What was your PPSL film about? 

“It is a stop motion claymation animated film about a girl named Lily who is struggling with depression and an existential crisis, which is manifested in her entire world being made of Play-Doh. She sees it as kind of meaningless and all the same, but she learns to find the beauty and absurdity in that.” 

Was there any unexpected about the filmmaking process?  

“I was surprised by how good it was for me to make it. I think for me, visual art puts my brain in kind of a meditative or quiet state and I was able to process a lot of the stuff that the film is about and think more about it. Having hours to just be there, moving things little by little, gave me a lot of time to think about my life. And by the end of it, I felt actually a lot more grounded than I had at the start. So that was very surprising, and I loved that.” 

What did you gain from the PPSL experience? 

“It gave me a really wonderful community. I felt very close to basically every one of the PPSL fellows. We workshopped each other’s films and got to know a lot about each other through the films. It’s a very personal class and I am very grateful for that. I also gained all of their insights. If I was working on it alone, I don’t know if it would have been as meaningful or rich in terms of in terms of the feedback and perspectives that were given.” 

What advice would you give to somebody doing a similar project? 

“To go with your gut and go with what you’re passionate about, even if it’s a little strange or a little difficult or unconventional because I think that’s where you’re going to find the most joy and is going to be the most unique and notable for people. I went through stages of ‘my film should be like this because I’ve seen this before or my film should be like this because, this theme is always present in other films about depression’. And I just kept getting advice from people that no, do what feels really honest and is fun to you. And I think that was great advice.”