Title: Contagious (2025)
Medium: AI-assisted animation (MidJourney, Runway)
Duration: 2 min 33 sec
Artist: Makwaia
Music Studio: Invite Only
Production: Pat Kelly, Brandon Ferguson, Aidan Brody, Will Campbell, Doc Velasquez, Makwaia
Mix: Will Campbell
Master: Eric Castillo
Contagious is a cyberpunk-inspired animated short that merges AI-generated visuals with a narrative of resistance and transformation. Set in a dystopian near-future New York City, the film follows Orpheus, a lone figure fleeing surveillance drones, weaving through explosive battlegrounds, and joining a protest movement fighting against an oppressive regime. Amid the chaos, she comes face to face with a riot police officer- only to see her own face reflected beneath the visor.
This moment of recognition underscores the central theme of the piece: “Hatred is contagious / and they like us until they cage us / cuz we’re kindred in our dangers / so now only love can save us.” Rather than succumbing to division, the opposing sides unite, hacking into the system to take down the surveillance state and reclaim control over the city’s power grid.
Blending anime aesthetics with AI-generated animation, Contagious challenges our perception of identity, complicity, and collective action in an era of hyper-surveillance. It is the fifth chapter in Makwaia’s Orpheus EP, a multimedia exploration of identity, illusion, and sovereignty in the digital age.
This work invites viewers to question the systems that divide us, and to imagine a future where resistance and reconciliation are equally revolutionary.
