The true and historically accurate tale of one tumbleweed that did not tumble.

Tumbleweed! is a fantastic execution of a rather unusual story thought up by Jared Varava and written by his brother Justin, starting off as a stop-motion thesis project idea for a friend of Justin’s. The idea quickly came back onto their laps after the student decided not to do it, and they decided to make a quick and easy short film out of it. An outcome that was in fact neither quick nor easy, taking over 3 years to produce.

At that point in time it seemed really easy, it seemed like a cool easy thing… grab a digital camera, get a CG artist that puts some stuff in, and in no time we’ll have another movie

– Excerpt from Jared Varava’s interview with directorsnotes.com

Created as a dramatic documentary, or rather a mockumentary, it can unwillingly also be seen as a humorous film, as they brilliantly exploit the weirdness of the story.

We always try to find the humanity in the absurd of the world.

The beauty of the film comes from its simplistic but lively cinematography and movement by Damian Acevedo, but also with a seamless integration of CG animation and breathtaking slow motion shots created by Ntropic and Travis Button. The film also includes an outstanding overhead stop-motion shot of the slow Tumbleweed moving forward through the years.

No one in their right mind would ever think a short film about Tumbleweeds would be possible, but Jared and Justin managed to bring together a very unusual story turning the Tumbleweed into a persona and documenting its unusual tumbless life.