Sci-Fi Short Film "Sand Castle" | DUST | Flashback Friday

In an undefined future where mankind have voluntarily abandoned technology to live back in nomadism, an old man initiates a kid to the reasons of humanity’s return to nature. Apparently teleportation had something to do with it.
"Sand Castle" by Alessandro Ubaldi
More About "Sand Castle":
The elderly explains how mankind’s ancient dream of progress has brought to a limit-breaking society always in search for further steps to overcome. That was what happened in mobility, until the invention of human teleportation. This would have changed the game and from that point something mutated forever. With the encounter of an abandoned tele-port the wiseman reveals the rest of the story. In doing this he introduces his young companion to a fundamental question about our own species.
Credits:
Stephen M. Gilbert as Hob, the wise man
Tristan Heers as Allan, the youngster
Directed and edited by Alessandro Ubaldi
Written and Produced by Augusto Girolimetti
Assistant Director: Iva Fischer
Cinematographer: Serjosha J. Clarke
Camera Assistant: Josh Wolf
Sound: Moritz Monorfalvi
Costume Designer: Rani Messias
Special thanks
Manuela Heers
Markus Olof Bergström
Robert Larsson
Arianna Rocchetti
Gian Vito Loverre
Lorenzo Paglialunga
Connect with Augusto Girolimetti:
Website: augustogirolimetti.com/
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#DUST #scifi #shortfilm
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[@zethraelofteldrassil3149]

I could listen to the man teaching the boy all night. He is a carrier of knowledge passed through the oral tradition, as done for tens of thousands of years, to the child, who will teach others. Lovely video

[@fjdarling]

Not just for entertainment but to educate ideas and morals. That's what I like about this video. Good job. This one's a keeper.

[@daveburklund2295]

Forest, two characters, two poles in the ground. And with just that we get an interesting interrogation of what humanity is, what living is.Well done.

[@blaiseneyroud7222]

Poetry. This could be a radio broadcast. Near the perfection !

[@qwertyuiopgarth]

I suspect that the old man's telling is missing a lot of details about how people who did not want to 'go back to a natural life' were ruthlessly suppressed (or said to themselves "screw it" and left for the stars).

[@no-prophet]

I guess I'd be one of those, I don't like to walk. Leave my teleport alone.

[@Donkichoff]

​@@no-prophet Tschaw ! fair winds, go prophesy elsewhere 😂

[@ArtisticlyAlexis]

This is the inspiration I needed to hear! The world is getting darker, so we need to always be aiming for a better world, to remember our humanity and what's important.

[@markmunroe-hz8rf]

Unfortunately, we have chosen to throw away our humanity for decadence and convenience.

[@mookinbabysealfurmittens]

​@@markmunroe-hz8rfThis is true, but not of every last individual. And we can change. We can learn, we can grow, we can _choose_ ...and I just hope that there's enough folks left who can see what's happening and still have hope. And action. You can make a difference. Join a union, or a local or community group, or start one. Our voices can be heard. I hope.

[@mookinbabysealfurmittens]

And OP, +1. I feel inspired as well. I aim to do something with it. As I noted, it starts with one's own community. I thought I was surrounded by fash, but I found others out here. We need to harness hope to fuel us.

[@markmunroe-hz8rf]

@@mookinbabysealfurmittens While it's true not everyone is for tech, you forget that evil is growing every single day. Sure there are those who are speaking up, but in the end, we can't defeat every single evil. The only thing we can do is help others, speak up and give advice. You say we can change, but not everyone WANTS TO CHANGE AND LEARN. That's life, that's the truth.

[@kezzatries]

Me thinks you missed the point

[@vidaotu234]

A very educative video to teach mankind the need for us to respect the simple natural things of life instead of our sand castles and flying machines that guarantee no life and easily crumble

[@rbuschy]

The concept of cities dying cause everyone spreading out is interesting

[@IngoSchwarze]

No it is not. It is totally nonsensical. A typical country is 0.1 to 3 million of square kilometers with 50 to 500 million people. So even if all people left the cities and spread out uniformly across the whole land surface, that would still be on the order of 100 to 500 people per square kilometer. Unless you killed at least 99.9% of the population, there could not be the solitude shown in the film. Spreading out would merely turn the whole land surface into one large urbanized area.

