“O for a Thousand Tongues” is an anti-colonial thriller set in 19th-century Haida Gwaii.
Samuel Cooper (Michael Antonakos - Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey) is an idealistic young missionary come to spread the gospel in Haida Gwaii (an archipelago in northwestern Canada known at the time by its colonial name, the Queen Charlotte Islands). Yaahl-Ts’uu-Ḵuuyas, a Haida woman (Grace Dove - The Revenant, How It Ends, Monkey Beach) must evaluate Cooper's spiritual promises when her uncle (Duane Howard - The Revenant, Outlander) falls ill and her brother (John Cook) becomes suspicious of Cooper's intentions.
Co-written by settler director Nathanael Vass and Haida artist Jaibrend Johnson-Baker, ”O for a Thousand Tongues” is a supernatural drama/thriller that challenges the impetus behind colonial violence. An award-winning short film, it played at Cannes Short Film Corner, LA Skins Fest, Santa Fe International Film Festival, and others.
Length: 15 min
Directed by Nathanael Vass
Written by Nathanael Vass & Jaibrend Johnson-Baker
Produced by Trembling Void Studios & Pangman Moving Pictures
Production Budget: $50,000 CAD
I recently had the pleasure of cutting together 78-year-old 8mm footage to create a music video for Leah Barley and her new single "Mountains". Not only is the song an absolute delight to listen to, it features her grandparents, Marion & Alan Barley, on their honeymoon in 1942.
The couple are madly in love, having a great deal of silly fun as they take the train through the mountains on their way from Toronto, Ontario to Tofino, British Columbia (construction on the TransCanada highway wouldn't begin for another 8 years). To see so much joy and love on their faces and to know that at that very moment WWII was tragically taking countless lives--to see Alan in his RCAF uniform--is a reminder that though our times may indeed be strange, there is always room for love.
And it turns out young Alan and Marion were also really very good filmmakers. The shots are beautifully composed and tell a lovely story (they even shot matching coverage!). The film was shot on Standard 8mm in Kodachrome color (which was released for home movie use in 1936). We had the 8mm reels digitized (from approximately 20 minutes of footage in total), then edited and color graded them into the music video you see here.
Enjoy, and remember to love fearlessly.
~Nathanael Vass
Director, Editor - “Mountains”
“Sweetness in the Shadows” is the new music video for Daughter of the Moon directed by Nathanael Vass (who also directed her previous music video “Wind & Fire”), with cinematography by James River Brooks. It is an exploration of love in all its many forms and features an ensemble cast of Vancouver artists and performers. It is also a distillation of what it means to live as a millennial in urban Vancouver.
One of the oft-overlooked positive outcomes of the economic instability that plagues so many urban millennial is the return to a community-based living model--in order to survive, so many of them (us) have eschewed the single-family home life in favour of a constantly-shifting communal model in which a community of people (including partners and children) work together to create a full, meaningful, cooperative life. La vita è bella!
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Format: Feature Screenplay
Writer: Nathanael Vass
Status: Financing
Estimated Budget: $2.6 million
A character-forward cabin-in-the-woods horror feature set around the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Told in a non-linear style with a subtext of gender and queer politics, “Cryptodome” combines the claustrophobic horror of Stephen King’s “Misery” with the surreal, sexualized metaphors of Haruki Murakami’s “Kafka on the Shore”.
“With an eclectic mix of complex characters, a series of unexpected plot turns and a plethora of poignant themes...the script feels ready for production...there’s no doubt that [Cryptodome] has potential to be a heart-pounding, original feature film.” ~ScreenCraft Horror Feature Competition (Semifinalist)
Music Video
Genre: Dream-Folk
Format: Super8 mm & Digital
On a meditative retreat, a woman (Natalie Moon) encounters the bittersweet memories of a lost relationship. Shot on Salt Spring Island in a dreamy mix of digital and Super 8mm film stock, “Wind & Fire” is the latest micro-budget effort from director Nathanael Vass, who also appears in the video’s vérité-like 8mm flashback sequences. Moon’s elegiac voice and lyrics accent the combative nature of memory and the mélange of joy and pain evoked by Vass’s visual storytelling.
Produced by Pangman Moving Pictures
Directed, Shot, and Edited by Nathanael Vass
Featuring Natalie Moon & Nathanael Vass
Production Budget: $500 CAD
A good life involves moments of knee-shaking desire that knocks the stupid words right out of mouth just before you explode into a fiery blur of sexual release. Hell yeah. "Scarlet Fever" is the newest video by Toronto's Skye Wallace, and it's pretty much about that. Last year Wallace released the incredible Something Wicked album. The rock 'n' roll burner "Scarlet Fever," with video direction by Nathanael Vass, tells the story of reunited lovers. "I can barely breathe," Skye Wallace sings, "I can barely speak."
"I wrote Scarlet Fever about a love story set in the Yukon," Skye Wallace wrote to Noisey. "After a winter apart, Scarlet is arriving in the Dawson City harbour by boat and her lover awaits on land, petrified with uncertainty over the state of their devotion.The song's energy evokes the messy turmoil of love and lust, and the music video, directed by Nathanael Vass, reflects the jittery, sexy, maddening thrill that comes with it."
Produced by Pangman Moving Pictures
Directed, Shot & Edited by Nathanael Vass
Production Budget: $50 CAD
SILK is a sci-fi/action/horror series created by Angel Alvarez & Nathanael Vass.
SILK follows the lives of those infected by the WYRM, an extra-dimensional parasite that inhabits its hosts’ bodies and bestows/curses them with powers that keep death at bay. SILK engages with philosophical themes like free will and body autonomy while maintaining a visceral real-world tone. With sparkling dialogue, complex characters, and a focus on the consequences of violence, SILK is an R-rated superhero show wrapped in a Black Mirror episode.
Produced as a STORYHIVE-winning web-pilot, SILK is packaged for sale as a 4-season (10 x 60min episode) television series for premium cable or streaming service. Contact for details.
Created by Angel Alvarez & Nathanael Vass
Directed and Written by Nathanael Vass
Produced by Trembling Void Studios & Pangman Moving Pictures
Production Budget (Pilot): $10,000 CAD
Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Series
3 Seasons packaged for production & sale
Series Bible available upon request
”A Window Into the Honeycomb” Pilot Produced by Pangman Moving Pictures (in association with Trembling Void Studios)
Directed, Shot & Edited by Nathanael Vass
Featuring August LeCaine
Costume Design - Matea Pasarić
Hair & Make-Up - Laura Sluggett
Key Grip - Kelvin Dylla
1st AD - Melanie Jones
Soundtrack - "Swimming" by April Fools Childrenhood
Special Thanks - Jennifer LeCaine, Ingo Lou, Ingrid Valou, Bev Hoy, Stirling Bancroft
