TIFF Interview with The Flying Sailor directors: Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

THE FLYING SAILOR

A Short at TIFF 2022.

With Directors: Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Interview by Emmanuel Itier

The Flying Sailor from co-director Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby is a pure charming delight. The “light” animation is elevating your soul with this “in between worlds” sailor and you keep flying with him the length of this short as if you were, yourself, experiencing an out of body journey. For this beautiful tale is the one about your existence and how choices have an impact on your destiny. Shall I surrender to death or shall I fight the life I want to live. That is the question? And the choice is yours. Amanda and Wendy, have accomplished a mesmerizing animated tour de force with this picture and we wish them a happy sail for the next endeavor.

Q: Tell me about the idea behind and the inspiration behind this amazing short?

Amanda and Wendy: The inspiration came many years ago while we were in Halifax, Nova scotia, and we went to a museum displaying an explosion that happened there many years ago. There was a part about a sailor who was on the dock and how he was launched in the sky when the explosion occurred. He landed four miles away, naked and unarmed! That journey was a perfect idea for and animated surreal experience short. This is the idea about near-death experience and the true nature of existence.

Q: What is it truly about?

Amanda and Wendy: It’s about life. It’s a general answer but it’s kind of true. It’s about the business of living and about these moments in life when everything is in in the balance, when you are between life and death. It’s the contrast between the naked man in this horrible experience and at the same time it’s the beauty, like in a ballet, about flying above your own death. This is surreal and quite mesmerizing.

Q: Tell us about the experience of making this short.

Amanda and Wendy: We didn’t struggle that much with the funding of this film, which is a big part of making any movie, because it’s financed by the Canadian film board. They are so helpful. But it’s not a Hollywood budget. Technically we come from a 2D background animation but here we are using the 3D computer graphic animation. This was challenging. It’s a different experience and we had to adapt. It takes lots of time but this is a film could not have been done in 2D. The ideas of flying over the city with debris and smoke cannot be done in 2D. In 3D you feel everything so much more. Smoke is hard as it takes so many pixels. We were not looking for a sophisticated animation and therefore there is a raw feeling about our film.

Q: At the end what is the takeaway?

Amanda and Wendy: How do you meet and face a disaster. Probably it’s that, basic putting some clothes and start life again. Simple things to do every morning to walk through life challenges. Go along for the ride. Life is a visceral experience. Life is a little bit of a trauma at time, and you need to leave the pain behind. Pivotal moments happened when a decision is made: to die or to live. Options are interesting. An easy one could be death, but living can be painful with the landing and starting all over again. What are the best options in life, what are your choices. Because production took place during Covid it became clear to us it was such a serendipitous timing for this film. How beautiful but how hard life is. How do we face life. How we put ourselves together and keep going. I hope this is what the audience will get from our movie. I hope it gives them hope and faith in the future, in our future.