Directors Across America Join Forces for Exquisite Quarantine

Made entirely in lockdown and following Covid-19 safety measures, the film is a collaborative effort from 17 directors located in six cities across the US, Europe and Argentina. Finding inspiration from the Exquisite Corpse (or Exquisite Cadaver) method invented by surrealist painters in the 1920s, each director had 24 hours to write, shoot, and edit an approximately 30-second clip, while following social distancing measures. However each director was only given the final five seconds of the previous director’s clip to work off of. 

With all the sequences stitched together, the result is a hilarious and energised film that showcases the potential of each director despite having a limited toolbox (often having only themselves to serve as the actor, director, director of photography and editor). The clips range in perspective, depicting glimpses of life in self-quarantine - from the claustrophobia of apartment living to the significance of casual sexting.

Having only launched in January of 2019, Imposter sees Exquisite Quarantine as a creative outlet and bonding opportunity for its directors. “Facing an industry shutdown in both film and advertising production, and with less work on everyone’s plates, we wanted to keep our directors interested and connected,” says Avtar Khalsa, executive producer of Imposter (and collaborator on the film). 

“Making this film has been such a good exercise for all of us. A chance for our directors to really go back to the basics and figure out how to tell a story with as little as possible. Directors, creatives, clients - we’re all just finding ways to stay inspired and maintain sanity in this crisis. For us, this was an opportunity to do a fun experiment, but also show what we can pull off without the bells and whistles of a typical large-scale production, or even small-scale production.”

Directors for the project include: Sergi Castellà, Mary Dauterman, Thomas Ralph, Robin Comisar, Andrew Nisinson, Lisette Donkersloot, Fanny Hoetzeneder, Hernan Corera, Josh Borock, Alex Brinkman, Avtar Khalsa, and members from the directing collective Kinopravda: Luka Kostil, Daphne Samaras, Zoltan Àprily, Bàlint Sos, Viktor Hovàth, and Àron Filkey.