Tash Willson

An Other Dream is Tash’s graduate film. The animation not only nods to the nonsensical comfort dreams can bring, but also how quickly they can turn into nightmares. The uncanny themes of Coraline inspired my narrative, along with the idea of trusting the unknown. Ironically, she was directing two collaborators who were new to animation.

In one scene, a drawn character interacts with stop motion objects. She first used these shapes when working on a previous project exploring information. Whether it’s accidental misinformation or purposeful disinformation in the media, people often believe gullibility is only open to fools; and she wanted to challenge that.

Additionally, a character appearing in An Other Dream is one she first animated last summer. Mr Rabbit began as a form of visual diary. She created them to challenge herself to draw quickly and not be so precious about the marks made. This allowed her a lot of freedom. She could put pen to paper and explore ideas more quickly and loosely. She was inspired to apply these principles to animation, which usually takes a lot of time.

Later, she used the character for another project on culture. Although she ended up using fanciful characters to represent a real human issue, the reality of what unfolds in a fantasy world highlights the inescapability of racism.

Mr Rabbit, like many of her 2D characters, is set against a digitally collaged background. She initially developed this when working on a larger-scale project that she will continue after graduation. It circulates around the relationship between a child, creature and the forest around them.

She wanted to address the fact that we often detach ourselves from the environment when we debate about saving it, often forgetting that we too, share the same environment. If it dies, we die. ‘When We’re Gone’, a new nature will likely recover and continue to thrive.