Director/animator Simona Mehandzhieva, who’s off-kilter brand of narrative charm we previously featured here, is back with a labor of love about love. And loss. And not settling for less than you deserve.

Simona Mehandzhieva: “This is an animated film inspired by a little poem I wrote. It’s made for all the people who never stopped searching for their ocean regardless of how tired they got. ‘I’m looking for the Ocean, Have You Seen Them?’ is quite short, but it has a big heart.
 

“Nobody tells you how hard it is to meet someone that your entire soul yearns for and to have to walk away from them.”

 
“The film was originally meant to be a four-panel comic. However, I just wanted to add more and more. ‘Let’s make it into 10 panels. Perhaps a looping gif?! Hmm, what if I add a wee bit of sound design?’ And here we are half a year, hundreds of VCR and chromatic aberration tutorials later, with a cartoon about self-love.

“Nobody tells you how hard it is to meet someone that your entire soul yearns for and to have to walk away from them. Six months ago, I went through that experience and just between us, I do not recommend it.

“In one of the many moments of vulnerability, I wrote a poem and the more I reread it, the more I kept seeing it clearer in my mind. So, I crawled out of my cave (bed) sat in my room crying, laughing, writing, drawing, creating. All the love that I couldn’t give them, I poured into this short film.”
 
 

 
Director/Animator: Simona Mehandzhieva
Background Artist: Ina Maksimova
Additional Color: Maf Lopez

Music/sound design: Joe DeVine