In 2004, John Cameron Mitchell met Jonsi — the queer singer of Sigur Rós — and took him to his very first drag show, Suppositori Spelling in San Francisco. Mitchell said that Jonsi says it remains his “best drag show.” The experience was essentially the genesis of the below short film, which was co-written by Mitchell and directed and animated by Dash Shaw (whose work is also featured in Mitchell’s “Rabbit Hole”).
The film — entitled “Seraph” — is part of Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson’s Valtari Mystery Film Project, an effort related to the band’s new album “Valtari.”
“He asked me and 12 other flmmakers to be part of their Valtari Mystery Film Project,” Mitchell explained. “We were allowed do whatever we wanted with the music from their new album — no parameters but the small budget. I chose to do a six-minute narrative short focusing on a character from ‘Shell Game,’ an animated feature I’m producing with director Dash Shaw, an amazing graphic novelist who did comic book art for my film ‘Rabbit Hole.’ ‘Seraph’ is the superqueer result using two songs from the new album.”
Check it out below:
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