The Anti-versary

An elderly man celebrates his memories of the past before it’s too late.

Creative team

Writer/director: Aaron Au
Producer: Kevin Li

Director’s statement

Aaron Au says:

“The Anti-versary was made for a film competition where we had make a film in 12 days. I’ve tried my hand at these competitions before and really didn’t like the time restraints but like all film makers, I was itching to shoot. I decided to challenge myself and write a story that took place in one room with minimal actors in order to focus on story and character.

The producer Kevin and I spitballed concepts over a nice BBQ at his place the day before the competition. He brought up a story about how he was given an expensive chocolate bar from a girl he liked. He ended up keeping it for years because it was too special to eat. One day he finally decided to open it and cherish the memory one last time. Unfortunately the chocolate had gone bad and he regretted not eating it earlier.

The script was written with Kevin’s story at its heart. It is about cherishing moments no matter what the day, otherwise life may pass you by. This theme is what lead to us naming the film The Anti-versary. I wrote the script on day one, we shot the next and I had it edited on the fourth day. Sound spent a day with it and we handed in seven days early. We ended up winning with a couple perfect scores!

During the time of this project I was in post for a 30-minute dramatic short that I had spent over a year on. It took all my attention leaving The Anti-versary on the back burner but this little film would do some great things. Without a single festival screening, it was awarded 8th place in the 2011 Top Ten Canadian Shorts. The recognition got it into a few festivals and eventually lead to a distribution deal.”

About Aaron Au

Aaron Au has established himself as a bold, creative and stylized film maker known for his unique artistic and technical perspectives.  His love for story-telling drew him away from a decade-long career in front of the camera to behind it in 2008 with his first award winning short, The Tea Master.

After writing, directing, and producing three more successful short films Aaron was recruited by Titlecard Pictures where he produced his first feature, Evil Feed. Aaron is currently working on an adaptation of the novel More Than Rice as well as a slate of other feature scripts.