The Unknown Protagonist

For a time, the paper-products gimmick beat was owned by Nova Scotia born stand-up comic Murray Langston. With a brown grocery bag covering his head and two holes cut out for the eyes, Langston under stage name of “The Unknown Comic” did more than 150 Gong Show episodes, packed them in on the Vegas Strip and graced the comedy talk show circuit.

On November 5th, at the Silver Wave Film Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick, a second Canadian will showcase some similarly atypical face garb. Joel Thompson's 12-minute short Boxface depicts a man (William Beatty) whose struggles with anxiety and depression have led him to live with a cardboard box covering his head.

 

Thompson recently hinted in an interview with the Daily Gleaner that his film has been accepted into the 2012 Sundance Film Festival as well as the 2012 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and a Canadian Film Center event. So you'll likely be hearing more about this oddly constructed short.

As shot, the original ending was downbeat and has since been replaced with a more uplifting final turn. This despite the fact that the script for Boxface won a prestigious Linda Joy Award in 2009.

[Boxface]