Nov 27, 2014

Oscar nominee Signebaumann on why animation hits live action for some stories

Not all feature filmmakers get invited to the fancy industry roundtables, but don't be quick to discount their work. Some of the independent and foreign productions merit a closer look, like Signe Baumane's micro-budget American/Latvian co-production Rocks in My Pockets, which qualifies as the gutsiest animated story of this Oscar season.

For her story about depression, she used events from her personal life and the lives of those around her as inspiration, including the death of a grandmother “under mysterious circumstances,” suicides of three cousins, and her own attempted suicide as a teenager. She's also probably the only filmmaker who managed to offend her own relatives with the animation she created, as she recounted to Vice:

See Also: Film Review: Rocks in My Pockets

In that same interview Baumane explains why she chooses animation to tell her stories over live-action:

The entire Vice interview is worth reading and a valuable reminder that there are plenty of diverse films contending for an Oscar nomination this year.