January 22nd, 2025 
Jackson Murphy 
Seth and Peter Scriver are half-brothers and the directors and subjects of new animated documentary film Endless Cookie, which premieres in-person this Saturday Jan. 25 at the Sundance Film Festival and is available through the online platform during the fest. Seth, who is white, and Peter, who is mixed race (Indigenous and white), share this one-of-a-kind presentation of conversations and stories about their lives and family in Canada. Cookie Scriver (prominently featured in the doc) makes a special appearance in this Animation Scoop Q&A. Endless Cookie, which took nine years to make, is seeking distribution at Sundance. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: Congratulations on this movie. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in a long time and I love it. How does it feel to have your film be at the Sundance Film Festival? You’re about to be there for this big premiere.
Seth Scriver: It feels surreal. I don’t think we’ve really acknowledged it yet. I think we’ll know how it feels when we get there.
JM: This movie is conversations with your family members. It’s all animated, but also it’s a documentary about the making of this particular documentary. It’s very meta in that sort of way. Seth, I know you directed another film about a decade ago. Tell me about the origins of “Endless Cookie”.
SS: Pete’s a really amazing storyteller. We’d worked on a couple of short little projects where I animated little short stories of Pete’s before the previous, before “Asphalt Watches”. It seemed like the right time to record more stories. And it was like a good excuse to go hang out with Pete as well. And it started off as just recording Pete’s stories and then slowly it turned into kind of like a family portrait when everyone in the family kind of kept interrupting and neighbors and stuff. We were trying to get a clean recording and then eventually it just turned into more of a family portrait.
JM: You have quite the family. And I love what everyone says, the conversations, the stories that unfold, as well as the look of the characters. Pete, how did it feel having Seth record you and you being a great storyteller? How was the overall experience for you… in the early days of making this film happen?
Peter Scriver: Well, Seth came up with the idea to record and I thought, “Okay, I’ll just go along with it. I’ll just tell my story.” Basically just sitting around talking at the kitchen table, just hanging out together and me telling him stories. And I had no idea which ones were going to go in the film. He just kept recording.
SS: We have probably like three months worth of recording of nonstop stories and conversations. But as we worked on it, all the audio wasn’t put down at one time. It was more like little sections were done, and then I would go visit Pete and show him little parts that have been done and we’d talk about it and then record other stuff. Pete’s an amazing storyteller. And this happens, though, when you first get the mic pointed at you. I remember Pete being slightly nervous. It was hard to tell stories on the spot. The best stories are the ones that aren’t forced. The best stories are the ones that you remember all of a sudden — a great story from smelling something or something happening. So we tried to get those kinds of stories. Passionate and detailed stories.
PS: Yeah, just talking about something you know.
JM: There’s a number of great stories in this. You come back to a trap story. There is a pizza story about ordering anything you could possibly want and trying to see if it could get there in 30 minutes or less, which is hilarious.
PS: That was real.
Seth, Cookie and Peter Scriver
JM: I know! That’s amazing. And I think so many people are going to relate to these stories all over the world because of the universal themes that you have, whether it’s humor, whether it’s commentary. Seth, how important was it for you to incorporate not just these great stories, but you have a lot of commentary about being in Canada and your life growing up and life now?
SS: Even though it’s a real surreal visual, we tried to keep it truthful.
JM: And did it really take nine years?
SS: (off-camera): Hey, Cookie! Put your head in the camera for a second! (Back to me): Check out Cookie! Cookie was 11. Now she’s 20.
Cookie Scriver: Hi! I’m glad you like the movie.
JM: It’s nice to meet you. How does it feel to be a part of this documentary that’s now at Sundance?
CS: Well, I would say most of the time it just felt like a family thing. It felt nice talking and just telling stories with my family. I like listening to my dad’s stories a lot. So I didn’t think of anything. I didn’t think of Sundance. I didn’t know anything. I was young. I just thought it was fun. I really liked talking to my uncle. I liked seeing him because I barely see him. I didn’t think of what was gonna happen after this movie until I learned about Sundance. I was like, “Oh, okay.” I didn’t think it was that big of a deal until I realized that so many people like this movie and I kind of just thought this was just like this little family thing we had together and I didn’t really know so many people were gonna like it.
SS: It’s totally surreal for us.
PS: I’ve heard about Sundance I think twice since it started and wasn’t too concerned with what it was about.
JM: Wow. And Cookie and Pete, how did it feel when you saw the animated versions of yourself? The distinct looks. Did you like how you looked after nine years put into this?
PS: Well, people that know who I am, that have seen it, they know, they recognize me. (laughs)
CS: I’d say it’s pretty accurate, especially with my dad.
SS: Even my two year old. We put it on when the family was watching it a couple weeks ago and he was like, “Papa! Pete!” It was kind of shocking.
JM: And when it went into the look of these characters and their personalities, did you really try to have the personalities match the look in terms of how dynamic or the color choices?
SS: I mean, yeah, that was the goal.
PS: Everything matched. Just crazy. (laughs)
JM: You have some production companies, including Scythia, behind you, which is great. You’re looking for a major distributor. What are you looking for in terms of a distributor to take this movie and bring it to the masses this coming year?
SS: Looking for someone that’s respectful and not too hard to work with and has a wide range. I haven’t really thought about it in all honesty, kind of just leading up to this moment when finishing the movie and now organizing ourselves.
JM: You do a lot with time in the present day and in the past. How pivotal was it for you guys to have kind of an equal focus on these conversations that are happening now, but also these stories and what went on in the past?
SS: All great stories kind of time travel, in my opinion. That’s the punchline of the whole movie — telling stories and listening to stories about the past too, and that can help you with the present or the future.
PS: Family conversations at the table. It switches from the past to the present.
JM: And also the fact that this is meta. Early on, Seth, [we see] you’re pitching this to get a grant from the National Film Board.
SS: It’s a pretty true story. In the very beginning, we got a little bit of money to do it. A lot of the money got burnt just traveling up to Shimadawa because it costs the same as flying to Japan. With “Asphalt Watches”, it won an award at TIFF and we got all these letters from different granting bodies, like, “Whoa, you should apply to us for funding.” And it was like, “I did apply! You never sent me any money!” Now that I won an award, it’s easy to get a grant. So that was one of the things that allowed this to happen as well. It’s all kind of snowballing into one beautiful thing.
JM: And worth it — to take nine years of your life and to put your life out there like this.
SS: It definitely wasn’t that obvious along the way. It was really painful sometimes spending so much time working on it and just getting lost in it and being like, “Oh my God.”
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