Rocks in My Pockets is an animated movie for adults that poses the question, “How do you stay sane in this crazy world?” While this particular line of thinking is nothing new, the film, funded by over 800 Kickstarter contributions, searches for answers via five women and their personal battles with depression and suicide.
Creator Signe Baumane, a Latvian-born, New York-based artist, uses both hand-drawn and painted animation paired with stop-motion techniques and papier-mâché to create a multi-dimensional, animated experience that is not only aesthetically gorgeous, but tells a poignant story of mystery, mental health, and survival.
Baumane calls Rocks in My Pockets, “a funny film about depression” that is “not always funny,” and “not always about depression.” She sites humor as her way of coping with her own depression, which served as a source of inspiration when creating her first feature-length film.
Baumane says, “In some ways, Rocks In My Pockets is an old fashioned detective story. Me digging into family history, searching for clues, figuring things out – why some of us have obsessive suicidal thoughts, why we break down, what makes us who we are, an in the end what saves us.”
Her previous animated shorts, 15 in all, have been screened at over 200 film festivals around the world, including Sundance and Berlinale.
Rocks in my Pockets has been accepted for the 49th annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and is the first animated film in the festival’s history to be included in the main competition.
The film will make its world premiere at the festival on Monday, July 7th, 2014 at 8:00 p.m. in the 1,146 seat Grand Hall in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.
