Crafted over two years by Aidan and Ethan Sinconis, Past Present Futura traces the evolution of typography toward Paul Renner’s Futura, a typeface that became an enduring symbol of humanity’s quest for clarity, progress, and the future.

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Being typographer Ethan Sinconis’ passion project, the film represents over a year and a half of his intensive editing and design work, featuring more than 300 hand-animated images—each individually lit, composited, color corrected, and animated frame by frame.

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Structured in five distinct acts, each section employs its own visual style and editing approach. Many of the visuals were sourced from Ethan’s personal collection of rare typography books, including original 1930s Futura specimens. To achieve its most ambitious sequences, Ethan spent months studying discontinued visual effects handbooks, adapting analog-era techniques into modern workflows to create cinemagraph-like imagery—still images that appear to move.

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The project also marked Ethan’s first screenplay, developed through more than 14 drafts to refine clarity, structure, and narration. Direction was led by Aidan Sinconis, who shaped the film’s visual progression through an extensive color script and worked closely with narrator Jim McCabe, carefully guiding each recording to achieve a performance rich in tone, rhythm, and emotional nuance.

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Together, their work on Past, Present, Futura reflects an exceptional level of craftsmanship, persistence, and creative ambition.