Noggin
2024 · 8m · USA
Directed by Case Jernigan
Genres: animation, documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A man diagnosed with multiple sclerosis constructs a memory palace out of paper and glass — gathering photographs, mementos, and written memories — to combat the brain damage and fading memories caused by the disease. A deeply personal mixed-media love letter from the filmmaker to his future self, preserving what MS threatens to erase.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Mixed-media memory palace built by a filmmaker against his own MS, with eyelash-blink transitions putting you inside his head — that's the rare formal choice that's also the subject. Earned tenderness.
Case Jernigan's mixed-media memory palace, with hand-drawn eyelashes framing the screen as the viewer's own blink — this is autobiographical animation at its most generous, in the Ryan and Notes on Blindness tradition. Profoundly itself.
Eyelashes drawn around the frame edge with blinks as transitions — that's a tactile, specific formal device that makes you literally inhabit the filmmaker's head. Combining stop-motion papercraft, paint-on-glass, collage, and live-action over seven minutes for a self-portrait against MS memory loss is the medium serving the subject exactly.
Reviews
Very vulnerable & honest filmmaking here — absolutely worth your time.
An incredibly effective portrait of life with MS, balancing comedy with sorrow... remarkable blend of live-action and animated elements.
Festivals
- Slamdance Film Festival 2025