Brother Ezekiel is an animated short film examining historic racism in the US. Created in house by the team at Boulder Media during the Summer of 2019 and is the directorial debut of Leon Elliott.
‘Brother Ezekiel’ is a brief snapshot of a day in the life of a black man travelling across the US in the mid-1960s and explores the difficulties and discrimination black people faced in their day-to-day lives. The story is set in a generic motel in middle -America, where Brother Ezekiel pulls in for a warm meal and a bed for the night, wearily facing up to systemic bigotry along the way.
The film was due to be released later this summer and showcased at a number of international film festivals, but due to the widespread Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, the team at Boulder decided to release it online instead.
Commenting on this, the film’s writer and director Leon Elliott said; ‘’the film was intended to be a snapshot in history, but it deals with systemic issues that are clearly still relevant today. With the ongoing protests in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, we decided to release the film early to contribute in some small way to that conversation. It’s an intentionally straight story, but ultimately hopeful about the goodness of human nature.’’
The film was inspired by black civil rights leaders of the 1960s; ‘’the film is heavily influenced by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X’s travels around the US in the 1960s. I wanted to explore the mundane, everyday moments in between their great speeches and marches, where they faced discrimination in the everyday world, such as what it was like to eat in a restaurant or get a motel room.’’
‘Brother Ezekiel’ was developed by the team at Boulder Media, produced by Dominic Moffat with art direction by Finnbarr Martin and animation direction by Alan Carruthers.