Paradise Man (ii) Short Film: Sundance 2025 Animation Explained

Paradise Man (ii) is Jordan Michael Blake’s 12-minute Sundance 2025 animated short, built from stock GIFs in two months. Plot, themes, cast, how to watch.

Paradise Man (ii): The Faceless, Golf-Obsessed Sundance Short Made From Stock GIFs

A faceless man starts talking about golf, love and how he ended up where he is. That is the opening of Paradise Man (ii), a 12-minute animated short from director Jordan Michael Blake that played in the Animated Short Film Program at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. It looks unlike most animation, and the way it was made is as unusual as the film.

This guide covers what it is about, who made it, how it was built and how to find it.

Quick Facts

Detail	Info
Title	Paradise Man (ii)
Format	Animated short
Runtime	12 minutes
Year / Language / Country	2025 / English / United States
Director, writer, animator, editor	Jordan Michael Blake
Producers	Jordan Michael Blake, James Rodenhouse, Nik Sysuev
Executive producer	James Rodenhouse
3-D animator	Derek Holguin
Production companies	The American Standard Film Company and 7th Floor Films
Premiere	Sundance Film Festival, January 24, 2025, Library Center Theatre
IMDb rating	7.1/10 from 45 votes, with one award nomination listed
Making	Made in two months on a laptop from repurposed stock animated GIFs

Title note: The “(ii)” is part of the official title. IMDb lists it as Paradise Man II. Searchers may type either form, which is why this guide uses both.

Watch the Trailer

I could not confirm an official trailer. What does exist is a Sundance announcement post listing the film in its Animated Short Film Program, and a “meet the filmmaker” video embedded in Animation World Network’s feature. Check Blake’s official site and Sundance’s channels for current promotional material before you embed anything.

Watch the Shorts

The film’s own page on the Sundance player was available in person and online for the public from January 30 to February 2, with a separate earlier window for press and industry, and the player was region-restricted to the US and territories. That online window has closed, so there is no verified free full version to link right now. See “Where to Watch” for what to check.

Synopsis

Spoiler-light.

Paradise Man, a faceless figure, notes that he’s not sure how he got there. The official logline says he searches for meaning in an unknowable universe. Blake’s own description is more specific: Paradise Man’s obsession with golf is derailed when his mother has an accident, forcing him to look deeply within himself. The narration is reflective and rambling, moving from golf to love to identity. The character appears on screen and immediately starts waxing poetic about life, golf and love.

Creative Team

• Jordan Michael Blake (writer, director, producer, animator, editor): He did almost all the creative work himself.
• James Rodenhouse (producer and executive producer): He backed the project, and Blake asked him for rent money so he could skip other editing work during the two-month sprint.
• Nik Sysuev: Producer.
• Derek Holguin: 3-D animator.
• Co-producers: Gregory Barnes, Benjamin Buxton, Ariel Gardner, Fidel Ruiz-Healy, Tyler Walker.
• Co-executive producers: Perry Andelin Blake, Alan Au.
• Companies: The American Standard Film Company and 7th Floor Films.

Festival Journey & Recognition

The film’s festival story is simple and strong: it was selected for Sundance 2025. Sundance announced the film on December 16, 2024 as part of its Animated Short Film Program. A local arts magazine also covered it during the festival.

It has an extra layer of meaning for Blake. He had previously edited and produced The Touch of the Master’s Hand, a 2021 Sundance entry, but the pandemic kept him from attending, so this selection was his first in-person Sundance with his own film.

IMDb lists one nomination in total. I could not verify which award that is, so don’t claim specific wins or nominations unless you confirm them.

The Origin Story

The idea came from a hard period in Blake’s life. He told Animation World Network that grief and personal difficulties had left him feeling that his old self was dying. A memory pulled him out: his mother used to squeeze his hand three times to say she loved him, and he did the same to himself. That led to the film’s arc, which contrasts an obsession with being something with finding love for yourself.

The look came from an unusual challenge. After rewatching Oskar Fischinger’s experimental animation An Optical Poem, Blake wondered whether he could do with stock images today what Fischinger did with paper cut-outs in the 1930s. He tested whether he could make an emotional film around a character without a face. After about a year of experiments, he asked his producer for two months’ rent and wrote and animated the whole film in that time. He used a text-to-speech voice for the narration, which let him write while animating, with no formal script. Working almost entirely alone, he became nocturnal during the sprint.

Visual Style

The film’s signature is its materials. It was made mostly from repurposed Adobe stock animated GIFs, originally meant for polished corporate presentations. Blank-faced stock figures become the cast, and a looping, slightly mechanical motion gives the film an eerie, hand-assembled feel. ScreenRant noted that the reliance on blank-faced stock characters sets it apart from other shorts and reinforces its themes about identity. Blake also used a grain effect to create an optical illusion, a detail he credits for giving him confidence in the approach.

Key Themes

• Identity. A character with no face and no clear origin asks who he is without his obsessions.
• Obsession versus self-love. Golf stands for the pursuit of being “something,” set against a quieter kind of self-acceptance.
• Family and care. The mother’s accident is the event that shakes the character, and the origin story shows how central parental love is to the film.
• Existential drift. The narrator is unsure how he arrived anywhere, which gives the short its dreamlike, searching tone.
• Spiritual questioning. Blake left the Mormon faith, and a scholar reviewed the film in the Journal of Religion & Film, which suggests a religious reading is possible. That is an interpretation, not something Blake has stated.

Critical Reception

Coverage is mostly festival previews and filmmaker interviews, with limited formal criticism. Animation World Network called it unlike most other films you’ve seen. ScreenRant and No Film School both profiled it, and a peer-reviewed review appears in the Journal of Religion & Film (2025), written by William L. Blizek. Audience scores are positive but small in number. Reaction is not uniform: at least one viewer on IMDb said the film’s abstract style left them unsure what to make of it. For ranking purposes, this is one of the few shorts of its year with press from both animation and film-school outlets.

Where to Watch

• Festival window: The Sundance online screening ended in early February 2025.
• Official channels: Check Jordan Michael Blake’s website and the film’s social accounts for any new release or screening news.
• Festival circuit: After Sundance, shorts often play other festivals and sometimes come to a streaming or video platform later. I could not confirm a current public release, so verify before publishing a “watch now” link.

Director’s Journey

Jordan Michael Blake is a writer and director who left the Mormon faith to make films at NYU. He is also known for founding a spoof Taco Bell film festival, which signals the playful side of his work. Before Paradise Man (ii), he edited and produced a 2021 Sundance entry, The Touch of the Master’s Hand.

He has said he hopes the character can grow. ScreenRant’s interview was headlined around the idea that the world of Paradise Man (ii) could evolve into a series or even a feature after Sundance, and it also touches on how this film differs from other “Paradise” projects. That makes this short a good entry point to watch for.

FAQ

1. What does the “(ii)” mean? It is part of the official title. I found no source explaining it, so I haven’t guessed.
2. Who made Paradise Man (ii)? Jordan Michael Blake wrote, directed, animated and edited it.
3. How was it animated? Mostly from repurposed stock animated GIFs on a laptop, over about two months.
4. Where did it premiere? At the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, in the Animated Short Film Program.
5. How long is it? 12 minutes.