Director's Commentary

L’Oiseau Mort may be socially relevant on the obvious levels – bullying and human grieving – but it is driven by character and relationships and these take extreme precedence over any social commentary. L’Oiseau Mort is not a PSA.

You could say L’Oiseau Mort is a short film about vulnerability and acceptance and you wouldn't be wrong.

But more than this, L’Oiseau Mort is a short film about Oliver, an 11 year-old girl whose reality is so distinct from that of her classmates that she might as well exist on another plane. She is an outsider, with all the banes with which the role typically comes, but also with the freedom that comes with not being one of the pack.

When we embrace our own vulnerability, rather than fear revealing it, we take ownership of it and become free from the fear of it being used against us; we can empathize with others who are vulnerable and help them to dissolve their fear, and, to go to the logical extreme, help to free them from those that exploit their vulnerabilities.

While this is true, there is another truth about liberation that is scary: being free means being free from the group, free from the comfort of the roles we play within a society, a family, a workplace, a school.

L'Oiseau Mort is a short film about what happens when a young girl has the courage to truly break free.