Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and director of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, has never walked the traditional path. The post-modern icon and resident oddball parlayed a career writing sketch comedy for Dana Carvey into an Oscar-winning screenwriting career — and his next move is even more far out.
On Thursday, Kanopy, the vast streaming service unlocked by library cards, announced that it would produce and distribute Kaufman’s next film, the short How to Shoot a Ghost. The film will first premiere at the Venice Film Festival this September before finding a home on Kanopy, while the service says it “will collaborate with the film’s producers and other partners to ensure the broadest possible access for audiences.”
“Given the crisis of education in this country, it remains as important as ever for citizens to continue to have barrier-free access to the wealth of free resources that libraries have always offered. Kanopy’s partnership with universities and public libraries ensures that a rich digital archive of cinematic work from all over the world — from the newest documentaries to the collected adventures of Buster Keaton — will be available to a new generation of cinephiles,” said Kaufman in a statement.
In a twist, How to Shoot a Ghost was written not by Kaufman but by poet Eva HD, who previously collaborated with the filmmaker on the short film Jackals & Fireflies. According to Kanopy’s news release, the film “follows two newly deceased young people who meet in the streets of Athens, amid the pulsing cityscape and the ghosts of its history. One is a translator, the other a photographer; they were outsiders in life, and in death, they struggle with the residue of their longings and mistakes. They wander the city together, finding consolation in the rugged beauty of existence and its aftermath.” Rufus and Martha Wainwright have recorded a new cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” for the film, making this sound like the saddest thing I will watch this year.
There’s a world in which How to Shoot a Ghost went straight to a traditional streamer; Netflix produced and distributed I’m Thinking of Ending Things in 2020, after all. But the idea of circumventing the powerhouse engines of modern entertainment clicks right into Kaufman’s larger narrative oeuvre. And the move is very intentional.
“What makes this partnership particularly meaningful is knowing our film can now reach wide and diverse audiences, especially underserved communities, through public and academic libraries nationwide,” said producers Isabelle Deluce and Emily McCann Lesser. “The idea that viewers can be transported to Athens in under 30 minutes through their local library feels like a small miracle. We couldn’t imagine a more perfect partner for bringing this story to film lovers everywhere.”
Kanopy did not set a release date for How to Shoot a Ghost, but the film will make its Venice premiere on Sept. 1.
