Faculty of Art

Experimental Animation

Aysenur (Ash) Ozkan

01| Sinkhole

Sinkhole is a 2D hand-drawn short film following Mira, a young woman so caught up in her phone and the pressures of everyday life that she falls into a sinkhole and wakes up with no memory of who she was, now living on the streets with nowhere to go. As she reaches out for help, the world passes her by, just as she once passed others.

“Since moving from Turkey to Canada, the biggest culture shock I experienced was seeing people living on the streets and realizing how easily we learn to ignore them. They become "red blobs" in the background while we stay consumed by our own stress, responsibilities, and material concerns. Sinkhole is my way of resisting that invisibility.The film follows Mira, a young woman so distracted by her daily pressures that she falls into a sinkhole and wakes up as a homeless person with no memory of her past. This story was inspired by a real encounter I had on the sidewalk with a woman named Star, who lost her way home after a childhood disability left her unable to find her way back. She kept telling me they way she wanted to be found and that was her biggest wish. Her words stayed with me and made me wonder what happens to a person when they can no longer keep up with a world that only measures worth through productivity and performance? When the performance stops and there is no one there to catch you, who do you become?Through POV camera angles, close-ups, and colour theory, I place Mira in visual opposition to her surroundings to show someone who belongs to neither world. At its core, Sinkhole asks how thin the line really is between stability and losing everything, and invites the audience to recognize the individuals behind the people they walk past every day.”