Dear Scrappy readers, I have a confession to make: Until this week, I didn’t realize short films on Vimeo can include a director’s commentary track. I made this discovery while watching Jordan Michael Blake’s 12-minute animated short, Paradise Man.
The film, a 2025 Sundance selection, combines various low-resolution animated GIFs to tell the story of a golf-addicted man, and his search for understanding in a vast universe.
While the style of the film and the storytelling are unique, watching the movie with Blake’s director’s commentary gives a shot-by-shot look into his thought process and technical process in creating the film.
You can watch it below, just be sure to turn on the director’s commentary in the audio settings: