“A Space Spot” | Jordan Michael Blake, Paradise Man (ii)
In Paradise Man (ii), Paradise Man searches for meaning in an unknowable universe…
This uniquely touching and philosophical film—which premiered earlier this year at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival—hails from director, writer, and editor Jordan Michael Blake, whose previous award-winning shorts include The Touch of the Master’s Hand (2021 Sundance Film Festival) and Dead Enders (2023 SXSW Film Festival); Blake also co-wrote and co-directed a segment for Adult Swim’s Off The Air and co-founded The American Standard Film Company.
Paradise Man (ii) screens Sunday, May 4, at the Music Box Theatre, as part of CFCA Shorts Program #2 (2:15 p.m.), during the Chicago Critics Film Festival.
Ahead of the screening, Blake graciously took the time to answer this year’s CCFF filmmaker questionnaire. Below, his individual responses.
How did you first become interested in filmmaking? What was your path toward directing your first film?
I grew up Mormon and, when you're Mormon, Sunday is a day where you’re only allowed to hang out with your family. For me, that basically meant my family would go to church, eat dinner together, and then go to Blockbuster and pick out a movie to watch. Even though I left Mormonism in college, those early memories of like... baking cookies and watching movies with my family... they've stuck with me. And watching a movie like that every week, after going to church and learning about "spiritual stuff" — I guess it kinda set me up to learn about life through movies, as well.
What inspired you to make the film you're bringing to the festival?
I was having a rough time, coping with anxiety and depression, and it just occurred to me that it was time to become my own person. In an especially rough moment, I had an experience where I took something my mom used to do to comfort me as a kid, and I used that little tool to comfort myself. That basically became the impetus for the movie.
Tell us about a film that you consider a guiding influence (whether it has informed your overarching vision as a filmmaker, directly informed the title you're bringing to the festival, or both).
Miyazaki was a guide for me, as I made this movie. Paradise Man is a movie without any real villains, and that's something I always appreciate about Miyazaki's movies.
Tell us about a location that's held significance to the film you're bringing to the festival: a setting where filming took place, a geographic area that provided a source of inspiration, or another type of space that comes to mind for you in thinking about the film. What made this place so special?
I have a 1996 Ford Ranger with a camping shell on the back, and it's got a whole cozy vibe in there — Tempur-Pedic bed, string lights, books and such... I went on a lot of super long road trips during the pandemic, where I was learning a lot of the stuff I ended up putting in this movie, and once I was animating, when I hit a snag... I'd just go out to my parking lot and lay down in the back of the truck. I'd look up at the ceiling of the shell that I'd looked at so many times... And it's just a comfortable, special little place for me. A space spot where things usually get figured out.
The theatrical experience brings us together to celebrate artistic experience and expand our horizons as human beings. Tell us about a memorable theatrical experience from your life.
I saw Pineapple Express on opening night my senior year of high school, and all the trailers were accidentally projected upside down and backwards, so people were losing their minds. It felt like it was maybe part of the movie, or a joke some stoned projectionist was doing, idk. But also, I have to say... Drag Me To Hell at the little theater by Dartmouth College... That theater experience was insane.
Paradise Man (ii) screens Sunday, May 4, at the Music Box Theatre, as part of CFCA Shorts Program #2 (2:15 p.m.), during the Chicago Critics Film Festival.