Archive of films Rocks in My Pockets / Rocks in My Pockets

USA / Latvia
2014, 88 min

Section: Official Selection - Competition
Year: 2014

This writer-director animated film by a Latvian director living in New York City serves up a highly personal statement of a woman struggling with an inherited illness. With humor and courage, the director sets out on a challenging journey to discover her family’s best-kept secret. Baumane is not only director, illustrator, and screenwriter, she also narrates this gutsy movie.

Synopsis

Latvia, the 1920s. Anna, a pretty and educated young woman, falls in love with an adventurous entrepreneur 30 years her senior. But with marriage comes jealousy, and the entrepreneur hides Anna away in the forest where she bears him eight children. Years later, Signe, a young artist, asks her father how her grandmother died.… This writer-director animated movie is a highly personal statement of the director’s struggle with an inherited illness. Set against the backdrop of her grandmother’s life, the first part touches on the difficult living conditions in Latvia during the Soviet and German occupations in order to focus on those members of the family suffering from the same affliction. Baumane is not only the director, illustrator, and screenwriter but also the film’s narrator, allowing her direct contact with the viewer. The filmmaker approached the gloomy and oppressive topic with detachment, hyperbole, and humor without diminishing either sincerity or urgency. Funny and bleak by turns, Baumane’s feature debut is the first animated film to compete in the main competition at Karlovy Vary.

About the director

Signe Baumane (b. 1964, Auce, USSR), whose work has been shown to acclaim at numerous international festivals, is an independent film animator known for her controversial shorts about sex, pregnancy, dentists, and madness. After studying philosophy at Moscow University (1989) she landed a job at Riga Animated Film Studio in 1991 where she eventually shot her first animated short, The Witch and the Cow. Tiny Shoes (1993) and The Gold of the Tigers (1995) followed. The director then left for New York where, in 1996-2003, she worked for Bill Plympton’s animation studio. Other shorts include: Love Story (1997), The Threatened One (1999), Natasha (2001), Five Fucking Fables (2002), Woman (2002), Dentist (2005), Veterinarian (2007), The Beat of Sex: Episodes 1-3 (2007), The Beat of Sex: Episodes 8-11 (2008), Birth (2009).

Contacts

New Europe Film Sales
Puławska 152/5, 02-670, Warsaw
Poland
Tel: +48 609 804 296, +48 600 173 205
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.neweuropefilmsales.com

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About the film

Color, DCP
World premiere

Section:	Official Selection - Competition

Director:	Signe Baumane
Screenplay:	Signe Baumane
Dir. of Photography:	Signe Baumane
Music:	Kristian Sensini
Editor:	Signe Baumane, Wendy Cong Zhao
Producer:	Signe Baumane
Production:	Signe Baumane Studio
Coproduction:	Sturgis Warner
Cast:	Hlas / Voice: Signe Baumane
Contact:	New Europe Film Sales

Guests

Jan Naszewski

Sales Agent

Signe Baumane

Film Director / Producer

Paulina Jaroszewicz

Sales Agent

Wendy Cong Zhao

Film Editor

Laura Pischek

Sales Agent

Dita Rietuma

Film Institution Rep.