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The Beginning

'The Beginning' is a short animation exploring the development of human life from conception.

The narrative explores themes of birth and death as part of a cycle of life, and is based on personal experience and research, including interviews with expectant and recent mothers.

During my research I was able to observe a friends ultrasound scan. The powerful heartbeats of the 6-week-old foetus challenged my opinions regarding the conception of life. “When does human life begin?”, “ Does the mother know intuitively before any physical signs occur that she is carrying another life?”.

The work is inspired and influenced by the work of Bill Viola’s ‘The Passing', Norman McLaren’s animation and Rineke Dijkstra’s photographic series on new mothers.

This animation communicates how my understanding has been informed by the stories of the 22 mothers I interviewed and their experiences of sensing life of a yet unborn baby in the womb. It also offers the viewers a chance to reflect on their own definition the beginning of life.

This animation is dedicated to the recently born daughter of a friend called Saerom, who inspired the project.

  • Fureum Kim
    Director
  • Fureum Kim
    Producer
  • Patrick Cairns
    Sound Design
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Life, Parent, Nature, Abstract, Love, Human, Biological, Fantasy, Animation, Stopmotion, Science
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 1, 2017
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 35mm, Stopmotion
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • Graduation Exhibition
    Glasgow
    United Kingdom
    September 4, 2017
  • Through My Eyes Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    March 23, 2018
  • Kinoki Film Festival

    Mexico
    April 4, 2018
  • KINÉ Muestra Internacional de Cortometrajes
    Puebla
    Mexico
    May 17, 2018
Director Biography - Fureum Kim

Fureum Kim is a young animator. She creates several experimental short films during her studying for Master Degree in The Glasgow School of Art(UK). Among them, ’The Beginning’ is her first and the latest film which is created in Sep 2017 and it was screened in The Glasgow School of Art’s graduation exhibition. Fureum Kim mainly deals with the subject of Life and Death. She consistently strives to find new materials for expressing her subject by using monotonous colours. She could finally found out her own techniques and apply it to her first film ‘The Beginning’. Her unconventional technique, wiping paint out on the glass by using cotton buds, has a crucial role which maximises the message of her animation

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Director Statement

The title you use to represent yourself is not as improtant anymore. The ability to communicate your visual language is what helps allow people to measure and understand your creativity as well as give poeple understanding of your creativity as an artist. I studied Fiber Arts in South Korea from 2010-2015. Now I'm staying in Glasgow (UK) to study Communication Design.