Short and Sweet: The Rainbow Bridge

Unexpected themes can crop up at festivals. At this year's South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, there were two shorts that dealt with vets at the end of a pet's life.

Yet there's a huge difference between Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan's tender observational documentary “The Passing” and Dimitri Simakis' wild and trippy “The Rainbow Bridge.”

If Simakis' name seems familiar, it better be, as he's been one of the forces behind the found footage mayhem of Everything is Terrible!, the unhinged compilations of the most baffling corners of VHS libraries. But his influence on modern pop culture is far more pervasive, as the former Senior VP of Development, Short Form at Super Deluxe and current Senior Manager Director and Creative Director at Giphy. Plus He's also an artist in his own right, with his work featured in The New York Times, Comedy Central, and at Meow Wolf's Convergence Station in Denver.

Now he adds “short film director” to that resume with “The Rainbow Bridge,” the story of pet owner Tina (Thu Tran) who engages the experimental services of erratic vet Dr. Bailey Picadillo (Heather Lawless) and her assistant, Herb (James Urbaniak). She wants one last conversation with her beloved dog, MeeMoo. The twist is that she wants him to be able to talk back.

Austin Chronicle: After years of EIT!, how does it feel to scratch the narrative directing itch with a short? And, after so many years of creativity in so many fields, what triggered the jump into the form now?

Dimitri Simakis: After 16 years in the found footage world, it felt like the most wildly experimental thing I could possibly do was craft a narrative. Making Everything is Terrible! films have always been an exciting challenge, and I like to think we got better and better at making them, but at a certain point you wonder if the best footage left to find is your own!

And not to say I haven’t done plenty of smaller narrative works along the way, but “The Rainbow Bridge” became an obsession where it had to encapsulate all the skills and many of the talented pals I’ve made over the years, and scrunch it up into one thing that hopefully has a reason to exist. That, and the immersive work I’ve been doing with Meow Wolf got me deep into world-building, so the film became the perfect excuse to add as much dimension as possible in a thirteen minute short.

AC: Most vets tend to be a little idiosyncratic - Dr. Picadello and Herb just more so than most. Who was the oddest vet you ever dealt with?

DS: I can’t imagine what they have to deal with on a daily basis, so I don’t blame ‘em! Honestly, I’ve had pretty good luck in terms of compassionate vets, and the doctors portrayed here are really an amalgamation of the many Southern California healers you meet while living here.

That, and my wife and I are obsessed with the annual Conscious Life Expo that takes place at the LAX Hilton. You want to psychically communicate with deceased celebs? Travel to other dimensions? Cure all diseases by simply raising your frequency? Reprogram your DNA via light language? It’s all there and more. I would also give ANYTHING for 1% of their unabashed confidence, and sometimes wonder if I’d be better off selling time-traveling crystal energy gym shorts, or something.

AC: Your work has a subversive element to it, but you cut your teeth designing interactive cards for American Greetings. What was the wildest card you ever designed back then?

DS: If I were to answer that honestly I would be exiled from society. Just know it was the mid-00s and iPhones didn’t exist yet, and I just hope you enjoyed the animated greeting cards your aunt sent to your Motorola RAZR in 2005.

AC: It feels like we're entering a very risk-averse era in media, a disturbing swing away from the mid-2000s when companies like Buzzfeed and Super Deluxe were seemingly awash with money and corporate interest. Are you seeing that change in the industry, and how are you navigating it?

DS: It’s all crumbling before our very eyes, and no one in any position of power seems to care? I could talk about this for days, but to put it simply, corporate greed won and the second something isn’t worth billions, it’s worthless to investors. From the inside, I’ve watched the rise and fall of so many digital studios, and sadly I’ve become numb to it all.

It’s bleak and about to get a whole lot bleaker, so to anyone at one of those spots – remember to take their money before they start paying attention. In the end, all that really matters is the people you love and are able to make art with, so keep at it and don’t let them tell you when to start and stop.

AC: If someone gave you the opportunity to talk to your pets, would you do it?

DS: Are you nuts? Absolutely. No matter the consequences. NO MATTER THE CONSEQUENCES.

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The Rainbow Bridge

Narrative Shorts, Texas Premiere

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