Podcast: Remembering Rosto (‘Reruns’)
In the latest episode of our podcast series Independent Animation, we pay tribute to the work of Dutch filmmaker and multimedia artist Rosto, who sadly passed away back in March of this year.
A friend of Skwigly and significant contributor to the book on which this podcast series is based, Rosto’s enthusiasm and passion for his work is clearly demonstrated by the sheer volume of his output, from its humble beginnings in 1998 as the partially-animated Flash webcomic Mind My Gap to the grandiose spectacle of his epic, four-part Thee Wreckers Tetralogy, which concluded last year with its final entry Reruns following No Place Like Home (2009), Lonely Bones (2013) and Splintertime (2015).
With the first two films in the tetralogy serving primarily to conclude the metaphysical odyssey of Mind My Gap, the latter two focus more on the continuing adventures of Thee Wreckers, a spectral incarnation of Rosto’s one-time real-life band The Wreckers. Produced by frequent collaborator Nicolas Schmerkin of Autour de Minuit, Reruns takes a turn for the semi-autobiographical in featuring various projected states of Rosto’s own alter ego Virgil existing in an ethereal dream limbo of memory, artfully constructed and replicated from the director’s own existing home video footage.
Originally conducted for a piece in Marimo magazine, we’re very grateful to have the opportunity to present our final interview with Rosto shortly after the release of Reruns and its major win at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (direct download link here).
Rosto also featured previously as our guest in episode 48 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast, during the festival run of the tetralogy’s preceding entry Splintertime:
For more on the work and legacy of Rosto visit rostoad.com