Negative Space (2017)

Directed by: Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter | 5 minutes | animation, short film | Original voice cast: Albert Birney

‘Negative Space’ is a beautifully designed stop motion animation about a man who demonstrates how to pack your suitcase effectively. He learned this from his father, a businessman who was often on the road. It was the narrator’s way of bonding with his father as a child – and later as a teenager, packing his own suitcase for his father when he had to travel again. We only hear the voice of Albert Birney as the narrator in ‘Negative Space’, as the clothes fly, fold and roll around, turning something as ordinary as packing your suitcase into a benchmark in the relationship between father and son. The film has an animation technique worked out in admirable detail and is full of original and funny transitions, such as a small car on the road that turns into an opening zipper) and a short underwater scene in which a row of socks as anemones and underpants as a jellyfish.

Filmmakers Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata manage to convey a powerful message in the short running time (five minutes and 30 seconds). About that your memories and the little things that seem unimportant, ultimately have the biggest impact. What you learned as a child will stay with you for life. ‘Negative Space’ is based on a poem by Ron Koertge and has won several awards at the film festival. In 2018, the film was nominated for an Oscar for “Best Animated Short Film,” but the award went to “Dear Basketball.”