What is the film about?

Produced as part of the 14th edition of Hothouse.

Cameron Kletke depicts an in utero skirmish between twins with spacious hand-drawn
animation, employing watercolours and pastel to plunge us into an intimate watery
universe where the umbilical cord becomes a prop in a comic battle of wills. Those little
elbows can be sharp.

What influenced it?

Cameron Kletke (Photo: Fannie-Laurence Dubé-Dupuis, courtesy of NFB)

I’ve always been inspired by Len Lye and Norman McLaren’s expressive audiovisual work. I
brought elements of their style into this film, for example by timing some of the action to the music. The water-colour and frame-by-frame animation techniques I used have been compared to Chris Hinton’s work, especially the camera motion and comedic elements in the film. I once interviewed artist and animator Amy Kravitz for a school project and since then have been inspired by her artistic process, which is non-linear and based on experimentation. My graduation film and this film followed a similar process—which was experimenting first and finalizing the storyboard last!

A little background information...

When brainstorming this year’s Hothouse theme, ‘Small Things Considered,’ I remembered how small my twin sister and I were, as well as the stories my mom told us about how ‘active’ we were in her belly. I’ve heard countless tales about how my sister and I ‘must have been fighting since the womb,’ and I created this film to dramatize this, using comedy and experimental methods.

Image: NFB

I also vaguely remember watching a documentary about how twins interact in the womb and how that can determine their personalities as they age, which is fascinating, but I was more intrigued with the concept of playing with that idea in a funny and visually captivating way, using childlike materials like crayons and paint. This, combined with how my sister and I used to (and still) fight, is the main inspiration for the film.

How was the film made?

The film was made with water-colour paint, pastel and water-colour pencil crayons. Playing with the materials and staying loose really allowed the animation to remain playful and expressive; it was a very rewarding process and included a lot of experimentation with different paper and materials.