Pixie Cram's “Pragmatopia” at Gimli Film Festival

on July 23rd I had the honor to attend the Short film showcase of the Gimli Film festival, where I came across Pixie Cram’s new project “Pragmatopia”, a different approach to the apocalypse than the average viewer is used to. Since the film shall be screened in other festivals to come, the critique here is going to omit the important plot points that unravel. 

in short Pragmatopia follows the story of a few stragglers in pursuit of survival in a mysteriously post-apocalyptic setting.

Cram’s short film has incredible sound design. Nature takes over and we hear ambient sounds more than we hear any sound made by a human. Pragmatopia situates itself at the heart of nature and simultaneously situates nature at its heart. Humanity has been pushed to the periphery once again, falling second to nature which is slowly taking over: houses swallowed by vines, communities living to natural rhythms. 

where the film makes its statement is in its ideological locus of control. While other post-apocalyptic films may portray the same overtaking of nature as destructive and even sometimes demonic, Pragmatopia portrays serenity and contentment in humanity’s return to nature and primal communes. 

the key to unlock the mysteries of Pragmatopia’s idealistic apocalypse is in the title itself. the word Pragmatopia, takes the word Utopia and trades the U for Pragma, presenting a palpable new ideal space; since the U in Utopia was historically Eu as in Eu + Topos: good place, and throughout the centuries it was dysphemized by history into U as in U + topos: no place. Pragmatopia tries to manifest the ideal society and set it to film.

here is a short film that truly takes advantage of its short runtime to build an entire world. The great advantage that short films have over longer formats is in their ability to forgo any formal exposition, throw the audience into the middle of the plot and take it away from them as soon as meaning is established. Pragmatopia is a fantastic example of a short film taking advantage of the possibilities at hand in its particular medium. 

in total, Pragmatopia is an artfully constructed vision of the poetry ubiquitous in nature and a truly hopeful vision of the future where egality rules supreme.