Luminaris

In a world controlled and timed by light, an ordinary man has a plan that could change the natural order of things.

Woman, Man

No dialogue. Stop-motion digital photo animation. HD 1920 x 1080 (16:9)

Luminaris is an animated short film made using the pixilation technique, combining real actors interacting with animated objects and time-lapse sequences.

The film tells the story of a man living in a world controlled and timed by light. Every day, the inhabitants of that world are woken up and pulled to their jobs by sunlight, as if this was some sort of magnet. The main character has a routinary job in a factory that makes electric bulbs. But he has something else in mind that could change the order of things.

The setting of the film is a classic Buenos Aires, revisited from a fantastic point of view. The style of the film has reminiscences of art deco, black cinema, tango, surrealism, and Italian neorealism. This mix of influences is directly linked with the history of Buenos Aires: the city and its population themselves are a mix of different cultures.

The film was inspired by an instrumental tango piece called "Lluvia de Estrellas" (Star Rain) composed by Osmar Maderna in the forties.

Director Juan Pablo Zaramella explains, "I first became acquainted with this piece of music as a child, because my elders used to listen to it. I had always liked this piece but, as an adult, it gradually dawned on me that this music could be like a score of a film that had never been made. In 2008 I was granted a creativity residency by Abbaye de Fontevraud, in France. I decided to take this opportunity to develop this long-awaited project."

"Orginally, I approached the project as a puppet animation story, but doing some pixilation tests in the gardens of Fontevraud, just for fun, the seed of the present short was born: the idea of sunlight as a magnetic force".

The complete production of the film took over two years, mainly due to the unpredictability of weather conditions and sunlight movement, that changes the shadows on the locations every day. "Both the speed and the intensity of sunlight changed during the shooting of a take, so we had to modify the time-lapse frequency and the exposure of the photographs all the time", explains Sergio Piñeyro, director of photography.

Special Jury Mention, Argentine Jury, Inès Sedan and Juan Pablo Zaramella, ANIMA - Córdoba International Animation Festival, 2011.
Audience Award, Short Films, Juan Pablo Zaramella, Annecy International Animated Film Festival, 2011.
Best Animation, Juan Pablo Zaramella (Director), Woodstock Film Festival, 2011.
Judges Vote, Program #6, Melbourne International Animation Festival, 2012