Chippy and the sense of life

Short film

Valerie Schaller, 2026
Camera / Editing / Direction / Voice
Music: Christian Tschinkel
Butoh performance: Aki Yo, Mad Chung

(Duration: 16.58 min)

Chippy, a chipmunk who questions the meaning of life, addresses the crises that artists in particular can repeatedly find themselves in, and how they must struggle with great effort and discipline to escape the meaninglessness of existence and creation itself.

Chippy finds strategies to “save himself” by visiting friends to see what they are doing. With brief glimpses into workshops and studios accompanied by humorous dialogues, Chippy introduces us to different ways of life and continues to ask questions about the meaning of reality and reflection.

Part of this film are daily drawings created around 2025 that sketch “the special moments of everyday life” as a series.

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