The sun shines bright even at Sundown
Four years later, this Gobelins graduation film is still exceptional.
by Toussaint Egan
October isn't just the spookiest month of the year – it's also Gobelins graduate short film season! Founded in 1974, Gobelins Paris is one of the oldest and most prestigious animation schools in the world, known for its exemplary hands-on curriculum, robust alumni network, and strong ties within the international animation community. If you were an aspiring animator, attending Gobelins is about the closest equivalent to a golden ticket one could strive for.
Every year, Gobelins shares the dozen-or-so animated shorts produced by its third-year students as their graduation project. Produced over five months, each short is unique and adventurous; offering not only a peek into a previously unimagined world and a preview of the kinds of animators who will go on to shape the industry in the years to come. This year already has some brilliant stand-outs so far in the form of Tears of the Mountain, Niccolo, and Tumbleweed, but for this week's newsletter, we're winding the clocks back to focus on one of the most memorable graduate films of the past five years and what the team of animators behind it are up to nowadays.
Co-directed by Juliette Brocal, Camille Letouze, Ana Moniz, Ruitao She, and Shanshan Zou, Sundown is a five-minute fantasy-comedy short that centers on a dance troupe mere minutes before their grand opening performance at this year's Summer Solstice Festival. The air is thick with feverish energy as everyone prepares for their big on-stage debut. There's just one big problem: Sacha, a core member of the troupe, is nowhere to be found. As the rest of the troupe frantically search for them, the big moment grows ever closer. Will they be able to pull off their big performance short one member?
The short is less about the Solstice Festival as it is about the world in which it takes place, weaving together a colorful, imaginative universe of implicit folklore and creative cacophony that lands somewhere aesthetically between the ligne claire ('clear line') art style seen in bande dessinée (French / Belgian comic books) and a Masaaki Yuasa production à la The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl. The opening shot tells you everything you need to know about this world: A Mediterranean town alongside a gorgeous gulf with wide-open skies and squawking seagulls perched atop circus tents and concession stands. It's both idyllic and chaotic at the same time; a fantastical place rife with personalities as big, bold, and bright as any you could imagine.
When it premiered in November 2020, Sundown earned an enthusiastic reception, with audiences applauding the short's comedic dialogue, acting, and background designs. Even now, it's a film that continues to stand out in my mind as a remarkable slice of worldbuilding in service of a story about collaboration, a shared love of the creative process.
I reached out to the co-directors to get an update on their respective creative journeys since the short's release, and as luck would have it, they still keep in touch with one another to this day. Juliette Brocal continues to work as a character designer and graphic novelist; Camille Letouze has worked as a graphic novelist as well as a storyboard artist for Fortiche (Arcane) and The Line; and Ana Moniz has since gone on to work as an animator on such shows like The Legend of Vox Machina, Pantheon, and Scavengers Reign while working as a lecturer at the ESAD school of art and design in Portugal. While I wasn't able to coax any specific details about Ruitao She and Shanshan Zou, I do know that they work in and around the animation industry.
Sundown is an enduring work of whimsical creativity and charming storytelling. It's a world unto itself that invites you to inhabit it for a brief yet exhilarating time, and dream a little bit alongside its characters. It's exactly the type of work Gobelins is known and celebrated for, and a testament to the combined talent and hard work of the team who poured their hearts into bringing it to life.