2007 Syracuse International Film Festival
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DOSSIER 2006
The official online publication of the
Syracuse International Film Festival, Vol.3
A Point of Contact Production
Louise - Canada
Directed by Anita Lebeau
Film Review by Julie Grossman
Louise is a charming animated short by Anita Lebeau about her near-96-year-old grandmother, who lives by herself on a farm in rural Manitoba. Louise herself narrates this film, which records her day’s activities: pumping water into the birdbath; making to-do lists; and mowing the lawn on a rider with an enchanting vengeance. Although the film is about a quirky old woman, celebrating her survival and ebullience, it resists sentimentality, largely as a result of the excellent animation that registers details like the clutter and accumulation of a person’s life. The flies that pervade the farm setting buzz in concert with Louise, whose busy hands swat the flies and tend to her photo album with equal vitality. The photo albums evoke laughter from Louise, as she remembers her past; Lebeau inserts real photographs here, causing history to break into this lovely animated idyll.