Born In Captivity

Experimental Short Film (China / 2015)

A short film about a bird that will never be free

“Born In Captivity” is the only animated short film I ever attempted and, as such, can be described as a simple experimental and atmospheric project. The idea for the short film was born during a rather dark and depressing period of my life and helped me canalize some of my more oppressive emotions into a productive project. The film was created in the winter of 2015 during the second half of my one-year stay in Tianjin, China.

The heavy air pollution in Tianjin during the winter months made it inadvisable to spend time outside and created a claustrophobic and suffocative atmosphere. Combined with other personal problems I had at that time, I really needed to do something productive to distract myself. In China, I did not have a camera or other necessary tools to create a normal short film. Therefore, I decided to create a digital shadow-play, despite not having any experience with this medium.

Apart from the visual style of the short film, the music also plays a crucial role in conveying the desired bleak and gloomy mood. For the soundtrack, I used an old piano improvisation I recorded some years before, which somehow worked well with the visuals. While I am not particularly happy with the outcome of this project, looking back it still holds a lot of meaning for me. It is a great reminder of how I felt and where I have been and do not want to go back to.

Over the years, I surprisingly got complimented a lot on this short film and it was one of the reasons I was contacted by Savino Napoleone and Raffaele Ferrante, with whom I produced the short film “Il Velo Di Gila” in 2018.