Truth.exe Trailer
A young hacktivist by the alias of G1ll (Felix Elliott) is given a USB drive which contains an extraordinary truth; his mission is to upload it to the internet. However there are larger forces at play that will stop at nothing to prevent this. Strange photographers with cameras of unnatural power and the haunted video broadcast of a woman (Roanna Dalziel, Shortland Street) join forces to stop G1ll’s pursuit for truth.
Director Ricky Townsend is a young filmmaker from Christchurch, New Zealand. Ricky is a fine arts student, specialising in film, at the Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury. He is also pursuing an arts degree in Philosophy.
Ricky has had his recent short films ‘Tremble’ and ‘TRUTH.exe’ selected for the 2019 Sydney Indie Film Festival, the 45th Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, the Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival, the SciFi Film Festival, in Australia, the Changing Face International Film Festival and the Top of the South Film Festival.
I wanted to explore a world that contains a consistent, though fantastical, lore where through the eyes of the characters everything would seem absurd and surreal. The audience’s desire to know what this broader story is about allows us to sympathise with G1ll’s mission. He is just as much in the dark as we are and like us he wants to make sense of it all.
In the film, G1ll is confronted with a moral dilemma. Should we value our wellbeing over truth or is there value in knowing the truth independent of how it affects our wellbeing. This to me acts as a narrative anchor in an otherwise obscure story and is the heart of G1ll’s journey.
I also wanted to demonstrate that you do not need a big budget, with big cameras, with a big cast and crew to create a big story.
-Ricky Townsend on his latest short Truth.exe
