'Anna'
a short film
on dementia
This 5 minute stop-motion film explores dementia from the subjective perspective of Gus, a man with dementia. It showed in film festivals across the globe, and won awards from the Royal Television Society and won 'Best British Film' from Canterbury Anifest.
I directed and produced the film, working alongside an amazing core team of Dominic Povall, Jo Riley, Lucy Moesbauer, Kristina Rudenko and Harriet Memory.
The film used felted puppets and similarly textured sets to create a soft atmosphere, at contrast to the more disturbing events Gus witnesses. 2D faces were then drawn by hand over each frame to create more detailed and nuanced facial expressions.
The film was backed by personal experience and intensive research into dementia, to help us understand what it might be like to suffer from it, and create more compassion and empathy around what can be an alienating and devastating condition.
An article I wrote for the Fantasy & Animation publication on the subject of compassion and empathy through animation (based on this film) can be read here.
