Sci-Fi Short Film “Civil Service” | DUST

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🪐 You are entering a fictional zone: reality has been suspended.

CIVIL SERVICE is a surrealist exploration of corporate bureaucracy and the kinds of men who choose to rise within government agencies only to dismantle what the public entrusts them to protect.

“Civil Service” by Tiffany Kimmel

📶 Connect with the Filmmakers:
https://www.instagram.com/nihildeclarandum/
https://www.civilservicefilm.com/

Tiffany Kimmel’s ‘Civil Service’ Explores Tyrants Who Despise the People They Supposedly Serve

https://letterboxd.com/graeaehorror/film/civil-service/

🎥 More About “Civil Service”:
CIVIL SERVICE follows a single man in charge of “family services” through a typical workday as he denies requests for government assistance while being confronted by his psyche in the form of his dead mother.

It is a surrealist exploration of corporate bureaucracy and the kinds of men who choose to rise within government agencies only to dismantle what the public entrusts them to protect.

🎬 Director’s Statement:
My first film (‘Everybody Goes to the Hospital’) was a stop motion short and I found myself wanting to work in live action but play in a magical, practical effects world with heightened sets and otherworldly elements like in Jean Cocteau’s ‘Orphée.’.  

I had written a short story called ‘Civil Service’ around the time Brett Kavanaugh was being appointed to the Supreme Court when I was trying, but struggling, to find any empathy for men like him. In many ways the story was my attempt to understand my brother, a TSA Agent. He only ever wanted to work for a government institution for better insurance. As a Libertarian leaning Republican, his beliefs actively worked to dismantle every government safety net that gave him his job security.

Visually, the Civil Servant’s office was always more of a prison cell inside a sort of fairytale brutalism. I imagined it as if mid-century America merged with the Cosmonaut Soviet Union — outside of time and space. It evolved further into an exploration of the handsome devil type, who is now king of his own prison.

The story continued to morph as I dealt with other men in my life – a male friendship that escalated too quickly – to an alcohol induced rape that obliterated many of my close family bonds. Both incidents left me grasping to understand the lack of care many of my male peers felt over the consequences of their actions in my life. In a society that only has room for perfect victims, women are punished regardless of the circumstances. For simply speaking about complexity, let alone their desire. Raised to never be a victim, I learned the hard way that sometimes to heal you must recognize when you’ve been victimized, uncover what caused or allowed the harm to take place, and then release it.

While I can never undo the past, I can empathize with the forces that create the complex inner worlds of others who are seemingly incapable of facing the consequences of their choices. I can imagine a retribution for the things I cannot heal. I can own my complexity and demand respect. Humans are the sum of many things — no one sees themself as the villain in their story.

Villains like heroes are born. They are made. They can be unmade. 

🎞️ About the Film:
Writer & Director – Tiffany Kimmel
Producer – Russell Sadeghpour
Cinematographer – Jordan Holtane
Executive Producers: McKenzie Stubbert, Greg Ansin
Associate Producers: Tommy Newman, Steve & Jodi Croy, Bill Macomber
Original Music – McKenzie Stubbert

CAST:
Eric Toms
Marlyn Mason
Natasha Mercado
Kim Divad
Ember Knight
Kahbia Sada
Alice Rona
Julian Small-Calvillo
Charles Pieper
Mollie McElvain
McKenzie Stubbert
Russell Sadeghpour.

PRODUCTION:
1st AD / Production Management – Stephanie Mercado
2nd AD / Production Coordinator – Jack Cohenour
Office Production Coordinator & Script Supervisor – Michelle Witkin

ART DEPARTMENT:
Production Designer: Tiffany Kimmel
Concept Illustration – Chris Alsop, Hyeun Jason Lee
2D Animation Design – Danielle Nicole Newman
Art Director – Eric Oxford
Assistant Art Director – Julian Small-Calvillo
Assistant Art Director – Emiliano Rios
Head Contraptionist – Brett Doar
3D Models – Karl Strahlendorf, Russell Sadeghpour
Storyboards – Mollie McElvain
Sculptor – Sadie Nash
Costume Design & Fabrication – Felicia Bleu Rose
Set Builder & Miniatures – Emiliano Rios
Additional Set Fabrication – Eric Oxford, Michael Serwich
Scenic Painters – Da’rrel Stacy, Eric Oxford, Michael Serwich

CAMERA & LIGHTING:
Camera Operator – Giselle González
Camera Operator (Miniatures) – Dave Mun
1st AC – Hannah Levin
2nd AC – Olivia Whitney
Gaffer – Tony Jou
Adam LoNigro
Gaffer (miniatures): Adam LoNigro, Jake LaPeire
Best Boy Electric: David Murillo Galiano, Sean Lindsay
Key Grip – Myles Evenson
Best Boy Grip – Thorn Shaffer
Dolly Grip – RJ Saraza
Dolly Grip (miniatures): Alex Laudeman, Kip Rodriguez

SOUND:
Ian Wellman
Matt LaCorte

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