Beginning with a quote from Carl Sagan, writer-director Layke Anderson’s new short film Mankind is an intimate relationship drama with bigger themes on its mind.
Will and Evan (Ricky Nixon and Alexis Gregory) have been in a committed relationship. It all comes crumbling down however, when Evan sneaks his way into Will’s emails. He discovers that Will has entered and been selected for a potentially dangerous space mission aiming to test the possibilities of colonizing Mars. Not only does Even learn that Will might be leaving him, he learns that Will may be leaving the entire planet behind.
What plays out throughout the thirteen-minute runtime of this heady short is a simple conversation in which two men with vastly different opinions about life and the future try to find some kind of common ground. Anderson splices in shots of their love life, their sexual escapades and vast footage of the cosmos to contrast and expand on his themes. At different points throughout Mankind, Will and Evan could be talking about their relationship, or humanity in general.
Watch the trailer for Mankind below. The full short film is now available on Dekkoo.
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