SHORT FILMS

Watch: 'Impossible Journey' A Maternal Health Care Animated Short

by Alex Billington
July 3, 2024
Source: Vimeo

"Maternity is a beautiful yet unequal journey." Did you know: 43% of black women have an increased risk of miscarriage. Black mothers are 2x more likely to experience post-partum hemorrhaging. This is a crisis that needs to be addressed. This beautiful animated short film hopes to bring even more attention to this maternal health care problem in America. Impossible Journey is a 5-minute animated doc film directed by a Brazilian directing duo known as "YUCA". The journey of two storks for another ordinary day of work will expose the urgent crisis. The film was built by a mostly female team. Each frame was printed & painted meticulously to reveal the layers of reality that our protagonist experiences throughout the story. It's quite stunning. Every aspect of the animation has metaphorical construction and meaning, just like all the whole project built around it. There's a terrific doc film titled Aftershock (available on Hulu) that is also about the unacceptably high number of issues Black women experience with pregnancy. Info on how to help here.

Thanks to Vimeo Staff Picks for the tip on this. Here's the brief intro from Vimeo: "Impossible Journey is an animated short film that addresses the urgent crisis in maternal health care in the US." Impossible Journey is an animated short film directed by a filmmaking duo known as "YUCA" - made up of the two Brazilian directors Daniella Schuarts & Leonardo Salomão based in Curitiba, Brazil. You can view more of their work on their Vimeo page or follow them on IG @yucaduo. Also Daniella's IG @danischuarts + Leonardo's IG @leonardosulayman for more updates from both of them. Represented by The Youth. From Executive Creative Directors Eduardo Lubiazi and João Machado. Animated by YUCA + Bruno Brasil. With music by Satélite Áudio. Executive produced by Eduardo Lubiazi. View the behind-the-scenes of this short right here. "The film was built by a predominantly female team over a process that took more than a year, produced in Brazil and NYC." For more info, head to Vimeo or the film's official site. To discover more shorts, click here.

Find more posts: Animation, Short Film, To Watch