by Kyna Morgan
Love and a severed foot at the end of the world.
Filmmaker and animator Julia Pott brings her new short film The Event to Sundance after having her film Belly screen in Park City in 2012. The Event resulted from Pott being approached by England's giant Channel 4 to create a film based on a poem by Tom Chivers. About this, Pott has said that this line from Chivers' poem inspired her: "Wearing Halloween masks we made love, and you said something really evil about a mutual friend." Such a great line! And recalling how she was inspired to create her previous film Belly, Pott described the process in a Huffington Post article as:
Love and a severed foot at the end of the world.
Filmmaker and animator Julia Pott brings her new short film The Event to Sundance after having her film Belly screen in Park City in 2012. The Event resulted from Pott being approached by England's giant Channel 4 to create a film based on a poem by Tom Chivers. About this, Pott has said that this line from Chivers' poem inspired her: "Wearing Halloween masks we made love, and you said something really evil about a mutual friend." Such a great line! And recalling how she was inspired to create her previous film Belly, Pott described the process in a Huffington Post article as:
Often when I begin a new film, my starting off point comes from passages in books. With Belly, it was a line from Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:
'She went home with her father, the centre of me followed her, and I was left with the shell of me'
Of course, this approach resonates with me because when I write, it's typically a line or a phrase, or even a bit of overheard conversation, that inspires me to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Oh, and I love that she mentions Jonathan Safran Foer, who is a wicked talent and a favorite author of mine.
Now, I'm not much of an animation fan, and I'm sure that's because I haven't been exposed to it enough, and also don't particularly understand how the process really works. Sometimes I can be a stickler for the rules, and there's something creative and "dangerous" about animation that secretly appeals to me, because there are no rules! (But I'm also the type of person that tends to like things so much more when I really understand them in detail.) I so very much want to describe Pott's film The Event to you, but won't. I think you should all watch it and see how it makes you feel. For me, there's a ridiculous and yet terribly melancholy feel to it that fits so perfectly with the narration. Watch below!
Now, I'm not much of an animation fan, and I'm sure that's because I haven't been exposed to it enough, and also don't particularly understand how the process really works. Sometimes I can be a stickler for the rules, and there's something creative and "dangerous" about animation that secretly appeals to me, because there are no rules! (But I'm also the type of person that tends to like things so much more when I really understand them in detail.) I so very much want to describe Pott's film The Event to you, but won't. I think you should all watch it and see how it makes you feel. For me, there's a ridiculous and yet terribly melancholy feel to it that fits so perfectly with the narration. Watch below!
Pott is a prolific animator and accomplished artist whose first film received over one million views on YouTube, and whose film Belly was an official selection at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. She wrote about her film in the Huffington Post's "Sundance Diaries" last year and was even named in 2012 as one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film."
While you can definitely see Pott's animation style in Belly is similar to The Event, the subject matter is quite different. In fact, it's very much a heartbreaking tale, and worth at least one viewing.
While you can definitely see Pott's animation style in Belly is similar to The Event, the subject matter is quite different. In fact, it's very much a heartbreaking tale, and worth at least one viewing.
Belly from Julia Pott on Vimeo.
Julia's film The Event screens on January 21 in Salt Lake City and on January 26 in Park City, Utah. (Read more.)
About the filmmaker
Julia Pott is a British animator and illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in animation and illustration at Kingston University in 2007, Pott completed an MA in animation at the Royal College of Art in 2011. Her thesis film, Belly, has screened at more than 60 festivals worldwide and received awards from the AFI Fest, Holland Animation Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival.
Julia Pott is a British animator and illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in animation and illustration at Kingston University in 2007, Pott completed an MA in animation at the Royal College of Art in 2011. Her thesis film, Belly, has screened at more than 60 festivals worldwide and received awards from the AFI Fest, Holland Animation Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival.