Torn from their home by a hand in the sky, colorful spirits struggle against a tyrannical pink-and-blue binary in this surreal, wordless fable about the pursuit of authentic selfhood.
Thine Own Self (2021)
5 min. 55 sec.
Letterboxd // IMDB // Shortverse
Festival Screenings + Awards for Thine Own Self
Experimental Film Fest
North Carolina, United States, 2023
AnimaQUEER Film Fest
Brazil, 2023
Nominee: "Best Score"
Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival
India, 2023
Leeds International Film Festival
Leeds, United Kingdom, 2022
Out & Loud: Pune International Queer Film Festival
India, 2022
Winner: “Best Silent Film”
Finalist for the 55th Humboldt International Film Fest
California, United States, 2022
Animafest Zagreb, Films for Children Competition
Zagreb, Croatia, 2022
Honorable Mention: Audience Favorite
Prairie Pride Film Festival
Nebraska, United States, 2022
Bendigo Queer Film Festival
Victoria, Canada, 2022
Through the Student Lens Film Festival
Colorado,United States, 2022
Durban Film Festival's Isiphethu International Student Film Festival
South Africa, 2022
QUEER-Streifen Regensburg Film Festival
Germany, 2021
Distribution:
Focus Features Digital Distribution
Jet Blue Airlines In-Flight Entertainment
Do Not Disturb Film Festival
Chicago, United States, 2026
Seattle Queer Film Festival
Oregon, United States, 2021
FOR RAINBOW Festival of Cinema & Culture of Sexual and Gender Diversity
Brazil, 2021
OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival
North Carolina, United States, 2021
Syracuse International Film Festival Student Showcase
New York, United States, 2021
MicroActs 8 Artist Film Screening
London, United Kingdom, 2021
Short Encounters Film Festival
Greece, 2021
Nominee: “Best Experimental Short”
WINNER of the Gotham's Student Short Film Showcase sponsored by JetBlue & Focus Features, 2021
Press & Reviews for Thine Own Self
”Film can be a powerful medium for disrupting assumptions about what is normal: Evan Bode on His Student Short Film Showcase Winner Thine Own Self
by Natalia Keogan, Filmmaker Magazine (Aug. 15, 2022)
5-Star Review: The Beauty of Authenticity in Evan Bode's Thine Own Self
by Ford Melillo, C.M. Rubin World (Oct. 1, 2023)
Unmasking the Artistry of Thine Own Self: An Interview with Evan Bode
by C.M. Rubin, The Global Search for Education (Oct. 12, 2023)
SU graduate’s award-winning film ‘Thine Own Self’ explores gender binaries
by Katie Hopsicker, The Daily Orange (Nov. 28, 2021)
The Making of Thine Own Self:
A One-Person, Zero-Budget Project
When my first year of film school at Syracuse University moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided, for the first time, to try animation—a type of filmmaking possible to achieve from my parents’ basement, without a film crew or equipment. I spent the next 6 months working on this 6-minute piece, shot on iPhone.
To perform the Conductor’s Hands, I wore blue gloves and green sleeves, filming myself against green poster board taped on a bookshelf.
To animate the flying spirits, I shaped a red piece of clay in front of green cardboard and took photos with the free iPhone app, Stop Motion Studio. The conductor’s baton is a silver utensil I found in a kitchen drawer.
To rip a hole in the sky, I placed my phone in the bottom of a small wastepaper basket while recording upward, taped black paper over the top, and tore through the dark from above.
To create the spirits’ wings, I filmed a green birthday candle in front of a green plastic plate. The flame’s gentle fluttering movements created the illusion of life in motion.
To emphasize a sense of rigid conformity during the march sequence, the battalion of cubed clones were copied and pasted from a single clay figure—ensuring identical choreography in compliance with the hands’ commands.
To help the spirits dance among branches, I took pictures of the trees in my backyard on a cloudless day. The blue sky served as a blue-screen.
