The Water’s Reach

Have you ever felt a sudden feeling of melancholy loom over you, hitting you like a wave of sadness? This familiar dread happens to wash over the young protagonist Maren in my short film “The Water’s Reach”, as she sets off on a journey in search of a safe place to let the feelings out that she had tried so hard to suppress.

This short film explores the tendencies of denying & bottling up your emotions, to the point where you may succumb to their greater power of grief, anxiety or perhaps even loneliness. The latter is exactly what happens to Maren, and she cries in an attempt to regulate those emotions. However, this literal lake of tears she created over the years turns into a giant, monstrous water-being, that wants to drown Maren in her sorrow.

This film was made using mixed-media techniques, combining digitally painted frame by frame animation with graphite & ink textures for the backgrounds.