It’s Such a Beautiful Day

Synopsis

Bill struggles to put together his shattered psyche after suffering memory lapses and surrealist visions in a mix of black-and-white drawings, basic stop-motion, film and photo inserts, a detached narration and a very inventive soundtrack. Hertzfeldt's feature film version of his short film trilogy Everything Will be OK, I Am So Proud of You and It's Such a Beautiful Day surrounds its troubled hero with a droll cosmology in which eccentric, everyday detail shares protagonism with reminders of our place in the universe. The results are funny, affecting and very personal.

Biography and Films

Don Hertzfeldt (Fremont, California, 1976) studied film at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and was soon drawn to experimental work in the world of animation. His short films have been screened and won awards worldwide, including a record-breaking eight screenings at Sundance and two Oscar nominations. Billy's Balloon (1998) and It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) were screened at l'Alternativa, followed by Rejected (2000), also nominated for an Academy Award. Hertzfeldt self-produces and self-distributes all his own films and refuses to do commercial work. Between 2015 and 2021 he directed a new critically acclaimed series of sci-fi shorts, World of Tomorrow, which also found expression as a graphic novel. He self-produces and self-distributes all his own films and refuses to do commercial work.

Podcast