THEY ARE KILLING US…, 5min., Canada
Directed by Maurice Cormier
From A Nightmare Of A Possible Not Too Distant Future….

https://www.instagram.com/maurice_cormier92

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

The idea started to come through during the first two years of covid. At that point I made two other experimental films, and worked on documentaries as writer/producer and video editor. My plan before 2020 hit was to make three 15-60 second short films in the horror genre, followed by a 15-minute short surrealist horror film. When covid hit, everything froze. I had no actor, crew, or budget. My mind began racing with ideas on making another experimental/underground film, but an idea didn’t come quickly, it took a while for it to be fully formed. As things in the news were getting from bad to worse, I felt the world was burning, and my fears of the future were beginning to intensify. The idea for this film was slowly growing, going through the works of surrealist painters like Salvador Dali, and watching the films Shin Godzilla, Eraserhead, and the TV series Attack on Titan, when the idea for They Are Killing Us… was being formed. in 2024, the idea was complete, followed by a script. To me, this was free therapy. It’s the vibes of what I felt could happen, yet play with it in a surrealist non-narrative stop-motion short film lens with elements of Science Fantasy and Body/Eco Horror sub-genre. Special thanks to White Drawf Picture for letting me use their small studio to shoot my short after working for them very briefly, without them, the film would not have been made.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

4 years, it took me a bit to figure out the entire structure of the film during the development/writing phase of the film. I had school & work so I couldn’t commit to shooting and editing the film full time, so I had to shoot on weekends for 6 days, one day filming one shot before the script was finished, 4 during actual production on weekends, and a one-day pick-up shoot during post-production. When I got a two-week vacation from work last year, rather than going somewhere far, I used those two weeks to finish the film.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Nightmare. Flesh.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Time. I had other commitments, so trying to juggle making the film on my schedule was a challenge.

5. There are 5 stages of the filmmaking process: Development. Pre-Production. Production. Post-Production. Distribution.

What is your favorite stage of the filmmaking process?

A tie between Production & Post-Production. Production because the art is finally being created. You have the chance to experiment and try new things while filming. Editing allows you to further experiment, change, and manipulate the final film to your liking. Hide all the mistakes during shooting, the one job where you are allowed the “cheat” if you will. Both Production & Post-Production share something beautiful: discovery. The discovery of what the film is really about is me experimenting and trying things off-script, or using your limitations (budget, time, resources, etc) to your advantage.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

Four years old and saw the Original Star Wars Trilogy, blew my mind as a kid, followed by years later Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy. When the DVDs came out in the 2000s, I devoured the special feature docs like no tomorrow. The behind-the-scenes making of films fascinated me, but I was unsure I could make the jump of that as a career. It was when I came across filmmakers like David Lynch, Herk Harvey, Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Cronenberg, and George A. Romero who made their first features outside the studio system that I began to take filmmaking as a serious option. When I came across Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi, his 10-minute film school videos, and his book Rebel Without a Crew. I realize you can make a film dirt cheap in your backyard with digital cameras. Plus, with the rise of DSLR cameras and crowdfunding sites in the early 2010s, making a film without major connections/funding was now possible.

7. What film have you seen the most times in your life?

I’ve revisited so many of my favorite films over the years that I’ve lost count. I’m going to pass on that question.

8. In a perfect world: Who would you like to work with/collaborate with on a film?

There are two versions of a perfect world. The fantasy version and the realistic version.

The fantasy version of a perfect world would be me working on my first feature film with Guillermo del Toro as a producer on the project, and/or actor/filmmaker Jim Cummings as an actor/producer on a film project. Hell, if I ever made a comedy, I’m so casting John Waters &/or Nicolas Cage in a role.

A realistic version of a perfect world would be working with actor/filmmaker/psychotherapist Adam Goldhammer on a film, either as writer/producer, actor in a role, or as a consultant should the film be psychological fiction/thriller/drama, considering he’s a psychotherapist. Seriously, you should check out his short films Jesse, Easy Girl, and Linda’s Last Trip.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Easy and Accessible. Filmfreeway has further democratized film festival submissions, filmmaking, and the film community in general.

10. What is your favorite meal?

An Indian and/or Middle Eastern cuisine.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

A few different projects ranging from Photography and Film including:

Four 15-60 second short horror films (Prototypes, if you will)

A non-narrative experimental short that is a spiritual successor of two of my short films, Three Shots Each, and They Are Killing Us…

15-20 Min Untitled Surrealist Horror Film

A Six or Seven Part Docu-Series on a subject matter that is incredibly personal to me (six episodes if a network or streamer balks on the 7th episode due to the subject matter being taboo for television, hence I would turn that 7th episode into a short or feature-length documentary film)
If I ever get the chance to do it, I would make a full-length documentary on Muslim youth who have come out as LGBTQ yet are still trying to practice their faith/culture despite hostile opposition from their religion.

A gallery show of my photography that consists of surrealist, abstract, and nature photography