[@Nova-in6me]

​@@IngoSchwarze the story follows a time when humanity had become extremely advanced! Pretty sure they might have separated to different exo planets.

[@IngoSchwarze]

@@Nova-in6me Maybe you are right, even though i don't recall the narrator alluding to anything like that, whereas he alluded to a lot of other technological advances and social changes. But yes, it could be: physically reaching any exoplanet seems pretty unlikely even as a future technological advance, but arguably less unlikely than inventing teleportation. It's arguably even more likely that the piece is set into a future where global population dwindled to a tiny fraction of the current level without anyone being forcibly killed, by humans simply having fewer children. If only one in thousand humans had a child, such a state could easily be reached within one or two generations, and the human-machine relations alluded to make it seem plausible that humans might have lost their interest in procreation - or been ordered to refrain from it. But that merely shifts the question: what is interesting about the concept of cities dying because either the vast majority of humanity teleported away to thousands (or even millions) of exoplanets, or because the vast majority of humanity simply stopped procreating, for unspecified reasons, but not all of humanity, for equally unspecified reasons? Or a combination of both? Granted, such a sceneario with only, say, a few ten thousand or hundred thousand people left on earth might be a setting that some interesting and peaceful story could be told in. The fact that most stories actually using such a scenario tell violent apocalyptic stories does not prevent that. But no story is really being told here, and the scenario alone feels a bit underwhelming to me: "With only a few ten thousand people on earth, we could actually return to a life style closer to nature." Oh really? You don't say...

[@leonestello8519]

Neat story telling. Beautiful Story. 🌍🌎🌏

[@You-Be-The-Judge]

When he started showing him the stone I figured next was skipping stones which is something I used to love to do.

[@farms6]

Amazing, I'm so glad I found this channel.

[@huwwyn1]

Brilliant. Thankyou.

[@PrimitiveInTheExtreme]

How wonderful.

[@johntaylor9381]

“This is why we walk: because we are human.” Profound.

[@AzeAlter]

Wow. I wish there was more.

[@darkbulb367]

Beautiful piece of work.

[@glennkrieger]

Terrific story telling by the perfect person.

[@XzarElite]

I don't know how often i watched this in 2023, but in 2024 it was at least 1x time in month. btw. nice ambient music and story telling, i like it. Even as not native english speaker, everything is good to understand and logical (e.g. what happened to the cities)

[@DaleWheeler]

Interesting, but I'm not sure what the message was supposed to be. Thumb neutral.

[@acidbubblebath77]

Bravo. A very introspective film.

[@createwithpete494]

Not what I expected. But just awesome. The only thing that could have made it better would have been a large stone ring in the Forrest covered in vines.

[@maxa.4725]

I like the argument of this short film makes me thing of all the things that the future could bring

[@ricrandmfx]

Quite a brilliant piece of work, this short film. 👏

[@TheRealSkeletor]

Nice story, good for narration. But it doesn't really work as a conversation between characters. And this breaks the cardinal storytelling rule of "show, don't tell".

[@markmunroe-hz8rf]

We need a BALANCE of machines and nature.

[@ilenekuhns3463]

Loved this. (Music is so loud, the people are hard to hear )

[@IngoSchwarze]

This is not really a film - the images are mostly unrelated to the words spoken. It isn't even an audio drama because there isn't really any plot or any character development. Instead of telling any story, it's just an auctorial voice pontificating away,

[@mookinbabysealfurmittens]

Beautiful! A wondrous short story that says so much.

[@AcapulKero]

Powerful words, great poetry. Thanks for uploading this video.

