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Filmmaker Ray Tintori Reunites Father and Son, Blows Up Earth

We don’t quite know what to make of Ray Tintori’s Jettison Your Loved Ones — a deranged, no-budget sci-fi epic about perpetual motion and families — other than to say that it’s some of the most hypnotic and strange six minutes you’ll ever spend staring at a computer screen. A man goes through his life faking his own death and running away from family and responsibility. The only one who seems to be able to keep up with him is one of his (many) sons, who claims to be from the future. Swords are crossed, literally. The world explodes, also literally. Revolution, war, fireworks, musical prodigies — it’s all here, and New York native Tintori (who hadn’t graduated college yet when he made this in 2005) even makes time for a strangely heartwarming ending. This film, by the way, is another of the shorts to be found on Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series’ first DVD, along with previous Picture Palace entry Egg (on which Tintori worked as art director). —Bilge Ebiri

Filmmaker Ray Tintori Reunites Father and Son, Blows Up Earth