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Title: Ball Lightning
Runtime: 12 min
Country: USA
Director: Catriona Trina Baker
Placement: Honorable Mention
Competition: June, 2025
Synopsis: Ball Lightning a 12 minute 2D/experimental Fine Arts frame-by-frame animation is a story of love, resilience and surviving the trauma of war. It follows the story of Gusta – a refugee who fled the personal and social effects of Soviet run East Germany after the end of WWII and immigrated to the United States in the 1960s. Having been forced to give away her infant daughter as the iron curtain rose, Gusta becomes a surrogate mother to the narrator of the film. Gusta serves as a role model and example of survival, resilience, and kindness. Her warmth reveals what it means to feel loved unconditionally, and the need for such a love that sustains, transforms, and protects us throughout our lives. Her story involves the greatest of sacrifices, and is dedicated to her lost daughter, Esther, a reminder that the children separated from families because of war are never forgotten by those who love them. Additionally, it brings to light the plight of a refugee and illustrates the trauma of war and the fortitude of human resilience.