Jet Lag

2025 · 6 min · Animation

Using rotoscope animation and the stylized aesthetic of classical airline safety brochures, the short film “Jet Lag” adapts Christopher Schaberg’s acclaimed nonfiction book "Airportness: The Nature of Flight" for the screen. Using the seemingly simple concept of ‘waiting in an airport’, the film explodes notions of not just modern air travel, but everyday life – how we struggle to get along with one another, manage our time, and use the space around us to maximum efficiency. Employing a tongue-in-cheek, almost stream-of-consciousness narration, the film playfully communicates the shifting complex emotions, anxieties, frustrations, and excitement that coincide with air travel. The tedium of waiting, the confusion of boarding, the nervousness of departure, the euphoria and relief of arrival. Beginnings and endings. At the airport.

Directed by Dustin Morrow