Intersection of Lives (2026)

INTERSECTION OF LIVES

“Intersection of Lives” unfolds as a polished, emotionally restrained urban portrait, weaving together family tragedy and tension, moral crossroads, economic pressure, and quiet desperation. In just ten minutes, the short suggests a much larger narrative shaped by the difficult decisions ordinary people face in extraordinary circumstances.

Strehlau’s cinematic approach is observational and patient, allowing glances, pauses, gestures, and unspoken grievances to speak as strongly as dialogue. Visually, the film embraces subdued realism: late-autumn light, raw interiors, and understated color palettes ground its world in authenticity.

SHORT SUMMARY

An urban mosaic drama about fractured America and the loss of human connection.

On June 21, 2019, three different lives collide at a Brooklyn intersection, taking us on a life-changing journey through an urban melting pot: a family struggling with poverty and systemic injustice, a man searching for meaning in an impossible love, and a wealthy broker confronting personal tragedy.

Blending realism with restrained cinematic storytelling, Intersection of Lives explores family conflict, moral uncertainty, economic pressure, and the fragile dignity of people in crisis.

The performances, even in brief appearances, are designed to feel lived-in: a son’s frustration, a father’s defensive sternness following the death of his wife and the mother of their sons, and a couple caught in an unconventional relationship. The restrained original score and moments of ambient silence underscore human vulnerability without sentimentalizing it.

If the short is any indication, Strehlau is building a larger story about moral accountability, fractured sociatety, and the complex ways people navigate the hardest choices in their lives.

ANIMATION PROCESS & HUMAN CREATIVE AUTHORSHIP

Explanation of Techniques by Daniel Strehlau

My human-authored animated short is based on my original 1997 screenplay, Three Stories, later renamed Brooklyn.

From March through October 2025, I created original drawings in Procreate, establishing the characters, environments, compositions, and dramatic direction. I used these drawings as source material to generate photorealistic images, which I then manually corrected and modified in Procreate on iPad to ensure that they accurately reflected my original artistic intentions.

These artist-modified images became the first frames and visual foundations for the animation.

From June 4 through August 20, 2026, working intensively—typically 6.5 to 7 days per week and 12–16 hours per day—I created the characters’ apparent movement and performances from these inanimate images, directing action, expression, gaze, gesture, timing, camera behavior, and continuity.

As new AI tools became available in 2026, I extensively revised, replaced and expanded the animation, ultimately creating the final approximately 10-minute version.

Throughout the process, I rejected, regenerated, corrected, selected, manipulated, and edited the results until they matched my creative intent. I edited the film entirely myself.

AI tools—including generated voices—served as production and animation tools. All creative decisions concerning acting, emotion, casting, dramaturgy, movement, performance, visual storytelling, and final editing were made by me and remain under my human creative authorship.

Filip Kuncewicz served as both sound designer and composer of the film’s original music. The rotomasks of Adobe After effects was used by rotomask artist Szymon Tomiło to cover clean movement between character – content of TV screen and TV monitor in the image. The color correction was made by Witold Basiewicz on DaVinci to systemize colors.

AI AS AN ANIMATION TOOL

Intersection of Lives was created solely by Daniel Strehlau from his original story, e-drawings, storyboards, artist-modified images, and creative direction, using image-to-image, text-to-image, image-to-video, and text-to-video AI tools as part of the production process.

AI was used to transform these visual foundations into realistic cinematic motion. Nothing can replace the energy of real people, and while characteristics of AI-generated animation may sometimes remain discernible, Intersection of Lives offers a glimpse of the characters and world first conceived in Strehlau’s 1997 screenplay Three Stories and developed toward his future feature-film triptych, Brooklyn.

A NEW FORM OF INDEPENDENT ANIMATION

Created as a ten-minute realistic animated narrative using AI production tools to transform the director’s original visual concepts into cinematic motion, “Intersection of Lives” explores a developing form of independent filmmaking in which emerging technology remains subordinate to human authorship and dramatic intention.

SCREENERS, PRESS & INTERVIEWS

AMPAS qualifying screenings take place in Cinelounge Hollywood, September 21 – 27, 2026

Selected clips from Intersection of Lives are available for broadcasting and editorial coverage.

Director Daniel Strehlau is available for interviews and questions about the film, its creative process, and his experience using emerging AI animation tools to bring a long-developed cinematic vision to the screen: films@danielstrehlau.net

Directed by Daniel Strehlau

Written by Daniel Strehlau

Produced by Daniel Strehlau

Duration: 9 min. 49 sec.

Video: Full HD, 2K, 4K, Proress 422 HQ, DCP 2K, DCP 4K

Audio: 5.1 and Stereo

Any format and any codec available. 

Languages:

Audio – English

Subtitles – French, Italian, English CC

Daniel Strehlau d.b.a. The Windows Film Studio and Brooklyn the Movie LLC

Email: films@danielstrehlau.net

MMXXVI, USA – Poland