The
most recent film of the incredibly talented stop motion filmmaker Kirsten
Lepore, Move Mountain is a marvel,
both from a technical and narrative standpoint, grounded firmly in the wordless
story of a girl’s journey to cure her debilitating illness.
From
the very first scene of the 10-minute-film – Lepore’s CalArts thesis film for
her Masters in Fine Arts – the feeling
of Kirsten’s growth as an artist seems quite apparent, a feeling which is further
enforced when comparing the animation with some of her her earlier short films,
Sweet
Dreams and Bottle. Boasting much
technical achievement – from the countless trees, streams, and other environmental
effects populating each shot, to the small army of characters in the cave-rave
sequence starting around 4:42 – Move Mountain seems to also mark a heightening
of Kirsten’s technical ambitions and ability. Although one thing that remains
consistent – from her earliest work to this film – is Kirsten’s charming and pleasantly
naïve artistic voice. Something about it makes each of her films startlingly
intimate, charming, and youthful in feel.
In
an
interview with Booooooom, Lepore mentioned that the film was partially
inspired by the song “Colouring of Pigeons” by The Knife, and also by her own
struggle with chronic illness. It’s a
beautiful film and one that speaks volumes about the nature if illness and the
journey to recovery. The film has an interesting aesthetic, as well. One of the
scenes I found the most interesting from both a thematic and technical
standpoint was the rave scene, which features several puppets created by other
CalArts alumni, each of which seem to belong the world of the film in a very unique
way. From start to finish, the film took Kirsten two-and-a-half-years to make –
practically an epoch when compared to the 9 months it took her to make Sweet Dreams, a short film of almost the
same length.
You
can go watch the film here
and the zany behind-the-scenes film here. If you’re
interested in exploring Kirsten’s work further, you can do so by visiting her website, Vimeo, Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. For an extended behind-the-scenes
look into Move Mountain, you can read
her
interview about the film by KQED. Below are posted some photos of the
making-of process for the film.
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