The new animated short documentary tore through the festival landscape and now they have their sights set on the Oscars as a contender. We sat down with director Nathan Fagan to talk about his process. 1. This film uses animation to convey lived experience; what were the earliest conversations like about combining documentary testimony with hand-drawn visuals? Very early on, I felt like animation was the … Continue reading INTERVIEW: Inside the Valley Sings
In an era when issue‑driven documentary cinema often teeters between advocacy and art, Nathan Fagan’s Inside, The Valley Sings stands out as a work of rare ambition and emotional clarity. With this animated documentary he offers us not merely a depiction of solitary confinement but an immersive journey into the mind of isolation. Rendered through the sinuous hand‑drawn animation of Natasza Cetner, the film transforms what could easily have … Continue reading OSCAR CONTENDING SERIES – Inside, The Valley Sings: A Visceral, Beautiful Cry from Within the Walls
BAFTA Qualifying short film BROTHERS is a heartbreaking dance with morality. We sat down with filmmaker Ross Syner to break down his creative process for the prestige film. INTERVIEW: BROTHERS explores grief and morality in an intensely intimate way. What first inspired this story, and how personal was it for you to tell? During lockdown, Leanne and I came across a true-crime story that sparked a … Continue reading INTERVIEW: BROTHERS
By Sally Green Few short films possess the narrative control and moral weight of BROTHERS. Ross Syner’s latest work unfolds with the taut precision of a stage play and the emotional intimacy of a confession. A grandfather, two grandsons, and an unspoken secret, that is all the film needs to interrogate the meaning of loyalty and the price of conscience. From the first frame, Syner’s direction … Continue reading OSCAR CONTENDING SERIES: Ross Syner’s BROTHERS grips with moral ferocity and emotional precision
In There Will Come Soft Rains, Afghan filmmaker Elham Ehsas offers a singularly powerful response to the climate crisis. Not through sweeping environmental imagery or catastrophe, but through a single woman’s quiet, defiant act of love. The short film which is now Oscar® and BAFTA-qualified, is one of the most radical pieces of climate storytelling in recent memory precisely because it refuses spectacle, and instead reaches … Continue reading THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS: Daring, Poetic, and Utterly Original
