From The Heart
After a devastating breakup with her long-time girlfriend, a young woman named Maisy searches for comfort in a box of memories. When a particular photograph of the two girls grabs her attention, Maisy is determined to make amends and repair the broken relationship. Nothing is going to get in her way! ...Except maybe her own Heart.
Jaded by the recent breakup, fearful of getting hurt again, and wanting no part of this plan, Maisy’s Heart comes to life in an attempt to save the both of them from heartache.
Maisy must engage in an epic battle with her own Heart that will determine if they will try to love again, or if the scars from the past prove to be too strong.
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Hannah MiddletonDirector
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Hannah MiddletonWriter
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Alistair DieterichWriter
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Ella RowenAudio
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Lauren DieterichKey Cast"Maisy"
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Alistair DieterichKey Cast"Jeanie"
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Project Type:Animation, Short, Student
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Genres:romance, fantasy, drama, lgbt, lgbtqia+
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Runtime:3 minutes 58 seconds
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Completion Date:May 5, 2022
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:Yes - Middle Tennessee State University
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Peekskill Film FestivalPeekskill, NY
United States
June 25, 2022
North American Premiere
Official Selection -
Overmountain Animation FestivalJohnson City, TN
United States
August 11, 2022
Official Selection -
Knoxville Film FestivalKnoxville, TN
United States
September 16, 2022
Official Selection -
Tennessee International Indie FilmFestival 2022Spring Hill, TN
United States
November 1, 2022
Official Selection -
South Georgia Film FestivalValdosta, GA
United States
Official Selection
Hannah Middleton is an animator and illustrator based in Middle Tennessee. She graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in May 2022 with a B.S. in Animation. “From the Heart” will be her first film.
Hannah grew up surrounded by cartoons, anime, and video games. She was inspired by these mediums to make inspirational art of her own, and thus pursued a degree, and now career, in animation. Particularly, Hannah loves designing cute characters, 2D animation, and narrative drama, and luckily was able to incorporate all three into her first film. When she’s not making art, or thinking about making art, Hannah spends her time doing various crafts and running an Instagram account for her long Furby.
She has been a member of the MTSU ACM SIGGRAPH Student Chapter while at college, and she attended the 2019 SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles as a student volunteer. She always wants to make wholesome and lighthearted art that will make people smile.
“From the Heart” is a profound labor of love, about love, created by a brilliant team of queer people. When we started brainstorming the story, Alistair and I had a couple key sticking points: we wanted it to be 1) fun and 2) gay. We ended up with a role reversal of the classic “the heart wants what it wants” trope.
This film was created entirely in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The story, sound design, music, and voice work were all concocted remotely, and we never met in person. Even so, we were in constant communication via Discord and Zoom, sending files back and forth and reveling in each other’s work. Even with setbacks upon setbacks, both country-wide and private, this wonderful team was able to bring this story to life.
While the story features a gay relationship, the story isn’t about sexuality, as often is the case with stories that feature LGBTQIA+ characters. This was an important sticking point throughout the story’s creation. All too often, stories about queer characters are relegated to just being about “the struggle of being queer.” So rarely do LGBTQIA+ audiences see any of their other struggles past “being who they are” portrayed through a character they can relate to on-screen. Maisy struggles with the same thing that anyone going through a breakup does: a broken heart. Maisy is strong-willed, determined, loving, and happens to be a lesbian.
The story is about Maisy and her Heart.
Ultimately, we created a story that has a lot of heart (haha) and a cast of characters that we fell in love with. We hope whoever watches will fall in love with them, too. <3