboro Fire Department, Niki Hamby, Portraits by Linda Foster, Ken Welborn, The Record, Steve Reid, The Islands Massage, Stephen Morris, Joanne Hocke, The Gem Theater Kannapolis, Friedrich Nietzsche, Janet Tiller at Eastman Kodak Co.
©2011 Yellow Arrow Film, Inc. All Rights Reserved
GALLERY
Stills from "The Endless"
"The Endless" Production Photos
BEHIND-THE-SCENES
Click on the video below for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film and an interview with the director of "The Endless"
ESSAY
"A Brief Survey of Rusty Sheridan's The Endless" by William S. Davis
Rusty Sheridan's "The Endless" is not simply a dark film in the sense of its aesthetic decisions, but is a dark film on an intrinsic level. Simply put (and whether it is preferred or not), there is no other way.
The film exists as the second part of a 3-film series, each of which focus on death specifically, but in a broader sense, the elements surrounding death and the similarities and differences that exist between them. While the first film of the trilogy focused on a dying man left alone with his thoughts and recollections in a hospital bed, "The Endless" marks a number of continuations as well as changes from Sheridan's overriding theme of "endings". Though death may just as easily have its place in this film, the clinical stability found within the sterilized hospital chamber is now replaced by a dark and cold city exterior made all the more desperate by the downpour that floods it, though the rain is equally unable to clean any of the existential filth that permeates every movement, thought and decision by everyone encountered in this dark world. It is from the perspective of the ground that we enter into this world, a variable view one recently deceased might as well have found, until a shoe trudges along past us and we are pulled along behind (rather than into; an important differentiation) the main character of the film, a nameless wanderer who looks the part of a recession-based detective and gloomily travels the city streets in the middle of the night, surveying all that does and does not happen within it.
For a town that could easily be described as dead, the same certainly cannot be said for the cinematic world created by Sheridan. Though the streets are almost completely emptied of people minus a few dashed instances, the atmosphere appears to both the viewer as well as the characters inhabitants to be more overwhelming than anything. To say that it is raining is an understatement; rather, the rain acts as fists from the heavens continually delivering a barrage of punishment to any who find themselves in it (whether by choice or force, as we see with the important figure of the homeless man in the film). This world, albeit a painful one, is sensitive as well. Every living creature, occurrence and inch of space is in a constant state of experiential overexposure, and whether one is standing, hiding or giving up, the surrounding world presents a relentless attack that is designed to either test the limits of all it touches or destroy it completely. Even when one finds solace, be it from an overhang or inside of a store, this reprieve proves itself to be temporary at best, the rain's omnipresence scoring the forthcoming re-exposure to the impending violence from the natural and human elements present, respectively.
Upon studying the people present in "The Endless", one is most easily able to see the destructive connections made with Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", an argumentative and visually potent text on the nature of the universe and the notion of eternal recurrence which states that as there is only so much space in the universe and time is infinite, everything is predestined to repeat itself endlessly. While the title of film has obvious referential markers paying homage to the text, Sheridan's bold adaptation of a philosophical statement succeeds in taking notions and references of the eternal that may easily seem to draw themselves into obscure if not unreachable storylines and localizing them into a world that acts as a microcosmic example of this message. By hermetically sealing this text in the confines of a city at night and crafting accessibility by dressing the atmosphere with a film noir veneer, the grandiose elements of "Zarathustra" and genre affiliations of noir are able to ferment from a premise that could be either intangibly envisioned or repetitively structured into a story that is digestible on a traditional cinematic scale yet remains constant in its accessibility to multi-interpretational symbolic meanings.
The homeless man in the film acts as an interesting comparative link to Sheridan's oeuvre as well as the linchpin to the world of "The Endless". Within Sheridan's body of work (and including the existing film in his End Trilogy), connectivity presents itself as a core component, primarily as it pertains to humans and their relationships with one another. Perhaps it is Sheridan's Libertarian beliefs or his working class upbringing, but the homeless have always been granted a place or role of honor within each work; no matter their direct affiliation with the story at hand, their position is seen as both permanent and important. It should be noted that in previous work, Sheridan has even cast a political figure from the Libertarian party to play the lead role in one of his films, further decreasing the conceptual space between his film and political work. Never has it been the case that they are displayed as lazy, beggars or any of the other cinematic archetypes that flood the majority of these generic character portrayals. The streets and their servants are approached humbly, almost reverently, and the audience is put in a position which requires the serious consideration of these characters to ascertain the story. In this sense, the homeless are the gatekeepers of all stories Sheridan, and the shadows they are typically given to occupy become inverted as highlights marking the true direction of his stories.
In reference to film noir, it is apparent that Sheridan has taken his inspiration not just from his philosophical roots (he received a bachelor's degree in philosophy) but cinematic as well (he received his master's degree in film and video). Fittingly enough, noir found its footing in a remarkably likeminded fashion as its roots can be traced back to German Expressionist film, a movement that extended beyond film and other specific art forms into emotional and psychological investigations, a similar structural transition to the adaptive requirements of Nietzsche's text. Furthermore, this blending of philosophical beliefs with a concrete genre-based form story building make "The Endless" Sheridan's most multifaceted and personal project to date.
It is perhaps most interesting to correlate the information presented in "The Endless" through a reexamination of the term 'serendipity'. By definition, serendipity focuses on the positive development of events that occur by chance, which seemingly would eliminate the term altogether from this referential treatment. Though the film offers direct obstacles (particularly by way of positive developments) to this definition, a collectivity is present among the developments with characters and story to such a degree that to eliminate any single character, no matter the initially perceived size of their role, would collapse the premise entirely. Though interactions placed between characters falters between aggression and apathy, there is an understated acknowledgment that they are simply parts of a larger collective whole. This created "whole" not only exists in reference to the world the characters exist in (and are often skeptically unaware of the importance of their interactions), but the thread runs deeper as we are asked to find links and comparisons from one film to the next based on the trilogy structure. Certainly no characters travel between each world they are a part of; rather, they are locked within their respective worlds and are only given mirrors to view the subtle transformations from their world to the next until no differentiation is found. In this sense, the body is immaterial and what they represent is the most tangible form and point of contact. And perhaps, as stated by Nietzsche, it is the acknowledgement among the elements present in this constructed world that they can never separate themselves from one another that drives this destruction to a point of closure. Only from there can we see this cycle begin again, in both the world of "The Endless" and the future work of Sheridan.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Rusty Sheridan was born in Tehran, Iran and moved to South Dakota before living in Charlotte, North Carolina. He received bachelor's degrees in philosophy and mass media communications from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a master's degree in Film and Video Production from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Along with his production company Yellow Arrow Film, Inc., Sheridan is a film professor at The Art Institute of Charlotte and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His award-winning film work has been featured in festivals nationally and internationally, on television and in galleries. In addition to his film career, Sheridan has remained politically active, running for political office at the mayoral and senate levels.
INFORMATION
For more information on "The Endless" or to contact the filmmaker, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
