Overgrow
The relationship between two childhood friends becomes something more, when one of them is attacked for being a witch.
Interview with Writer/Director Jennifer Crow
Watch Overgrow on YouTube
Congratulations! Why did you make this animation?
It was my graduation film for my Bachelor’s degree in animation, and the third film I
made during the 3-year course. The themes of the film – friendship, love,
oppression, interpersonal relationship growth – are very close to me and my real life
experiences. Not to say that Overgrow is based on my life, haha, as it certainly isn’t!
But I definitely wanted to make a story that I, and a lot of others (particularly people
who aren’t straight), can relate to. I want to create films and stories with diverse
characters, and I wanted to challenge the trope where a boy and a girl are childhood
friends that end up as lovers by having the characters be the same gender instead,
their love not skipping a beat in the story just because they’re not straight.
Their love isn’t really central to the film, either, as it’s more about their friendship and
support for each other.
Why is the film called Overgrow?
Well, quite literally, Anna’s witch powers relate to growing plants, which gets out of
control during the events of the film.
It also relates to the development and assimilation of Anna and Nala’s friendship into romantic love.
Overgrow was your graduating film at the Victorian College of the Arts
School of Film and Television. What are you working on now?
I only graduated a few months ago, but since then, I’ve been looking for work or
internships at animation studios. I’ve also been working on some freelance work and
personal projects, including illustrating for several zines, animating for Melbourne’s
White Night in February 2016, and developing short comic pitches for anthologies.
What type of feedback have you received so far about Overgrow?
All positive feedback so far, which is nice! I know the film is far from perfect, but it
was essentially all written, directed, and animated by myself in a few months on top
of other university and personal projects.
I think the thing that gets the most feedback is the backgrounds in the film.
I drew roughly 50 of them, inking them on paper before colouring them digitally.
People also really liked my colour palettes.
It’s very flattering, as I worked very hard on them.
Colour has been something I’ve been working on in my artistic career as a whole lately.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I’m a bit surprised that people liked it so much, honestly. I suppose that, as the
creator, I’m very skeptical of my own work, especially after working on it for so long,
haha.
Being one of three nominees for my university’s Best Production (Animation)
award was really surprising and nice, and I feel like I can only go up from here. I’m
excited to get back into film work!
What are you looking to achieve by having Overgrow more visible on
this platform?
I hope to get my name out there a little more, haha. I hope to enter Overgrow into
festivals, so until then, I can’t really put it online in its entirety.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers,
distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify the message of
this film?
Ideally, film festival directors and journalists, I think. I feel like I’m a bit too attached
and inexperienced to be rushing out to buyers and distributors, haha, but I suppose
that’s a possibility too! I just want to get my work out there for people to see,
especially if those stories are ones like Overgrow that centrally feature queer people
and other minorities.
What type of impact would you like this film to have?
I suppose I really just want to help normalise having queer characters in media
without the plot or subplot all about how they’re queer, or struggling with being
queer/queerphobia, or being killed off, haha.
Lastly, what’s a key question that will help spark a debate about this film?
Two childhood friends grow up to become lovers is a common trope concerning boy
and girl characters, so why not characters of the same gender, as well?
Interview: April 2016
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Overgrow
Length: 4:57 minutes
Writer: Jennifer Crow
Director: Jennifer Crow
Producer: Jennifer Crow (supervising producers Robert Stephenson and Paul
Fletcher, production manager Donna L Hensler)
Looking for (ie buyer, distributor, sales agent, producer, media interest): Media
interest, film festivals
Funders: The film’s funding was raised by myself and with a small GoFundMe
campaign.
Made in association with: The Victorian College of the Arts
Where can I watch it? It isn’t available online yet