Why Charlie Kaufman Made a Short About Human Connection on a Cell Phone

NOTE: This post is a republication- Source: IndieWire (Kate Erbland).

Each Sunday morning, the New York Times publishes the Metropolitan Diary, short tales about city life submitted by readers that capture the wonder and serendipity of life in NYC. Not surprisingly, filmmaker Charlie Kaufman loves those “little stories.” “I love the Metropolitan Diary. It’s my favorite thing on Sunday to read,” he told IndieWire during a recent interview.

Kaufman’s latest film, a short entitled “Jackals & Fireflies,” conjures up the same feeling of the Metropolitan Diary. Shot entirely on a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra by cinematographer Chayse Irvin (part of the company’s #withGalaxy campaign), the film reunites Kaufman with poet Eva H.D., whose poem “bonedog” was used in his “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”

H.D. adapted the script from her own poem and also stars in it as the unnamed narrator. Per the film’s official synopsis, the short follows “a woman [who] wanders the streets of New York City, takes buses and trains, sits in bars and coffee shops, experiencing the city’s diverse neighborhoods, while thinking about her life, her loneliness, unrequited love. She finds moments of communion with various people she meets along the way and with the city itself.”

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