Jun 10, 2022

Signe Baumane on what she learned while working on "An Affair Over Marriage"

Signe Beaumane's "My Love Affair with Marriage" will have its world premiere Saturday morning at Tribeca and will be in the Annecy Film Festival's main competition the following week.

The film uses hand-drawn animation overlaid on a set made of paper mache. This technique was used to great effect by Baumane in his previous film "Rocks in My Pockets," which won the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2014 and was Latvia's entry for the Foreign Language Oscar that same year.

"My Love for Marriage" is a first-person account of how the young Zelma is convinced by songs and fairy tales that love will one day solve all her problems. As she grows up, however, Zelma realizes that the world she lives in is far from the one she was promised. The film, a coming-of-age story that follows most of the protagonist's life, is also interspersed with biological aspects that provide a scientific explanation for much of what Zelma is experiencing. Lessons on brain chemistry, anthropology, and the structure of love provide the audience with a master class in human behavior.

Like "Rocks in My Pockets," "My Love Affair with Marriage" is a deeply personal story based largely on Baumane's own life experiences. Whereas his previous film was about his struggle with depression, this one focuses on love and relationships. As she explains in the film's press materials, "I hoped that by wrapping my personal story in scientific findings, I could help women examine their own intimate relationships."

Baumane spoke with Cartoon Brew about producing a feature film with a small crew, the incredible amount of research she spent while writing, and what she learned about herself in the process.

The production credits on the nearly two-hour film are very short;

of course, one of the reasons we had a small team on the film was budgetary, but another was because I was the only animator on the film and I wanted to control the process. So I would argue that while it may have been a very small team for such an ambitious project, it was not that small given the resources we had.

We had a studio in Brooklyn where we built the set out of paper mache and my partner Sturgis Warner did all the carpentry work. Then I had two or three assistants to help me stick and color the paper mache, and that went on for a couple of years. Of course, the pandemic had a bad effect on everyone, so there were only six people in the studio at the same time, including me doing the animation. The coloring team in Latvia fluctuated from six to ten people. I was the only one who could do the coloring, because if I had done it, the film would have taken a hundred years to make. Also, all the biology parts were done by Yajun Shi. I couldn't do it. We needed a different style, a different animator, and she did a great job.

How did the Luxembourg studio get involved -

In Luxembourg [Antevita Films] did the sound and post-production. The film features 7.1 surround sound. They said, "Who do you think you are to use 7.1ch sound in this low-budget film? But I believed it was exactly the level of quality I needed. I was very pleased with the quality of the sound, because there were songs, voices, and dialogue coming in from off-screen, and they needed to be layered. Some of the sounds were coming from up close, some from far away. The experience of seeing this film in full 7.1 surround sound is truly amazing.

When did you decide to turn the film into a musical? I started writing the script in 2015. I wrote it during the weekdays and had Sturgis read what I had written over the weekend and we discussed the story. One week I started writing songs along with the dialogue. But Sturgis read what I had written and said, "So now you are going to write a musical?" He asked. Maybe it was because I had just seen "Hamilton," but there was something musical in the air, so I contacted Christian Sensini, who had composed the music for my previous film, "Rocks in My Pocket," and asked, "Do you think you could do the music for this film?" I asked. He said, "Yes, give me a challenge." So I did.

How much research did it take to write the biological aspects of the script? I did a lot of research, then more research, then more research, then more research. There were times when I was stressed because I couldn't find the words I needed to say. Films still have to be made in your own words, so when the words didn't come out right, I would ask myself why I did it. But somehow I persevered and kept going.

I learned a lot about the anthropology of love and the culture of love. It is so interesting now to observe myself and see, "Oh, this is oxytocin at work." When others talk about toxic and abusive relationships that they are stuck in, they always ask: "What do you think is going on? But it doesn't work that way. I also learned that love and hate come from the same neurotransmitter, which causes love for those within the bond and hate for those outside the bond. That's why people hate people outside of their political party or their favorite sports team. Because while we have the capacity to love, our capacity to hate comes from the same place. [We need to forgive past relationships that were abusive or missing. We are made to be hijacked and manipulated, and it is not entirely our fault if we don't recognize such behavior immediately. I hope I'm not being too mushy.

"My Love Affair with Marriage" is a trilateral co-production between Studio Lokomotive in Latvia, Baumane's The Marriage Project LLC in Brooklyn, and Antevita Films in Luxembourg. Baumane wrote, directed, and animated most of the film's scenes, while Yajun Shi animated the biology portions. Christian Sensini composed the music and Baumane provided the lyrics. Baumane's partner and longtime collaborator Sturgis Warner built the sets for the film and was in charge of lighting design. New Europe Film Sales is the worldwide sales agent for the film.

The voice cast includes Dagmara Domicek, Michele Polk, Matthew Modine, Cameron Monaghan, Stephen Lang, and Storm Large.