Directed by Pixie Cram

Logline: Two young women journey from the outskirts of the city to a radioactive area deep in the woods.

Synopsis: Two young women journey from the outskirts of the city to a radioactive area deep in the woods. Along the way they encounter a young drifter. As they travel together they are forced to confront their new reality and eventually experience a return to innocence.

Distribution Contact: WFG

More Details

RUNTIME: 13 Minutes
GENRE: Narrative, Fiction
PRODUCTION FORMAT: 4K
LANGUAGE: English
LOCATION: Ontario
KEYWORDS: Radiation, Post-Apocalyptic, Utopian, Environment, Dystopia, Female Filmmaker

Director's Statement: Around the time I began to write the script for Pragmatopia, an earthquake struck Japan and the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown captured global attention. The timing of this event strengthened my desire to tell this story.The most compelling reference I found for the aftermath of a nuclear disaster was a book called Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl by Mary Mycio (2005). It explores the condition of the land and the wildlife inhabiting the territory around Chernobyl 25 years after the nuclear plant melted down. Mycio presents the case that the wilderness has recovered despite the high radiation levels that would be hazardous to human populations. Like the animals who have begun re-inhabiting the contaminated zone around Chernobyl because few human predators dwell there, the characters of Pragmatopia find refuge in this radioactive no-man's land that is a contradiction: it is a place that offers them freedom from the rules and oppressions of their society, and at the same time, it is a place filled with an invisible hazard that no one knows the full impact of.