As a child, one might have encountered those times of imagining oneself  in certain desired conditions as a measure of an escape from reality; it could be a fantasy of being a superhero, meeting the tooth fairy,  or perhaps, like the case of this movie: riding a rocketship.

Although it is considered normal (it is even considered important for a child’s cognitive development by the psychologists), what if one day, we “walk the line between the reality and imagination”?

“Worlds We Created” is a short movie written and directed by Nicholas Santos, a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Nicholas himself described the movie as his “attempt at recreating that feeling when you stop living in your imagination so much” and “when the harsh realities of life really kick in.”

Set in 1969, the movie centers on the story of a 12-year-old boy who has a huge fascination towards rocketships, which could be conceived by the way he watches rocketship tv shows and the things in his room that are connected to rocketships. Later in the movie, it is shown that the boy plays a pretend war with two of his friends: The Bully and The Four Eyes. And this is when reality and imagination start to intersect.

This movie was originally named “Rocketship” but then changed to its current title as the makers thought the latter appeared to be more accurately depicting the idea of the movie. It has won awards at the Festivus Film Festival, Suffolk Film Festival and HollyShorts Film Festival and is also the official selection of  22 film festivals such as DC Shorts Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival, Tallgrass Film Festial, Boston Underground Film Festival, and more.

Subtle in storytelling, stunning in cinematography and solid in meaning, Worlds We Created is bound to be one of this year’s best short movies.

Text by Siti Hartinah Putri