Rocks in my pockets

Rocks in My Pockets - Signe Baumane

“Rocks in my pockets” is an animated project by Signe Baumane, it looks to be something different. A funny film involving the serious subject of depression, I can see no other way to explain the story than the synopsis from the official website.

Synopsis

Signe lives in 2010, in New York. She observes her mind always turning to self-hating thoughts that inevitably end in the desire to kill herself.

Where those thoughts come from? We are told that genes predetermine many of our diseases, likeskin cancer, uterus cancer and others. Is a mental illness genetically predetermined, too?

Signe investigates her closest relatives, starting with her grandmother Anna.

Anna was a brilliant student, intelligent and pretty. But she came out of age in a conservative country in the times when women were not expected to have careers. She married an adventurous man who insisted in procreation. They produced 8 children and Anna had to take care of her large family.

Anna was found trying to drown herself in a shallow river near her house.

She eventually died at age 50. Her children, who were very attuned to protecting the fragile reputation of their family, carefully covered up the causes of her death.

The time passes. Anna’s children have their own children. One of Anna’s granddaughters Miranda tries to kill herself after childbirth. She is locked in a mental hospital where she finally succeeds to jump from a roof to her death.

Another granddaughter, Linda, succumbs to mental breakdown, caused by love troubles and over studying. She runs under a train. Granddaughter Madara obeying the orders of mysterious voices hangs herself.

Signe after giving birth to her son, starts having suicidal thoughts, so she goes to a psychiatrist. Signe is given a handful of pills and locked into a mental hospital. It seems, Signe will never free herself from the clutches of mental illness. But, miraculously, Signe escapes the fate of the others by divorce and by becoming a woman she once dreamed to be – an artist.

Vision:

As the story is driven by passionate voiceover, which gives the film a definite structure, the images don’t have to necessarily illustrate what is being told by the voiceover. The images may stray into the realm of visual allegory, of poetic interpretations of the things being told. Thus, images serve as a double narrative, with an experimental approach to visual storytelling.

In June 2010 Signe started working on paper mache backgrounds. The idea is to create 3 dimensional paper mache rooms, forests, houses, then take pictures of them with a digital photo camera, and use these pictures to draw 2 dimensional characters and 2D animated action on top. In this sense the film is experimental, as it combines two different animation techniques and skills – stop motion and drawn animation.

Here's the link to Rocks in My Pockets on Kickstarter. Some footage from the film to view :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O17D5ALHm8g Some

 I have also included some screen shots from the animation ( situated below)