"How to Shoot a Ghost:" A Lyrical Meditation on Mortality

This year's Venice Film Festival like always, introduced the world to a slate of new, incredible films by some of the entertainment industry's top figures. That's to be expected of one of the top film festivals in the world. While Venice is known for showing features, it also showcases a wide array of short films from around the world. This year, one of the most notable shorts was How to Shoot a Ghost by Eva H.D. and Academy Award winner, Charlie Kaufman. Marking a triumphant screen return for some of the most innovative creative minds working in film today.

How to Shoot a Ghost marks the second collaboration by Kaufman and H.D. since their short, Jackals and Fireflies back in 2023. This time, they have greatly expanded their canvas, nearly doubling the runtime, playing at various major festivals like Venice, SXSW, AFI Fest etc, and including a performance by powerhouse actor, Jessie Buckley. The story centers around two recently deceased young people (Buckley and Josef Akiki) as they reflect on their lives while exploring the streets of Athens, Greece. Eva H.D. is primarily a poet, which reflects in her screenwriting immensely.

Director, Charlie Kaufman is a figure who needs no introduction. Primarily a writer, he has produced some of the most thought-provoking, out of the box scripts of the past three decades, including Being John Malkovich, Anomalisa, Adaptation, Syndecdoche, New York, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. His last feature, I'm Thinking of Ending Things starring Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons was one of the most cryptic and talked about films of 2020. To have just one of those projects on a resume would be impressive, but Kaufman's signature writing style has catapulted him into legend status, at least to film nerds like me.

How to Shoot a Ghost is on par for Eva H.D.'s work, but it feels like slightly new territory for Kaufman. The short is actually pretty hard to describe, it's more akin to a visual poem than a narrative film. A gloomy, almost meditative project dealing with themes of old vs new, authentic vs performative. What better setting to use than Athens?

Kaufman has never been a filmmaker that spoon-feeds his audience all the answers, instead leaving his stories up to viewer interpretation and this short is no different. It's fitting that a film about mortality and the afterlife has multiple interpretations, considering that everyone has a different idea about what happens after death.

Like H.D. and Kaufman's other work, How to Shoot a Ghost has a profound, ever-present sense of melancholy. The best way I can describe it is "lyrical loneliness." As far as I'm concerned, Jessie Buckley and Kaufman are an artistic match made in heaven and I sincerely hope they never stop collaborating. Buckley has been having a banner year as of late, already drumming up Oscar buzz for her performance in Chloé Zhao's Hamnet as well as starring in Maggie Gyllenhaal highly anticipated film The Bride! I wouldn't be surprised if How to Shoot a Ghost ended up getting a nominated for best short at this year's Academy Awards.

It's officially been half a decade since Charlie Kaufman's last feature film, but if his next project ends up being as strong as his last two shorts, audiences are in for something truly special in the future. How to Shoot a Ghost serves as a reminder to not count out shorts for your next watch.