HNIFF 2025
Breadhead!
Directed by Graydon Eskowich · Canada · 14 min · short · narrative
A surreal/cereal comedy about the most important meal of the day! Regina, Canada, 1958. Unable to decide what to eat on the morning of a job interview, a young woman is offered the chance to try a revolutionary new breakfast food by an eccentric television show host.
This film's screening window has ended.
From the director
The concept for 'Breadhead!' emerged over the course of my 4 years as a hunger-fuelled university film student, constantly tormented by the daily decision of 'what to eat?' to start the day. Made as the capstone project to end my BFA in film production at the University of Regina, 'Breadhead!' came to fruition with the help of peers, fellow students, friends, and family-- all of whom I'm immensely grateful for.
My hope with this film was to shine a light on a frustratingly warped dilemma, while simultaneously exploring the origins of consumerist marketing that still today prey on the existential doubts of children and adults alike. Lacking the money and resources to craft a period accurate 50's aesthetic, my goal was to instead embrace the artifice of the production process, making the pastel idyllicism of what we think of the 1950's into a pasty facade that barely covers the grime and grit below it. This simultaneously lent itself to a much truer idea of the Canadian prairies in the 50s, which were fuelled by mining, industry, farming, and oil-- not the cleanest backdrops to navigate. The constructedness of 'Breadhead!' all the way down to the titular prop itself are a reminder that not all that which is marketed to us is truly as pristine as it may be made out to be.
