Finding Home wasn’t as Easy as Surviving
Directed by Joseph Avery Dado
Release Date: May 31, 2024
Starring: Nathan Vadeboncoeur, Felissa Sotomayor
Synopsis: In the inflation era, Jacob, who recently got kicked out, is desperate to find a home, when landing on a cheap listing he doesn’t read the fine print, unknowing what he got himself into.
Director’s Statement
After the release of Mishap Station, I felt inspired to make more short films. The idea for The Split-Up came from an Instagram post I saw about a landlord renting out half of their bed, which struck me as both absurd and funny. With the economic crisis and rising inflation in mind, I wanted to create a comedy-drama that highlighted the real struggles many people face, while keeping a humorous undertone.
The film explores societal issues like housing insecurity and the lack of care for those in need. We follow Jacob, played by Nathan, as he is kicked out of his family home and becomes increasingly desperate, calling other family members to no avail. I intentionally kept the family small in the story to emphasize how independent and isolated Jacob has to be.
When Jacob finally finds a place to sleep and ends up in half a bed, it becomes a small but telling symbol of societal ignorance and compromise. Since we used the same actors from Mishap Station, I decided to frame this film as a prequel to that story, showing the early stages of the relationships we later explore. While it is comedic, at its core The Split-Up reflects the very real challenges people face in difficult times.
Production
After the release of Mishap Station, Dado began searching for ideas for his next short film. He came across an Instagram post from Pubity about room rentals in Toronto, highlighting “the other half of their bed.” Inspired by the post and the ongoing inflation crisis, he wrote a script that incorporated the Instagram story as a key moment in the climax.
Filming began on January 17, 2024, in downtown Montreal and continued over the course of a month and a week. The editing process took two weeks, resulting in a rough cut over eight minutes long. After test screenings and careful adjustments, the final version of the film was trimmed down to a concise five minutes.
Release
The film was originally scheduled for release in April 2024 but was pushed back to May 31, 2024 to maintain consistency with the studio’s release schedule, as many other short films were in production at the time. Several scenes were cut from the final version, including Jacob eating a Big Mac, sleeping on the escalator, and searching for another house. An extended version featuring these deleted scenes is available exclusively below.
