A National Film Board of Canada Production

Through a carefully choreographed collision of hand-made sculptural collages and ink and paint animation, In the Shallows, by first-time NFB filmmaker Arash Akhgari, takes us on a deep dive into the shallow and fragmented world of news, entertainment and ads, where we can easily drown in the dangerous allure of mass media intoxication.

Walking down the street or sitting on a commuter train, few of us can resist the siren song of that small, illuminated device in our pockets. Heads down, eyes locked onto its inviting screen, we plunge in and swim through a hypnotic sensory assault of images, voices and information that drench our mental and emotional circuits before we can even process them. Every second, our memories, thoughts and imaginings are invaded and disrupted by an unfiltered tsunami of noise. Soon, the borders between our inner selves and the outside world will collapse as we transform into translucent zombies. Mere shadows, we stop seeing each other, and we stop seeing ourselves.

One-Liner
A deep dive into the shallow and fragmented world of news, entertainment and ads, where we can easily drown in the dangerous allure of mass media intoxication.

Two-Liners
Walking down the street or sitting on a commuter train, few of us can resist the siren song of that small, illuminated device in our pockets. Through a carefully choreographed collision of hand-made sculptural collages and ink and paint animation, In the Shallows, by first-time NFB filmmaker Arash Akhgari, takes us on a deep dive into the shallow and fragmented world of news, entertainment and ads, where we can easily drown in the dangerous allure of mass media intoxication.

The filmmaker used a unique amalgamation of collage, ink and paint to make In the Shallows, whose drawings consist of a combination of acrylic paint and ink and India ink. The ink parts represent the realistic aspects of the story—everyday human life—while the ink and paint segments were intended to create an organic feeling of being.

In contrast, the collage cutouts disrupt the realism of the drawings. The collage elements (taken from assorted magazines) represent the onslaught of mass media information.

The combination of two vastly different techniques ends up forming a richer collage as the two worlds collapse into each other.

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