Before this year’s AFI Film Festival, I chatted with Academy Award®-winning filmmaker and animator Torill Kove about her AFI Fest animated short, Maybe Elephants. The 2D Animated short has been making the festival rounds (which is why Kove couldn’t attend the festival itself) and is part of this year’s festival programming under the Shorts Program: Family Friendly Short Films.

Maybe Elephants, in its sixteen minutes, packs quite a bit into its story. The narrative sees the filmmaker reflecting on her teen years and then narrating them. Kove’s anecdotal narrative turned animation of her teenage years when her family moved to Nairobi, Kenya from their home in Norway to build a new life brimmed with dreamy 2D animation. When I asked Kove how she honed in on her signature style, she said, I never really did much with it until I was in college in Montreal. I studied urban studies at Concordia University. I became involved in student newspapers. I became a student activist for this and that. Whenever somebody said, you know, can somebody make a poster or we need a drawing for this or a pamphlet for that, I volunteered to do those things. So, that was an era where I developed a drawing style.’ A style that she has continued to evolve. It ultimately morphs into the animations that you see from her today.

I wanted to know more about how Torill approached her short film. The film tackles a few heavy subject matters like mental health (particularly in a time when it was a more taboo subject), teenage angst, cultural dynamics, and shifts. Kove was very aware of the privilege she had when going into writing for this film as it was set in Kenya, so the idea of bringing in others who had more knowledge of Kenya and the Maasai Tribe gave the story more weight. Even though the storyline was from her perspective and recollections, Kove felt that part of her film needed the proper attention and people. Torill collaborated with Kenyan Canadians to make sure the Swahili was correct. Kove, “I think that the experience of someone from a tiny, extremely homogenous, racially, culturally, ethnically, town in Norway, to be plopped down in Nairobi, here’s your school and all that. It was powerful because you quickly learned you can make connections anywhere. And, of course, I was too young to feel self-conscious, or anything”. There’s a scene in the movie that particularly hones in on that feeling, a night scene that speeds along almost as fast as the motorbikes the Kove and her sisters find themselves on with locals. They head to the local dance clubs, and you feel the freedom of youth imbue the screen. Kove says music has always been a big part of her life, with her family often playing artists like Jimmy Smith and The Beatles, along with classical music and jazz. So, the music inspiring this project was no surprise, from the sounds of Motown, African Pop, and the ever-popular Miriam Makeba song Pata Pata to traditional Kenyan music. Kove and her ‘Maybe Elephants’ team had Kenyan musician Daniel Onyango craft the perfect soundtrack to imbue this colorfully nostalgic short film. Reminiscing, Kove says, “I put my headphones on, and I close my eyes, and I, you know, it will just put me right to the streets of Nairobi, you know.” I wonder if she can still smell the jacaranda trees.

You can check out the trailer for ‘Maybe Elephants’ below!

https://youtu.be/wcWr5SZDIog?si=VXU_FzQk2Fj1asc8

Update: Maybe Elephants has been shortlisted for the 97th Academy Awards in the animated short film category. TRB wishes Torill and her team the best!