My Love Affair With Marriage

My Love Affair With Marriage is an animated feature film that uses a variety of art mediums (sculpture, theater, songs, drawings) to explore the concept of gender by following one woman’s journey through her marriages, imagined and real. Her experiences transform her from a fiery girl craving love to a domestic abuse victim and lead to her discovery of gender fluidity and self-acceptance. This true story explores how gender roles are shaped by the stereotypes and mythology of our cultures, while also affected by biology and chemicals in our bodies. The film will challenge gender perceptions and offer new ways to understand complicated feelings.

FUNDRAISING DESCRIPTION:

The producers are raising funds for the production phase of this 95-minute animated feature film, specifically for the hiring of additional artists skilled in Photoshop and After-Affects. Production should be completed by mid-2020 and post-production will take another 4 or 5 months. The producers plan to premiere My Love Affair With Marriage in early 2021. Work on the film began in late 2015. The script was written, 23 songs composed, 29 actors and singers recorded, the voice track completed. Animation is a slow, laborious process. Signe and her team builds sets, photograph them and use them as the background for hand drawn animation. On the My Love Affair With Marriage website is a full description of the animation process and details the immense scope of the film. www.MyLoveAffairWithMarriageMovie.com. 

BIOS OF THE FILMMAKING TEAM:

Signe Baumane, Director

At the age of 14, Signe Baumane began publishing short stories in Latvia. She received a BA in Philosophy from Moscow State University, then started to work at Riga’s Animated Film Studio as a cel painter. With support of government grants, Signe made 3 animated shorts in Latvia, then moved to New York and worked for independent animator Bill Plympton as an art director and production manager. In 1998, Signe received her US green card as ‘extraordinary ability alien’ and began making films at her own studio. In 2005 she became a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Film. She received two grants from the Jerome Foundation – one for her animated short “Birth”, the other for her animated feature “Rocks In My Pockets”. She also received 3 grants from New York State Council of the Arts and in 2017 was named a Guggenheim Fellow. Signe has written, directed and animated 16 shorts and one feature film, which collectively have screened at over 560 film festivals around the world and received many awards.

Sturgis Warner, Producer

Sturgis Warner has been part of the New York theater scene for many years as an actor, director and occasional producer. His specialty is new plays and new play development. He started working with Signe Baumane in 2010 bringing theater principles and skills to her animation filmmaking. For Rocks In My Pockets, her first feature film, he was Co-Producer, Script Advisor and directed her 88-minute voiceover. For My Love Affair With Marriage he is one of the producers, as well as the Script Advisor, Casting Director, Set Builder and Lighting Designer.