Charlie Kaufman Debuts How to Shoot a Ghost at Venice

Charlie Kaufman will return to the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 1 with How to Shoot a Ghost, a 27 minute short that follows two recently deceased young people wandering the streets of Athens as they confront the residue of their lives. The film, directed by Kaufman and credited as written by poet Eva H.D., will debut out of competition and features Jessie Buckley and Josef Akiki in the lead roles. Kanopy, the library streaming service, is listed among the producers and will represent the film at the festival.

Described in the official synopsis as a "kind of Breathless for the afterlife," the short traces a translator and a photographer who meet in the city after death and drift through modern Athens, snapping photos of passersby and grappling with whether they are living or dead. The film stitches together street photography, historic footage and personal home movies, the trailer shows, and emphasizes themes of memory, longing and the way the present becomes the past.

Kaufman, who won the Academy Award for original screenplay in 2004 for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and is known for Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche, New York, Anomalisa and Im Thinking of Ending Things,...