Filmmaker Leo Metcalf’s animation A Time Before is a mixed media short that seeks to explore repressed memories of a traumatic childhood. Told through a narrative that flickers between dreams and waking life, Metcalf immerses the viewer into the experience of his character Olly using a POV perspective. It’s a simple choice but one that has an intense, entrancing effect that gives the audience space to both experience and emphasise with Olly, and allows them to reflect on their own parental experiences. The film also boasts some incredible underwater sections that feature abstract, experimental imagery and swirling soundscapes that invoke a really interesting otherworldly texture. DN joined up with Metcalf, as A Time Before continues to traverse the festival circuit, to talk about his journey into animation, the personal introspection the film led him to enact, and the challenge of shooting underwater photography for the short’s most abstract moments.
A Time Beforeis such …