''How to Be Alone'' is a Canadian short film, directed by

Andrea Dorfman Andrea Dorfman (born October 29, 1968) is a Canadian screenwriter and film director based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She directed the Emmy Award films ''Flawed (film), Flawed'' (2010) and ''Big Mouth'' (2012).Dorfman, Andrea. "Andreadorfman.com , ...

and released in 2009. The film animates a spoken word piece by poet

Tanya Davis Tanya Davis is a Canadian singer-songwriter and poet, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her style is marked primarily by spoken word poetry set to music. Background Born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, she moved to Ottawa for a time after ...

about things that a person can do on their own after the breakup of a relationship. The film premiered on October 6, 2009, at the

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festi ...

, and was subsequently broadcast on

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's ''

Bravo!FACT Presents ''Bravo!FACT Presents'' is a Canadian television series that was aired weekly on A and the arts channel Bravo from 2003 to 2010. The series presented an anthology of short artistic works, ranging from comedy to drama to opera to jazz to animati ...

'' short film anthology series. In 2010 Dorfman uploaded the film to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, where it quickly went

viral The word ''Viral'' means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). It may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spre ...

, attracting over a million views in a matter of a few weeks. In 2013 Davis released a book edition of the poem, with illustrations by Dorfman. In 2020, Dorfman and Davis released the sequel film '' How to Be At Home'', animating another spoken word piece about coping with isolation during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, as part of the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

's '' The Curve'' series.Dave McGinn
"Why the NFB’s breakout short film How to Be at Home leans into loneliness"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', October 19, 2020.

References

External links

* 2009 films 2009 animated short films Canadian animated short films Films directed by Andrea Dorfman 2000s English-language films 2000s Canadian animated films English-language short films {{2000s-animation-film-stub