If you haven’t heard, we’re hard at work on a new animated short film that, for now, we’re calling “Frontière.” Why a French title? The film is set in a community in Quebec and Vermont that’s divided by the US-Canada border. You may have seen the village that inspired this setting in the news recently.  

The town has special significance for me, as my mother emigrated to Canada three years ago and now calls the Quebec side of the community home. I’ve spent a lot of time there, and the place and its people have come to feel like home to me, too. As my mom’s circle of welcoming friends has grown, so too has mine. 

That’s the real-life backstory, but the film’s narrative has taken on a life of it’s own. And it’s probably worth noting that our previous short film, Azúcar, was also set on a border, an in-between space.

I can’t give away too much now, but I will say that Frontière, which we plan to release in French and English, follows a man and a dog who find each other, and in so doing discover the borderlands between the past and a potential future. I hope that’s mysterious and intriguing enough. 

We’re deeply grateful for the support we have received from Executive Producer George Bard. Without him, we couldn’t tell this story.

A selection of storyboard frames (Credit: Jen Sanchez)

Right now, the team is working on the storyboard; we estimate that the final board will have 300-400 panels. Once we have a first draft of it complete we’ll have a much better sense of the pacing and story flow, letting us map out the design and animation that lie ahead. At that point, we can begin making some decisions about adding or deleting shots, or perhaps entire scenes.

Location photography

I took several trips up from Boston last winter to get a sense of the world of the film. I gathered shots of the town, the countryside around it, and my mom’s house. Mom kept me well fed and graciously joined me on the location scouts. She also made sure I had fuel for the way home–cans of maple syrup. 

We’ll have more updates soon…