Sponsored by: Cinesite

Originally recorded LIVE at CTNX 2021: 

November 21, 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm PST

Sponsored By : Cinesite

Mila is an animated short inspired by true WWII stories that my mom told me as I was growing up. One story in particular really stuck with me as a kid. It wasn’t about any one specific event, as much as it was a recurring feeling she had as a child, while bombers attacked her city. At the time, as the planes approached and air raid sirens sounded, she froze where she was. She could not think, move, or breathe until an adult swept her up and brought her to shelter.

This emotion that my mother often described so vividly, always made me wonder about the impact that war has on kids. What’s going on in their heads? What are they feeling? What are their fears? What are the consequences of this trauma they live through, and how does it affect the child’s personal development and subsequent life? These questions eventually became the starting point for the film that I knew I had to make.

Of course I couldn’t just show a passive child waiting for someone to pick her up. A character needs to be proactive, and either change within the story or change people around her in order to be interesting. I used the emotion that my mom experienced in the War, and built a story around that, using her childhood setting – the Trento, Italy, of 1943.

More about this amazing film journey can be found: https://www.cinesite.com/mila-part-one/

Panelists:

Cinzia Angelini, Writer and Director

Andrea Emmes, Producer

Tamara Boutcher, Executive Producer

Warren Franklin, Executive Producer

Alexandra Kavalova, Art Director

Nate Bernard, VFX Supervisor 

Raul Garcia, Moderator and Executive Producer

Monica Ortega, MC