Alien Wonderland
​My graduation film Alien Wonderland is the story of an Alien who crashes on a strange planet with his spaceship. A planet suspiciously similar to ours. His spaceship is beyond saving, so the Alien is forced to step into this strange world he finds himself in, looking for help. But will anyone be willing to...?
​This story is inspired by the feeling of being lost that I experienced during my student years. Years where I really came to know myself, explore my identity and grow into an adult. During my years at college I got diagnosed with autism and dysthymia, they have played a role during my whole life. With my graduation film, I wanted to express my feelings and experiences from the past with bullying, intolerance and wanting to fit in. By showing our world and how we usually interact through the eyes of an Alien unfamiliar with all of that, I hope to make my audience question their normal and open up more to the autistic experience.
My personal experience is that there is a real lack of understanding. And I get that it might be hard to understand when you don't have these or other disorders yourself. The whole world is made for people without these disorders. "Normal' people, if those even exist. "Normal" is really only that what we are used to, what we see and experience everyday, the majority. So maybe we should get used to more different things, to more 'strange' things. The more we see of something the more we get used to it. But that's what is so tricky about mental disorders: they aren't visible. You won't be able to tell just by looking at someone that they might struggle more with some things, that some things might be a bit more difficult for them. And so your expectations of them are misguided.
The beauty of animation is that it allows for the expression of the invisible, because there is total freedom in image and sound. Using colors, lines, distortion, exaggeration, tempo, rhythm, and most important to me: surrealism. Impossible things in reality are entirely possible in animation. In Alien Wonderland, this is expressed by seeing the world through the eyes of the main character. How he feels changes how we see the world around him. Is the main character sad? Enchanted? Panicked? Or hopeful? In this way I want to show my perception of the world. I hope it will help others understand how it can feel to have a mental disorder, so that eventually there can be more understanding, and that the world may be a little more forgiving to strange Aliens.
