Filmmaker Statement

Masses is an absurd stop-motion animation originally inspired by Jose Saramago’s book Blindness, in which every person in a city suddenly loses their sight and the social order disintegrates. The residents of the city come together in a chaotic mass and the animation explores these themes of the fragility of civilization and the illusion of order. The characters are born into a system in which they are immediately put to work, mindlessly carrying out a mysterious and seemingly-endless task at the expense of their bodies which begin to break and split. The puppets have transparent, ghost-like forms which make their features almost invisible and limits their identity as individuals. The animation questions the nature and purpose of work, productivity and exhaustion, and what happens when we discover that our roles may not be all they seem.