[@aarons7975]

No matter what you have, how rich, what gadgets, without a soul and a tie to your roots, you are empty. People are so immersed in their lives, much of it fake, that they forgot where they came from and WHAT / WHO they truly are. So obsessed, that they don't have time for a 5 minute walk, To enjoy the warmth of the sun To enjoy a breath of fresh air To enjoy the sound of birds To enjoy the wind in their hair To enjoy the earth beneath their feet. Just to enjoy anything... they are too busy. That is not living, and it absolutely is not thriving, it's just existing. The human soul needs much more than that to thrive and flourish. Step away from the computer here, go outside, just take a deep breath, look up, look around, and appreciate the little things that make up the world we are in. It won't harm you, and it's good for the soul.

[@jonaspucko78]

Best short movie I've seen so far, not kidding. 👍

[@hellojanettenoel3152]

amazing and very true

[@ogrebeast64]

Very powerful presentation. /standing ovation

[@biffgee6797]

Kind of sounds like the current trajectory mankind is on.

[@rakibhasan8016]

Yes, we need to walk through nature to rediscover our humanity. Today and in the next century.

[@SistorCarrera]

a tale and within the tale is a message

[@FBPrepping]

That was AWESOME. Thanks.

[@JeffCreates]

Really nice concept and good execution. A little bit hampered by the performances.

[@zoltanposfai3451]

This is not a short film, but a long exposition with a noisy background. So much for 'Show. Don't tell.'

[@mindspace696]

Brilliant!

[@segothgalont23]

Damn, that's good.

[@djo3634]

this was so beautiful

[@soerengerlach4932]

Excellent story, short but superb!! Really loved this one 👍 And I think the aspect of desintegration for teleportation is already a nice one for a follow up 😂

[@donkenmuir9504]

Very well done It is well worth watching

[@AngeliqueHope80]

One of the best ones I've seen in a long time. I've always wondered about this, what would become of us if we could achieve teleportation. This is a fantastic timeline to think about.

[@okancanarslan3730]

amazing film

[@FWCC1]

So, what year do they exist in. So after 100 million years they're walking in the woods.

[@donkenmuir9504]

That’s. A good film well done

[@osmia]

Thank you for having CC enabled

[@Paralloid]

Дуже гарна історія!

[@thehypearound]

Beautifully done!

[@siewheilou399]

So the boy just imagined that he went to a beach? How did he picture his destination without prior knowledge? This looks more like human lost all their technologies.

[@TheRealSkeletor]

I'm sure he's heard about what it's like to be on a beach, and visualized it in his head. Kids have imagination for such things.

[@siewheilou399]

@@TheRealSkeletor Just like you cannot dream what you had never experienced. And where are the other humans? Do they interact with the others? It looks like there are very few people left. This actually looks like the Utopia after Just Stop Oil took over.

[@TheRealSkeletor]

@@siewheilou399 Speak for yourself. I often dream of things I've never experienced.

[@scotthultin7769]

96👍's up DUST thank you for sharing 🤔

[@stevie-ray2020]

A good short film spoiled by music that's loud enough to drown out most of the dialogue!

[@Slaci-vl2io]

Low cost but organic

[@rmorton7226]

Dramatic music louder than the dialogue. Can't enjoy it sorry 😔

[@darried3157]

Totally agree. Annoying AF

[@dredgerivers7730]

So... WHEN are the pancakes arriving in the mail?!

[@robertarvanitis8852]

Terminology, ..."by teleport"

[@dredgerivers7730]

@@robertarvanitis8852 Homer Simpson. Wrong episode.

[@robertarvanitis8852]

@@dredgerivers7730 Ah reaching for "popular culture." Interesting. I prefer to relate to the topic at hand.

[@dredgerivers7730]

​@@robertarvanitis8852 It was deeply elegant to have a good story with so little dressing. I rewatched some, but I can't remember what about it evoked the timeless vision of pancakes crossing the country in envelopes. Probably the child-like questioning of the likable, questioning child.

[@daevydjae]

As there will always be those who reach for more, will there be a time when some humans will move beyond what we are now and become something else, while there will be some who will wish to stay as we are?

[@kevinkall8547]

Music and background sounds track is way too loud

[@davidwearmouth851]

Food for thought....

