graduation film: Hortus Psychicus (2017)

"As an animator I tell stories, but I am no writer. My stories develop as I visualize my own feelings and expierences. Expression is very important in my work. I believe that personal stories, based on true feelings, enable the audience to recognize in my films. 
Besides the expressive - which often comes about in an experimental and impulsive way - I also like to make aesthetic images. These two aspects came together nicely in the making of my graduation film. Because I couldn't work intuitively on this large project for a year, I chose to depict my own story with a metaphor.

The garden in my film is a metaphor for feelings of fear. The way in which the main character treats her garden reflects the way in which I have learned to deal with my own feelings. The metaphor creates a way of telling my story that is comprehensible for the audience and produces a scene that, for me, represents the feeling well."

- Annelies Hofman (2017)



Character sketches


Lightnings concepts