Chapters

CHAPTER 1: Introitus

The outline of a female hides behind a patch of wild flowers, her blank expression speaks volumes to her mystery. Stepping out into the sunlight, holding nature in her hands, she brings us an odd feeling of beauty and comfort. Almost as quick as she appeared, her entire body ducks behind a collage of light, as our view rolls into a blackened abyss of Hell and Gothic darkness. For a brief moment, light eases the black template, and we see the young girl we saw exploring nature tied and bound to a band of vines, wrapped around her body. She fades from our sight with a violent burst of white energy. This is the introduction to the first chapter of "Broken Saints," perhaps the most philosophical work of art ever created. "Broken Saints" started out in 2001 as a free online flash motion-comic created by three friends living in their relatives' basements surviving daily on store-bought noodles, sitting in front of their computers trying to make something available to everyone for no charge whatsoever. The internet has undergone a transformation since then. At the time of this writing, it has been eleven years since BS first splashed monitors, and porn used to dominate most of the activity internet-users turned to. However, with the success of YouTube, Facebook, and pop culture "memes" filling the minds of PC-junkies, art has found a permanent, and significant, place on the web.

"Broken Saints" is some twelve hours long, split into twenty-four chapters published online between 2001 and 2003. Centered on philosophical, religious, political and spiritual themes, it tells the story of four strangers from "the quiet corners of the globe" connected by a vision they all receive of a coming evil. Their search for the truth behind the vision leads them to each other and to far larger and more disturbing truths than they could have expected. The details of their respective visions vary, but each one contains the particular image of a giant red eye, accompanied by a terrific and tremendous electronic screech. With references to "The Matrix," "Donnie Darko," "Fight Club," and "The Wizard of Oz," BS is not only a pop culture treatment, but also a commentary for cult-classic followings.

The word "Introitus" makes its way onto the screen in the first chapter, with a nebula backdrop for effect. Before the action begins, a quote introduces us and leaves us in the beginning and end of each chapter. For example, in this case: "Seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line. For self is a sea boundless and measureless, and the soul walks upon all paths." The quote is by Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer who died in 1931. After these words of thought fade into a black nothing, a female's voice speaks to us: "I dream, I dream of a different world, a world where the old Gods meet the new, where unseen hands caress empty faces, a blissful union, where all is understood." The voice is that of Emmy-award winner Janyse Jaud. Her character is Shandala, an 18-year-old living a life of paradise. She came to the uncharted Fijian island of Lomalagi (which translate to "Heaven" in Fijian) as an orphan, floating on a piece of wood in the ocean near the shore. The island's tribal chief, Tui Nisinu, adopted her.

We are introduced to Shandala through fabulous and beautiful dialogue featuring birds, the sand, and the ocean. She remarks for instance "I dwell in paradise" and calls herself "blessed" to live on Lomalagi. However, this soon changes when Shandala remarks "something is lurking." The images of herself and family telling stories around a roast-fire at night quickly alter to her cat, Bula, trapped in a tree after a rabid dog chased her there. We see the dog's face, growling and in pain, gnashing its teeth, "fighting to be free" from its suffering. In a final closing statement to her opening, she comments: "I cannot hide from it, or from myself."

"Hiding." We now focus on Oran, a man left to think alone while hiding in a bunker, pondering on "the horror" of his "deeds." With a final snap, his mind descends into madness, and he begins a rapid hallucination of an unknown enemy, in the form of the dead, possibly those he has killed in the past as an Islamic radical. Screaming, begging for an answer as to why Allah is punishing him so, we are left with "WHY" which cross-fades into Kamimura, looking for an aswer