CHRISTIE PITS FILM FESTIVAL
Sunday, July 23, 2023

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

With the short films Sinvergüenzilla in “First Kiss” and A Trip to the Moon

A visual companion to Daft Punk’s sophomore album Discovery, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem catapults the audience onto an alien planet where a band is abducted from their world, stripped of their natural form, and made to appear as humans to serve capital gains. The film uses Discovery as the soundtrack to a space pilot’s heroic attempts to save them, following the band through a wormhole as they travel to earth. Directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi and animated by the legendary Japanese manga and anime creator Leiji Matsumoto, who passed away this year, the visuals convey the psychedelic emotional journey through the universe experienced by the band. Celebrating its twentieth anniversary year, the film’s adventurous narrative, without any dialogue, seems to exist anywhere and everywhere in time and space, reminding audiences of the power of visual and lyrical storytelling. TOPS audiences were first introduced to Interstella 5555 when it was guest-curated by Reel Asian Film Festival at our collaborative 2021 festival.

The two shorts paired with Interstella 5555 explore different departures to and from extraterrestrial planets. Director Anita Abbasi’s work explores stories of the diaspora and connection to the motherland. A sci-fi Queer romance, in Sinvergüenzilla in “First Kiss” a young alien leaves her home planet to explore another world on earth in search of love. When exploring Toronto neighbourhoods – from Christie Pits to Yonge-Dundas Square – she ends up finding solace in something a little different than she anticipated. Georges Méliès' ground-breaking 1902 short film A Trip to the Moon is not only widely recognized as  one of the first films to use special effects to create fantastical imagery, it continues to charm audiences with its tale of encountering worlds unlike our own and being met with the unexpected in the process.

“Everybody will be dancing tonight.”
“The summer memory that just never dies.”
— Daft Punk