‘Madeline’ chronicles a poignant road trip and a unique friendship – huge
A delightful centenarian named Madeleine lives in a nursing home in Canada. Full of life and energy, she spends her days knitting, chatting, and staying comfortable in her modest room. When she became friends with Brazilian-Canadian filmmaker Raquel Sancinetti, 67 years her junior, a beautiful relationship developed.
Sancinetti’s short film “Madeline” grew out of five years of delightful, thoughtful and tender weekly conversations between the unlikely friends, and Sancinetti’s desire to take her older companion on a trip to the seaside. Madeleine’s age (103 at the start of the project) meant that her physical exertion was limited, and despite repeated attempts to persuade her, Madeleine preferred to stay at home.
Sancinetti does have a powerful tool at her disposal, however, to organize another kind of trip through her imagination. “We often talked about going on a road trip, so I decided to take her out in the only way I could think of: through animation,” Sancinetti wrote in an editorial. Operational documentation series by New York Times. “This short was made when Madeleine was 107 years old and I consider myself lucky to have known her.”
“Madeline” combines stop-motion animation with live-action recordings to create a poignant reflection on friendship, aging and living life to the fullest. Born thousands of miles apart, their connection illustrates what beautiful and unexpected relationships can develop at different times in life. Sancinetti captures her friend’s infectious sense of humor and playful self-awareness without shying away from the reality of a man whose life is about to end.
The short film won several prestigious film festival awards, including Best Animated Short at the Quebec Film Festival and Best Short Documentary at the Canadian Film Awards. See more on Vimeo.
