Essay for quiz 2

The short film "The Stain" is a very interesting film. Putting an interpreted spin of a magazine article about a pair of twins shooting one another over a stain, the company Leeds animation brings a feminist side to the story.
The story starts off like any ordinary family fairytale, with a family starting and children growing. The way women are portrayed in this film is in a very limited manner. The oldest daughter is shown to be always hiding something. Whenever cleaning, she would be shoving dirty dishes and cloths into drawers. This could symbolize the way she is hiding the shame of having a child within the family and hiding the fact that she is the reason why her daughter is in the wheelchair. The young daughter in the wheelchair is also limited in travel. She is always shown looking out the window, imagining the world around her as a fantasy that she wants to be apart of but can't because of her condition. She is looked down upon as "the baby", not as the young girl that she wants to be. Both of these women show traits of women at the era this was made. Yearning for more, hiding away dirty secrets and being trapped behind the walls established by the men in the household. Themes that could be seen as a correlation with early feminist movements. The film, though short, brought the concept of how these two women were treated and how they felt like being entangled in a situation that would end with the situation dealing with the stain.
The reason why I choose this film is because I found it relatable and also found that it was interesting to look at. I found it relatable in the sense that I was the girl in the wheelchair in a way; except instead of not being able to walk, it was because I would always look out the window and imagine the possibilities of what things could be like if I had the courage to tackle daily challenges of social interaction. Also, I found this film visually interesting. Switching from 2D to Stop Motion to even a little bit of live action. The cleaning scene kind of freaked me out, but made me amazed as to how they pulled that off. Kind of inspiring, taking an article and using it as a creative prompt.

Quiz Two: Essay Extra Credit

The film that I am picking as one of my favorites (besides Feather Tale), was Wendy Tilby’s Strings. It was a simple film that kept me happy, worried and always questioning of what could happen next. Now I don’t usually pick favorite films based off of style of the film, I pick based off story. But this film’s animation style wowed me in an odd way, it wasn’t Disney/Pixar/DreamWorks “perfect” and it wasn’t the poor man’s style bad. It seemed like someone took a story book, and then animated the pictures to move and to tell the story rather than have me read it myself.  

 Tilby made me relate to almost all the characters in ways, by the way the moved, acted and reacted to life. It was the kind of film that made you wonder about everyone, and how things got to be, why were the boats so important to the Lady? What was this important dinner for? Did the two people know each other? Or was this the first time they met the neighbor upstairs? The story made me think of life and how when we grow old, we won’t care much about the hard things, but really a simple thing like a drop of water will make us go to the unknown and help out with someone in need before a light could fall and end a dinner.