MY DEAD DAD'S PORNO TAPES is as provocative an examination of life as it sounds. Prompted by his father’s death, director Charlie Tyrell pursues a deeper understanding of his emotionally-distant father in this documentary short by starting with what he left behind: a rather kitsch collection of pornography on VHS videotapes.

Narrated by director David Wain (dir. WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER) and told through a hybrid of stop-motion animation, home movies, and recorded phone calls, Tyrell presents an indiscriminate look into one’s material possessions as a way of understanding the complex nature of family relationships and their challenges.

Called “a spirited cinematic elegy” by The Atlantic, and “honest, funny, nostalgic and incredibly inventive” by Vimeo, MY DEAD DAD’S PORNO TAPES was released by the NY Times Op-Docs but first had its world premiere at Sundance in 2018, and went on to screen at festivals around the world, including SXSW (Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Short winner), DOC NYC, Tribeca Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival (Best Documentary Short winner), AFI Docs, Interfilm Berlin Short Film Festival (Most Exceptional Documentary winner), and Interrobang Film Festival (Best of Show winner). The film was shortlisted for an Academy Award for Short Subject Documentary, won the Webby for Best Short Form Documentary, was named one of TIFF’s Top Ten films in 2019, was awarded a Cinema Eye Honour in outstanding achievement in Non-Fiction Filmmaking, won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary, was a Vimeo Staff Pick, and won Best Documentary at the Short of the Week awards.