Short of the Week: Xenogenesis, a James Cameron film funded by dentists
A true master of the cinematic spectacle, James Cameron has proven time and again that betting against him is nothing short of madness. The director of global phenomenons such as The Terminator and Titanic has been written off multiple times, but Cameron has always responded with record-breaking box office numbers. The latest example of this is Avatar: The Way of Water, which grossed more than $2billion at the global box office.
Before its release, many critics predicted that Cameron’s long-awaited sequel would not be successful at all since Avatar didn’t have any lasting cultural impact. However, the latest addition to the franchise outperformed almost all its competitors and became one of the highest-grossing films in the history of cinema, just like its predecessor. Given Cameron’s mastery over epics designed for large screens, it’s almost impossible to imagine his humble origins.
For this edition of Short of the Week, we have decided to highlight his 1978 sci-fi short, Xenogenesis. After dropping out of community college and working part-time as a driver and janitor, Cameron was inspired to make movies after witnessing the magic of Star Wars. He researched special effects and sought funding from a group of local dentists who were looking for tax breaks before collaborating with his friend Randall Frakes on the short film.
It revolves around the story of Raj and Laurie, remnants of a techno-human civilisation who look for a new place to begin again. During a conversation with Slashfilm, Cameron revealed that he still had plans for a potential revival. The director said: “Well, I’m like the Native American tribe that kills the bison and uses every part of it. I think there might be still some stuff back there in Xenogenesis, I should probably go reread it, you know?
“It was obviously just an excuse to jam in all the cool ideas that my friend Randy and I could think of when we were writing it,” he added. “The very fact that we were having to create a narrative that tried to connect the dots of all these cool ideas is the flaw of the script. I did reread it recently. It’s not bad, but it’s kind of all over the map. I could have taken any one of ten ideas in that and [added] it up into a feature story.”
Featuring precursors for many of his later works, including The Terminator, Xenogenesis is interesting but mostly for historical purposes. Although it demonstrates Cameron’s curiosity about special effects and the technical side of filmmaking, it can almost pass as the introductory scene of a lewd B-movie. Watching it with the knowledge of Cameron’s future achievements only makes his journey that much more impressive.
Watch the film below.