Ivan is a Spanish Art Director/Motion Designer with 15 years of experience working in advertising and motion graphics. He worked for some of the most relevant advertising agencies in Spain, creating work for a variety of international brands. In 2015 he moved to the U.S. and has worked as both a freelancer and in-house staff for several motion design studios for brands such as Meta, Netflix, MTV and Adobe. He studied elementary and high school mostly in Basque. He has written for the news site El Mundo, and Quartz, including the article "Learning a new language changes the way you perceive reality". Andy is a 3D artist and motion designer from Long Beach, California. With over 6 years of experience working as both a freelancer and in-house motion graphics artist, as well as having a degree in music performance, he brings a unique perspective to animation. Andy has produced motion graphics and video content for the New York City Public Library System, Meta, and Run It Up Studios. Outside of work, he has traveled extensively throughout Europe and spent 8 years studying German. This project gave him the perfect opportunity to share his passion for language and culture.

This short film started as an effort from directors Ivan Miguel and Andy Camou to collaborate, and came about once they realized their mutual appreciation for languages and respect for the environment. The aesthetics of the film were directly informed by the pandemic lockdown experience and things that were missing from everyday life, such as traveling abroad, hearing other languages, and being outdoors. As a starting point, they built upon the statement “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. The directors aim to bring attention to the specificity that languages provide to explore our world, the connection that exists between languages and natural environments, and how we are blindly marching towards a future where we are endangering the diversity of both. The visuals in the short are enhanced by the music of Kronos Quartet from their project 50 For the Future. Specifically the song “Le Bois”, which was inspired by Notre Dame Cathedral and its 1,000-year-old wood and is a musical reflection on the impermanence of so many things we take for granted, the structures that surround us, or our environment itself.