Well Wishes My Love, Your Love
2022 · 9m · Malaysia / Sweden
Directed by Gabriel Gabriel Garble
Genres: animation, experimental
Tones: contemplative, surreal, tender
A newly orphaned boy lends his prosthetic arm to a companion for the day. The companion straps a camera to the arm and documents its sensory encounters with the natural world — the softness of flower petals, the give of a lilypad, the receptivity of sand — returning the footage as a gift.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
'Eco-Queer' prosthetic-arm-as-camera animation with psychedelic geometry and lilypads. The marketing language is unbearable; the actual film sounds genuinely strange enough to earn it.
The prosthetic-as-lens premise is a tender formal invention, and Garble's 'Eco-Queer' framework lands closer to the embodied phenomenology of Jodie Mack than to identity-cinema. Sundance and Ann Arbor are appropriate venues.
Sundance and Ann Arbor selections for a 9-minute Eco-Queer wordless animation where a prosthetic arm becomes the camera lens for documenting touch — that's a beautifully specific conceptual frame for grief and connection. The psychedelic geometric style against natural-world fidelity is the right tonal contrast.
Reviews
Gentle and empathetic film that is experimental and mundane in regards to its explicit plot, but rich in feeling. Electrically colored and geometrically designed, it has true freshness.
A mesmerizing experience with a carefully crafted animated style that will take you into another world. One of the most unique animated films to premiere this year.
This lovely animated short is worth 9 minutes of your time to discover — an entrancing experience.
Festivals
- Ann Arbor Film Festival 2022
- Sydney Film Festival 2022
- Edinburgh International Film Festival 2022
- Sundance Film Festival 2023
- CAAMFest 2023
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2023
- Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival 2023
- Animafest Zagreb 2023
- Encounters Film Festival 2023
- Seattle International Film Festival 2023