In this love letter to artists, their art and its audience, a filmmaker is confronted with rejection after rejection until, at last a beautiful fig tree bears sweet fruits. “Conversations with a Whale” was created directly under the camera lens, using various analogue animation techniques.
"Anna Samo, or her animated alter ego in Conversations With A Whale has a charming appearance that evokes memories of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novella “The Little Prince”: the crown, the cape, the essential questions surrounding one’s own existence and a wee plant that is taken care of with lots of love are there. Not a rose though, but the tree of encouragement, as it turns out."
Marina D. Richter / UBIQUARIAN
8 min 45 sec // DCP // colour // English // 1:1,85 // Dolby Digital 7.1 // other available formats ProRes 422 HQ and H264
PÖFF Shorts (Black Nights Film Festival) - Tallinn, Estonia
International competition, November 2020
Etiuda&Anima – Krakow, Poland
International competition, November 2020 – special jury mention
KABOOM Animation Festival – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Short docs competition, March 2021
Mecal Pro: Int. Short and Animation Film Festival - Barcelona, Spain
Animation competition, March 2021
Tampere Film Festival – Tampere, Finnlad
International competition, March 2021
Seattle International Film Festival – Seattle, US
Short films competition, April 2021
Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands
International competition, April 2021
Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) – Stuttgart, Germany
International competition, May 2021
Annecy International Animation Festival – Annecy, France
International competition, June 2021
Anna Samo was born in 1980 in Moscow, Russia. On her first animation job in Moscow she scanned and colored hand drawn animation for director Ivan Maximov. For the first time she witnessed how thousands of separated drawings put together suddenly turn into a living character. She experienced the tickling feeling of surprise and wonder. This feeling has not left her ever since. Anna studied animation in Moscow and Berlin. She was a master student with Professor Gil Alkabetz who encouraged her to create very personal work and to strive for her own authentic voice. As an independent filmmaker she uses a variety of analog animation techniques to create her own films.
With her husband and two kids Anna relocated to the US in 2013. Anna’s films have been screened and won awards at highly acclaimed film festivals around the globe such as Berlin Film Festival - Berlinale, Annecy Film Festival, Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Films, Animafest Zagreb, Aspen Shortsfest, Sundance and Palm Springs, among others.
Anna lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
2008 Hello Antenna (together with Veronika Samartseva) - 4:40min | cut out animation
2009 Hokus-Pokus - 4:12min | hand drawn animation
2010 white no white - 7:00min | sand animation
2012 Little Plastic Figure (together with Veronika Samartseva) - 3:10min, pixilation, stop motion, clay
2012 Eyes Closed - 6:00min | Animadoc | hand drawn animation
2013 Fish - 2:00min | Animadoc | hand drawn animation
2016 The Man is Big - 9:30min | paint on glas
2018 OBON (co-directed with Andre Hörmann) - 15:00min | animadoc | hand drawn in TvPaint
2019 The Opposites Game (together with Lisa LaBracio) - 4:00min | stop motion | drawing
2020 Conversations with a Whale - 8:40min | stop motion, pixilation, cut out, drawing
art, direction and animation by Anna Samo
produced by Tom Bergmann
music and sound design Merche Blasco
with the voices of Lisa Labracio, Merche Blasco Jason Patience, Biljana Labovich Jeremiah Dickey, Abdallah Ewis Bethany Cutmore-Scott
sound re-recording mixer
Benjamin Beladi
additional sound design, foley and mix David Jalbert
STAMP executive producers Carl Vaudrin, Powys Dewhurst, Benjamin Beladi
colorist Will Cox online editor Kevin Caby post production services Final Frame
a production by Tiger Unterwegs Filmproduktion
MAGNETFILM GmbH
Georg Gruber
Berlin, Germany
+49 (0)30 - 246 281 56
info@magnetfilm.de
www.magnetfilm.de
See Through Films
Kathleen McInnis
Los Angeles, US
+1 - 310 733 9805
k.mcinnis@see-throughfilms.com
www.see-throughfilms.com
Tiger Unterwegs Filmproduktion
Tom Bergmann
Berlin, Germany and New York City US
+1- 312 672 1653
mail@tiger-untewergs.de
www.tiger-unterwegs.de