A National Film Board of Canada production

2D animation, traditional animation, reshooting onto 16-mm film and hand developing, acetone transfer, collage, paint on 35-mm film

A woman sends a voice memo to a friend about the unexpected upheavals of her transition to motherhood. Matrescence blends visual exploration with scientific insight to examine the neurological, identity and cellular transformations that occur during pregnancy. A bold, intimate short film that illuminates the immense power of this journey.

A film from the Alambic program, the NFB French Animation Unit’s creative lab for emerging filmmakers.

A captivating short film about the neurological, identity and cellular upheavals of motherhood. A visual and aural dive into the science of becoming a mother.

“Matrescence” is the profound transition experienced by women as they become mothers. A transformation of the body, the identity and the emotions. To explore this deeply personal change, I filmed three generations of women from my family: my mother, my sister and my daughter. This lineage echoes microchimerism, the exchange of cells between mother and child, which literally inscribes one into the body of the other. We all carry the biological traces of those who came before us and those who follow.

I processed these portraits using acetone transfer on mylar. Each image matrix generates another, which undergoes a metamorphosis: it degrades, reinvents itself and becomes something else. From drawing on 35-mm film to collage, from 2D digital animation reshot onto 16-mm film and hand-developed, to the composition of the final images, each stage alters and morphs the image.

Maternity is also a continuum, a metamorphosis of no return. Giving life transforms us viscerally. We never return to the body, to the person we were before. I wanted to convey this sense of organic slowness, like the motion of the tides.

It was a dream to explore animation using film. The expertise that has existed at the NFB since Norman McLaren, the mentorship of Karl Lemieux and the support of Éric Pouliot… this allowed me to go further than I ever could have imagined.

Contact NFB publicist for high-resolution images for print.