Directed by Berny Hi

Logline: After his family's untimely demise in 1945, George Bassler bizarrely crafts a perpetual motion machine.

Synopsis: Following his family's untimely demise, prairie homesteader George Bassler bizarrely spends 1945 crafting a Perpetual Motion machine uncannily echoing similarly named inventor Johann Bessler's 1712 invention, the Perpetuum Mobile. Based on actual events, this film explores obsession with employing mechanical devices to trick time and make everything last forever.

Distribution Contact: WFG

More Details

RUNTIME: 4 Minutes
GENRE: Narrative, Fiction
PRODUCTION FORMAT: HD
LANGUAGE: English
LOCATION: Saskatchewan
TECHNIQUES: Animated Objects, Paper Cutouts, Silhouettes, Puppets, Cut Outs
KEYWORDS: Puppetry, Prairie, History, Saskatchewan, Found Objects, Machines, Motion, Death, Invention, Time, Radiation, Indigenous Filmmaker

Director's Statement: Bassler's psychosis and tragedy grabbed my attention from the millions of stories woven in the tomes that make up the Prairie History Room collection. It made it clear how desparate and uncanny life can be, and how motivated we can be in attaining a dream. The issue that there is a finite amount of time in one's life is universal, and yet we each approach the issue uniquely. To me, Bassler's perspective on time was fascinating, that of a dreamer and a hard-working homesteaders, haunted by the ghosts of the prairies.