God Teeth – Robbie C. Williamson (Puntaneras, Costa Rica) God Teeth is a wildly original and fantastical odyssey about four recently deceased souls who find themselves on an abandoned ship at sea. Part confessional, part elegy, the narrators must recount the circumstances which led to their untimely deaths, before a marauding gang of sting rays destroys their memories, banishing them to an eternity in purgatory. Created entirely from found internet footage, God Teeth offers the viewer a new and profound experience culled from the infinite digital world and turns it into a thought provoking, cinematic song of mourning and acceptance - The glory of life and death. Boom, a 10-year-old swimmer endeavors to make sense of the loss of her father in a world of dragons, magical sea creatures and underwater superheroes, but will she be destined to repeat history? Albert, leather clad and speeding through a tunnel, flashes back to his life wandering the streets of Hong Kong in search of desire and connection, but with an increasing sense of unease and isolation, he must finally confess to a long-held and shameful secret. Rose, an ambitious sports agent is on the cusp of experiencing a career defining moment, when out of the blue, she takes a bold left turn - with horrific and unintended consequences. Devoted family man, Campbell, speaks only in third person as he reluctantly recalls a raging forest fire that would forever change his existence, leaving him stuck atop a thousand-foot pole. 2024; 60 min.
Here is my interview with God Teeth director Robbie C. Williamson:
Nigrin: I have seen a lot of found footage films from Joseph Cornell to Bruce Conner and to Craig Baldwin and I think God Teeth is hands down the best one I have ever seen. Are all the visual images from the web?
Williamson: 99% of the footage is from the web. The remaining 1% I shot.
Nigrin: Did the images come first and then the text or the other way around?
Williamson: The images came first. I found the ship footage and that one video really told me the foundation of the story. As I continued to find stuff I liked, the particulars of the story came to me.
Nigrin: How were the voices manipulated?
Williamson: The voices came from basic text to speech technology. From there I manipulated them with pitch shift and various other effects to get them to sound odd.
Nigrin: Tell us about the font you used for the subtitles, tiles and intertitles.
Williamson: The font came from a slightly altered russian font named Kyirilla sanserf. I replaced certain letters with Olde English. My use of the font was paying respect to russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky and Russian culture in general. The placement of the Olde English letters offset it enough to make it truly original.
Nigrin: The music is also amazing. Tell us more about it.
Williamson: During the process of making the film, I realized that it was way too much for me to score as well, so I asked my good friend Martin Byrial to write the music. He is undoubtedly a genius so I knew he would be able to understand the characters and story in a very deep way. Members of the Royal Danish orchestra performed it with incredible precision.
Nigrin: Why Stingrays?
Williamson: To me, Stingrays have an incredibly ominus and efficient form. In terms of creatures in the sea that could represent the idea of the Devil, it would be them. They are constantly harassing the characters to distract them from remembering their lives. They want the characters to perish on the bottom of the sea so they can consume their energy.
Nigrin: The Mouth we see throughout reminds me of the opening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Was that an influence? Any other influences?
Williamson: The mouth was not influenced by Rocky Horror Picture Show. It is God's mouth. He is smiling at the scenario playing out. Impartial and amused.
Nigrin: Are there any memorable stories while you made this film or any other info about your film you would like to relay to us?
Williamson: I worked on this film almost everyday for four years. Usually late at night. Every night I remember taking a shower before bed and thinking I have lost my mind. I thought I was insane for putting that much energy into a piece and that I should delete it all off my computer and start something else. I'm glad I didn't listen to that voice.
God Teeth screens with the short The Traumatist at the Spring 2025 New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, February 7. The film will be Online for 24 Hours on this show date and In-Person at 7 PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ.
Tickets are available for purchase here
The 43rd Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 24-February 21, 2025. The Festival will be a hybrid one as it will be presented online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VoD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings. Plus, acclaimed singer-songwriter Renee Maskin will be doing an audio-visual concert on Friday, February 21 at 7PM! The in-person screenings and the Renee Maskin concert will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program.
For more info go here