[@xiaoweiwang6824]

用对话缓缓把世界观和背景展现出来，让观众自行脑部所描述的世界，并且探讨了 科技和人类之间的关系，很好看。

[@omarperes8307]

ARGENTINA Diciembre 2023

[@14s0cc3r14]

Ahh yes, the most common Sci Fi trope. TECHNOLOGY BAD

[@gorflunk]

Interesting take on the old argument "If man were meant to fly, he would have been given wings."

[@ether_sect]

Holy info-dump.

[@billy4227]

There must be an award for the lowest budget Dust film ever.

[@ghanshyamshriwas3190]

❤

[@JS-kj6qf]

👍👍

[@bigsarge2085]

✌️✌️

[@bdoeden64]

This is why we walk, because we are human. Profound.

[@username82765]

I loved it. However, watching it on my Samsung fold 4 the music and background noise was often much louder than the man speaking making it difficult to hear what he was saying.

[@robertdiceston3336]

More is not necessarily better. Progress is not necessarily a sign of improvement. Simplicity relieves stress. And just to do it, doesnt mean its good. We are becoming moe and more like a Wall-E universe. Letting everything and everyone do the work for us so we get lazier and lazier. Unhealthier and unhealthier.

[@bbaucom2]

So, we reverted back to an existence where average life expectancy was about 45 years and poverty was ubiquitous, scratching out a backbreaking and bleak existence. Nah, you can have it. I don't want anything to do with the good old days.

[@wernerboden239]

Why is the music often so much louder than the voices ? Really annoying.

[@Jason-iz6ob]

I can barely understand what he’s saying over the background noise.

[@rremnar]

The idea of destroying and reconstructing as a mean of teleportation is nothing but a cheat. It isn't true teleportation. Imagine that you pass through such a thing to visit a relative; but you find yourself floating about, questioning what happened; while a copy of you is visiting your family. I never liked that idea of teleportation. My idea of teleportation is through the ability to fold space, swap it like a partition, or simply change the energies of your location to match the energies of another point in space and time. I am sure there are other ideas, but destruction/reconstruction isn't teleportation, IMO.

[@X4b4r4ss]

Already seen. transmit new things, don't pass off old ones as new

[@fupston824]

If you're going to present what is essentially a monologue, I think you need to employ a *really* good orator. Sadly the man in this short was not that orator. Rather stilted delivery.

[@breakfreak3181]

This was actually pointless as a film as the story (well it's more of a 'backstory' really) was told entirely by exposition. As someone implied, 'show don't tell' was thrown right out the window, lol. This honestly could've been the opening of an audio book, and in fact, after a while, I was just listening on my headphones rather than watching the characters trek through the woods! The narrator's voice is pleasant, and the narration starts well but then becomes quite stilted in places, making it sound like it's being read directly from a script. Interesting concepts, strange execution.

[@Martin3060]

A boring audiobook, not a sci-fi short film.

[@ricardoniebla]

Whatever happened to this channel? This film is just lazy. My opinion!

[@keithhowell4138]

Definatly seen better on this channel.

[@OsirisMalkovich]

A sermon disguised as a short film, preaching the ineffability of the natural and the dangers of technology. Again. Aren't you tired of being afraid of the future? Aren't you tired of being afraid of change?

[@PeterQuentercrimsonbamboo]

Well… and yet another audiobook with video clips that show utterly unrelated imagery - and a narrative that is rather cliché and superficial without any evolution of a story that could create a sense of connection or relating with the audience - try again !

[@danielkianmckiernan4909]

The Internet exists to show us that Britons don't know the English language either. The third-person plural genitive absolute is “theirs”, not “there's”. And, when uncapitalized, “internet” refers to some internet, not to the Internet especially.

[@BillyMandalay]

awkward writing

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

I don’t like the narration. Very wooden.

[@vitaliypohuy7683]

👎

[@vidaotu234]

A very educative video to teach mankind the need for us to respect the simple natural things of life instead of our sand castles and flying machines that guarantee no life and easily crumble