on the blue table

written and directed by Aleem Hossain

A hybrid fiction-documentary-animation sci-fi film about a South Asian American astronaut named Rashida who discovers audio messages that people have sent back in time to their former selves. Featuring actual real-life audio messages submitted by friends, family, and strangers.

Official Selection: Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, Film Shortage, Visible Evidence, Atlanta Sci-Fi Film Festival

Winner: Best Screenplay at the Atlanta Sci-Fi Film Festival

CAST & CREW

Written and Directed by Aleem Hossain

Hira Ismail as Astronaut Rashida

Nicholas Le as Astronaut David

And thanks to everyone who submitted the actual real-life voicemails used in the film!

Director’s Statement

A few years ago, I hit a major career milestone. I wrote and directed my first feature film. It was a goal I'd been working toward for a long time. Hitting that goal got me thinking about what I had achieved, where I had started, etc. In particular, I found myself reflecting on the hopes and dreams I’d had when I was a teenager. I started to wonder what I would tell my past self from my current future vantage point. I was also, during this time in my life, trying to find ways to reach out and connect with people after spending a lot of time working on my own on the post-production of the film. So, without really knowing what would come of it, I put out a call online for people to send me “voicemails to their past selves” - if they could send a message back in time to themselves, what would they say? I received messages from friends, family, and complete strangers and they blew me away. I am so humbled by the generosity and vulnerability of everyone who sent me a message.

At the same time, I had been going stir crazy because I couldn’t go out and immediately make my next feature film (the script wasn’t ready, I didn’t have the financing). My desire to make something, anything, found a rather strange fixation: the old blue plastic table from IKEA in my backyard. My kids had used it to paint pictures or play with toys and I’d never really given it much thought. But one day, playing with my kids out in the yard, I grabbed my camera and looked at the coarse weathered surface of that table through a macro adapter. It looked like the surface of a far-off planet!

For reasons that I cannot explain other than to say it just occurred to me, I decided that this blue table planet and the voicemails to the past belonged together. And so, I crafted a fictional story about two astronauts on a blue table planet finding those real life voicemail messages that people had sent to their past selves. I taught myself how to do basic animation and I cast two wonderful voice actors online, Hira Ismail and Nicholas Le, who I never actually met in person - a very 2020's filmmaking process. The result is a hybrid fiction, documentary, animated, sci-fi short film - a project that I did not set out to make but that revealed itself to me and has taught me so much about the hopes and dreams we all have.