Julien Neaves, Sci Fi Head Writer
As a film and television reviewer I spend most of my time watching content with big budgets, or at least reasonably high ones. But I also have respect for the zero-budget, guerrilla filmmakers who do not let the obstacle of no cash crush their passion for creativity. Hey, that was some good alliteration there.
So when I saw a CNN article about Critics Company, a group of young Nigerians making no-budget Sci Fi short films, I had to check it out. The enthusiastic youths have become quite the viral sensation and their YouTube page currently has more than 101,000 subscribers. They have several shorts of varying length but for this article I chose their fan film Another Star Wars Story. You know I love me some Star Wars.
The film, which clocks in at just under three minutes, sees two prepubescent Nigerian girls as Jedi Knights battling Darth Vader. Well, a guy in a cheap-looking Darth Vader costume. The story itself is a light and sweet one that wears its love of the Hollywood franchise on its sleeve. My favourite scene is where one of the girls asks for a pink lightsaber. #totesadorbes. The shoestring budget is quite obvious, but it is still amazing what they were able to accomplish visually when shooting on a phone and utilising their self-taught video editing skills.
So if you have a few minutes to kill and you’re interested in a different kind of Star Wars fan film do check out Another StarWars Story at this link here and do show these guys some love.
For more Star Wars you can check out my Top 16 Mandalorian Moments by clicking here. Or you can check out my review of Star Wars: Resistance by clicking here.
Julien “Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “12 flavours of awesome sauce”. I can also be found posting about TV and movie memes, news and trailers on Facebook at Movieville. And to stay on top of all Redmangoreviews articles you can like and follow us on Facebook here.