HW 6.3 A Town Called Panic - a stop motion feature film

I have not lived with parents since I was eighteen years old, in 2001. However, we remain close, and communicate in a number of ways. One such way is my mother's habit of sending me newspaper clippings. She collects items in the newspaper she believes will interest me (art, food, feminism) and sends them in jam packed envelopes via snail mail.

I mostly appreciate this as a kind and thoughtful gesture, that indicates that she cares and is thinking of me. But every now and then she finds something that really resonates with me - vegan bolognese sauce using quinoa and lentils, a newspaper copy of the elusive composite photo made by Ludwig Wittgenstein which was the underpinning of my masters thesis, and a review of "A Town Called Panic."

The review said that A Town Called Panic (2009) was a Belgian stop motion animation with toys, and that it was truly strange. This film was made by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar.
It was quirky, and glitchy, with a strange and meandering plot. I was able to see this film at TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival) in 2010 with my friend Ivy Lovell. It delivered as promised, and provided me with an aesthetic experience I had not had before in a feature film. The film uses toys and stop motion, which have been largely relegated to children's movies in popular culture, but used these for a strange and uncanny film experience aimed at adults. It had the bizarre, a touch of violence, and a lot of humour, though not resting in gross-out or sophomoric humour the way some animations have taken up. Good find, mom.