Selection

Screening: Professional Competition 8
United States 2021
Duration: 23:30
Directed: Michael Covello, Elizabeth Schneider

Forgive Me, an animation by Michael Covello and Elizabeth Schneider, is a darkly-comic fever dream born out of the current ecological anxieties of our times. Constructed of traditional and digitally drawn imagery, it depicts the struggles of the emotionally vulnerable and socially adrift Sherman as he quests to overcome a toxic, sinister force in his life that could be real or imagined. At once playful and terrifying, the discombobulated narrative unfolds to depict a haunting landscape of encounters told through dream sequences, drug-induced hallucinations, delusions, and a magically unsettling version of reality. Experimental in its handling of dialogue and text, challenging in its narrative construction, and thoughtfully rendered in washy inks, scratchy lines, and atmospheric charcoal scrims, Forgive Me is a complex visual feast that questions our relationship to nature and our active role in the world.