Jo Jo in the Stars is a twelve minute film that went on to win the 2004 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Short Film. Created and directed by Marc Craste, it was inspired by "The Carny", a song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds featured on their 1986 album, Your Funeral... My Trial'. The song is also featured in the soundtrack of Wings of Desire directed by Wim Wenders in 1987. As the film director said, “"The Carny" combines circus music from hell with a wonderful story about a bunch of freaks, their sadistic owner and an old horse named Sorrow. Because the lyrics read like a short story, it seemed to suggest a film - a straight visual interpretation of the text.”
The film tells the story of a silver-plated trapeze artist, Jo Jo, who is worshipped from afar by an unnamed figure who learns that love rarely ends happily. In a bleak and brutal world, two lovers make a desperate stand against those who would destroy them. Love, self-sacrifice, heroism and murderous jealousy are played out against a black and white world that is both nightmarish and hauntingly beautiful.