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MIRA

NY Premiere

Director: Eva Louise Hall

United States, 2023, 12 min

Shooting Format:Digital

Festival Year:2024

Category:Animation

Genres:Horror, Stop Motion, Animated, Surrealist

WINNER: Audience Award

Cast:Vanessa Severo, Jessica Paige, Ava Armstrong

Crew:Writer: Eva Louise Hall. Musical Direction and Sound: Calvin Arsenia; Composer (Mira's Theme): Erica Marie Mancini; Animator: Eva Louise Hall; Audio Mastering: J Ashley Miller; Animation Assistant: Mira Taliaferro; Lettering and Design: Christine Dong; Fabrication Assistant: Theodore Bunch, Christine Dong

Email:elhall@kcai.edu

Web:evalouisehall.com/mira

Synopsis

Ready to quit her dreams of becoming a celebrated accordionist after busking day after day for an isolating swamp metropolis that isn't listening, young Mira finally gets a taste of recognition one evening when she meets Lore; a charismatic and successful performer who takes an interest in Mira's talents.

Giving into her charm and status, Mira finds herself playing hostess to the mysterious and talented singer as Lore's self-serving behaviors make her increasingly more uncomfortable in her own home. Mira's desire for recognition from this elevated musician leaves her blinded to Lore's hidden intentions until her apartment begins changing around her and her anxieties start to spiral out of her control. Her inability to confront and remove the ever-dangerous Lore proves to have monstrous consequences once Lore shows her true sinister nature; that she is not the musical ally that she initially presents to Mira but a water demon who needs to scavenge and carve out a place for herself by taking advantage of others.

After Mira tries to escape, Lore cruelly adheres her to her beloved accordion, encasing her arms to the instrument's keys and sewing her lungs into to the accordion bellows. She must keep playing the instrument in order to breathe. Mira, entrapped by this demonic entity, is left with her home and sense of self forever changed.

Trailer

About the director

Eva Louise Hall is an animator, filmmaker, and fabricator living in Kansas City, MO. Her projects as a visual storyteller create unique experiences that engage audiences, inspire participation, and build community. Her independent films, made with stop-motion animation techniques, consider dark and horrific aspects of the human condition while exploring our potential for beauty and kindness.

Filmmaker's note

Mira is a film about abusive creative relationships – how artistic aspirations and kindness can be weaponized through the sinister motivations of those in positions of power.

This story touches on themes of celebrity, abusive individuals and relationships, self-sacrifice and the loss of power and control. I am making this film out of a love I have for accordions, sea monsters, animation and surrealist horror film. In bringing this story to life I also wanted to express my personal experience in dealing with how horrific it feels when someone, through their abuse of others, can turn something you love more than anything into a living nightmare.

I made the majority of this film between January of 2020 and the summer of 2023. It is a film that, like my character Mira, has endured unexpected hardship and tremendous obstacles in the pursuit of creative accomplishment. The overwhelming support I received in developing and in the completion of this film, however, has ensured a much happier ending for its production.

Through the contemplation of the dark and horrific it is my hope that we may expand our understanding and capacity for cultivating beauty and kindness.

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