Title: The Conspiracy
Screener Link: https://vimeo.com/video/638682405
Password: *please contact Dasha directly for this password*
Description: Feature animated documentary.
Animation behind the scenes info: As director of animation for this feature length animated film, I had a set of exciting challenges. We had 100 unique historical characters and locations to depict. Our budget was a fraction of most animated feature films — 0.5% of the total budget of an average animated feature film, and only 6% of the animated doc “Persepolis”. The pipeline I designed in response was as follows: A 3D modeler sculpts historical characters in blender. 2 actors record mocap animation with an independent mocap studio (can be done remotely). 1 animator builds out scenes in Iclone using 2D assets created by the illustration team. 2 illustrators create 2D assets to build out Iclone scenes. The animator imports characters and mocap into Iclone scenes, and films in Iclone using 3D in-world cameras. The animator exports multiple camera angles (as if shooting live-action), and passes these shots to an editor to cut into a scene. The scene is then style transferred over by the illustrators with the help of a software called “Ebsynth”. The result: 3D animated scenes with the hand drawn texture and artistry of traditional 2D animation.
Title: Now I Am Old and Do Not Need the Moon
Screener Link: https://filmfreeway.com/NowIAmOldandDoNotNeedtheMoon
Description: Short documentary, shot on 16mm film.
In a small Roma village deep in Moldova, an old woman named Daria lives in fear of the Russian-Ukrainian war at her doorstep. Mischievous kids, watchful babushki, and stray dogs surround her. Alone in her hut, she contemplates love, the Soviet Union, and the tragedy that derailed her life as a young woman. Her television set fills the silence.
Title: Sunflower
Screener Link: https://vimeo.com/891479248
Description: Feature hybrid documentary (in production) — 16mm film + charcoal animation.
The village stoves are smoldering, and even the strays have ceased barking. A teenager pours gasoline on her grandfather and lights a match. A year later, Nadia fights to survive in prison while the village babushki gossip, and her young sisters play barefoot in the woods preparing for marriage. "Sunflower" is set against the backdrop of the Roma village of Ursari in central Moldova. Isolated by centuries of anti-Roma sentiment and policy, as well as by the strict internal customs of the Romani Kris, the village has become a prison to some women and a sanctuary to others. Ursari is populated almost completely by women-- all of whom are related by blood or by marriage, and whose ages span from 6 to 94.
Still shot of Ljuba Cantea from the in-production documentary film “Sunflower”. Ljuba is a 86 year old Romani woman who spent most of her life working on Soviet collectivized farms in Moldova and Ukraine. She is known in the village as “the smallest and toughest worker”.