In an isolated home in the tiny, prairie hamlet of Hairy Hill, Alberta, a young girl named Ethel lives with her three younger siblings. She carries the burden of caregiver as the children navigate a dysfunctional relationship with their mother, who cryptically transforms into a bird and flies away. Ethel is then faced with sustaining their livelihood on her own.
Director Daniel Gies co-wrote “Return to Hairy Hill” with Emily Paige, with whom he also co-founded Montréal-based studio E.D. Films. The short is based on the true story of a woman named Marie-Anne Ethel Garnier—Gies’s grandmother—who was born in Hairy Hill in 1940.
Rendered in black-and-white, otherworldly paper figures traverse a dreamlike landscape at the foot of a mountain range as winter approaches.
“Paper was always a key element used throughout the story to convey an impermanence and fragility of the human characters that contrasts with the organic, painterly animals and environments,” the studio says. Gies and Paige achieved the analog effect by using three-dimensional computer graphics to create the impression of stop-motion puppets.
The studio describes the project as “a haunting and deeply personal tribute to family folklore,” drawing on stories of what it’s like to live in remote and often harsh environments. As Ethel watches her siblings transmogrify into woodland creatures, she must carefully consider whether she will join them in her own metamorphosis or defy fate and venture into an entirely new life.
Real paper puppets served as models for the evocative characters, and the effects of light and shadow emphasize the fraught relationship between the known and unknown. Enmeshing a variety of styles, the animation includes three-dimensional painterly forests, sculptural details, and classic, two-dimensional techniques.
Check out E.D. Films’ website for a behind-the-scenes look at the process, and follow the studio on Vimeo.
