To Do

3:14 minutes / 16mm / 2022

A reflection on productivity and the self-improvement industry, explored through the filmmaker’s attempts to participate in a modern mindfulness exercise.

Please get in touch for links to the work.

SCREENINGS / OFFICIAL SELECTION

  • 01/2025 - New Contemporaries, ICA (UK)

  • 10/2024 - B3 Biennial (GER)

  • 10/2024 - SMHAF, CCA (UK)

  • 01/2025 - New Contemporaries, The Levinsky Gallery (UK)

  • 09/2024 - Dream Sequence, SET Social Peckham (UK)

  • 06/2024 - Not A Genre! The Rio Cinema (UK)

  • 04/2024 - Tiny Film Festival (USA)

  • 11/2023 - Aesthetica Short Film Festival (UK)

  • 10/2023 - Raindance Film Festival (UK)

  • 10/2023 - Obskuur Ghent Film Festival (BE)

  • 10/2023 - FrontDoc (ITA)

  • 09/2023 - Short Focus Film Festival (UK)

  • 06/2023 - European Short Film Festival (GER)

  • 06/2023 - Walthamstow International Film Festival (UK)

  • 06/2023 - Fear No Film, Utah Arts Festival (USA)

  • 05/2023 - Process Experimental Film Festival (LV)

  • 05/2023 - Sydney World Film Festival (AU)

  • 05/2023 - Flatpack Festival (UK)

  • 04/2023 - Sunday Shorts Film Film Festival (UK)

  • 04/2023 - Underneath the Floorboards (UK)

  • 04/2023 - Alchemy Film & Arts Festival (UK)

  • 04/2023 - Toronto Film Week (USA)

  • 03/2023 - Ann Arbor Film Festival (USA)

  • 03/2023 - Glasgow Short Film Festival (UK)

  • 02/2023 - Brussels Independent Film Festival (BE)

  • 12/2022 - London Super Shorts Film Festival (UK)

  • 12/2022 - Los Angeles Super Shorts Film Festival (USA)

  • 11/2022 - London International Animation Festival (UK)

CREDITS

  • Film - Saul Pankhurst

  • Production - Charlie Pender

  • Sound Design - Cajm

  • Voice over - Mo Langmuir & Saul

PRESS

“I was most enthralled, though, by Saul Pankhurst’s three-minute animated critique of the self-care industry, To Do (2022). In this ingeniously edited piece, Pankhurst juxtaposes the banal spoken instructions of an online meditation class with a flurry of flickering,
madcap imagery…” - Alastair Sooke, The Telegraph 2025

—

“… tightly edited, amusing and astute 3:14 min commentary on modern society’s ongoing clash between mindfulness, technical “progress” and unmitigated consumption.” London Art Review 2025

—

“Saul Pankhurst also explores the false promises of safety in his hilarious and pointed animation short, To Do.” - David Andrews, Moving Image Art London 2025

—

“… my favourite film of the weekend… It’s a wonderful skewering of our hectic modern life and the pervasive self-improvement industry... a chaotic animated collage of images that’s part Pop Art, part Dalí, part Monty Python. Anyone who can’t escape swirling thoughts just before bed or during a post-yoga Shavasana will surely identify.” - Jamie Dunn, The Skinny 2023

—

“… scattered and humorously animated images of popular culture and everyday life fly before us, as though a digital version of a Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) collage. A swirling, whirring muttering list of things ‘To Do’ – from cancelling Amazon Prime to cleaning the hob – is just audible between the syrupy guided flow of Mo Langmuir’s podcast-worthy ‘Daily Calm’ feature. Will Saul’s take on a daily ritual help put viewer’s decision-fatigued minds at ease, or poignantly distract us with reminders of our own ‘To Do’s’?” - Bracken Jelier, Made in Plymouth 2024