Rules Were Meant To Be Broken In Jeanette Jeanenne’s Short ‘Rules’

In this tongue-in-cheek short, Jeanette Jeanenne humorously examines the consequences — or lack thereof — of ignoring spoken and unspoken rules.

Rules — we all know them, and we all break them to some extent. Who hasn’t driven a little over the speed limit, urinated in a bush, run a red light at 3 a.m. when no one’s around, or rolled through a stop sign without coming to a complete stop? Often, there’s little harm in these minor transgressions, and even the most diligent rule-follower will eventually give in.

The film is divided into six chapters — Dogs, Fish, Hands, Buffet, Museum, and Field — where characters test societal norms in each unique setting. The cool, minimalist design, along with the somber orchestral score, contrasts with the film’s somewhat biting sarcasm.

Says Jeanenne, “There’s all these unspoken societal rules that most people follow out of common courtesy, and if we see they’re not followed, we (at least some of us) act horrified … or like some great injustice has been done. And I find this sort of ‘clutch the pearls’ reaction funny.”

Jeanenne is a Panamanian-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles who both directs (Woman in the Book series for Crypt TV and Facebook Watch) and produces (the Oscar-nominated short My Year of Dicks. She is also the founder of the currently-on-hiatus GLAS Animation Festival.

Rules was produced for FX Networks by John Agbaje.