FEATURES

It’s an age-old story that probably happens every day in a parallel universe: Robot meets girl. Robot falls in love. Robot gets deprogrammed, kills girl, toilet-papers the planet, and his creator rubs elbows with Anne Hathaway and other Hollywood hotties at the Cannes International Film Festival in the south of France.

In our galaxy, however, it’s rare that a seven-minute short film with B-movie sensibilities and household-goods props could teleport an amateur filmmaker to the most prestigious film festival on the planet. But Robot Love from Another World, in all of its black-and-white retrofitted glory, did just that to local artist and graphic designer Kendall Bruns this past May. In addition to 10 days of play on individual digital screening stations at the festival’s Short Film Corner, Robot Love gained extra exposure via two theater screenings at Cannes. The first show was standing room only. “The experience of screening it and the audience enjoying it was great,” Bruns says. “I was ecstatic about being able to see movies that were being premiered to crowds of other film lovers. Just being immersed in that culture and experience I found really enjoyable.”

Of course, when you’re exposed to that experience because of a seven-minute film that took just two days to complete, that should be an understatement. The film began in mid 2008 when the 31-year-old downtown resident and his production company, Pizza Infinity, entered the 48 Hour Film Project—an annual international film competition where participants write, film, produce, and edit a short film in a single weekend. Last year, his team’s genre was science fiction, and Bruns recruited friends from a comedy troupe in Chicago (where Bruns won a 48 Hour Film Festival in 2006) to help write a script, build sets, film, edit, and produce a finished product. They nearly failed. “You have to physically turn in a copy at a predetermined drop off point at Fountain Square,” Bruns explains. “It’s due at 7:30, and at 4 o’clock we [started having] all kinds of technical problems getting it from the computer onto DVD.” Luckily, Bruns lives on Seventh and Race, only a few blocks from Fountain Square, and somebody had a car ready outside his apartment. “We had one person go on foot and the other person in the car, just in case,” he recalls. “They both met up there with two minutes to spare.”

Robot Love won top honors and five other awards at the festival, which fast-tracked the movie through a showing in Miami and a shot at the big time: Cannes.

Cannes is, of course, the celluloid Xanadu for filmmakers and movie stars from all over the world. Acclaimed film giants and first-time entrants mingle in the Marche du Film (a business platform that serves as one of the largest film markets on Earth), where they exchange ideas, praise, and criticisms like currency. Bruns spent his days at Cannes doing what any other savvy independent filmmaker would do: wearing a tux, taking advantage of the free happy hours, star-gazing, watching movies, and networking to the point of insanity. While he estimates that dozens of distributors viewed Robot Love at Cannes, Bruns says that his most valuable takeaway was, of all things, an ego check.

“Ang Lee’s [new] movie premiered there, and they’re still trying to find distribution,” he says. “It’s encouraging and disheartening at the same time, because no matter what your previous status or accomplishments are, the struggle never ends.”

Director’s Cut

Make It Work
Each film group that participates in any 48 Hour Film Project receives a character, a prop, a line of dialogue, and a film genre—all of which must be included in their film, all unknown until the contest begins. Before making Robot Love, Bruns was told that the prop was a roll of toilet paper and the line was, “There’s no way that’s gonna work.”

Launch Pad
The winners of the 2007 Cincinnati 48 Hour Film Project, Mirepoix Pictures, also went on to screen their film, Held in Sway, at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2008.

Koala Love
In addition to making movies, Bruns is also a guitarist in Koala Fires, a cerebral, pop-infused rock band influenced by groups like Devo and Dinosaur Jr.

More Robot
Robot Love returns to Cincinnati in September for the Lite Brite Test at the Contemporary Arts Center.

Originally published in the September 2009 issue.