Wings for Butterflies is an animated short film that explores the rich and magical landscape of the redwood forests of California. The peaceful existence of the forest’s occupants is disturbed upon the arrival of a storm of manmade destruction, which threatens to uproot their trees and their way of life. It is up to a tree spirit and her small winged friends to restore the balance of their ecosystem. Loosely based around the story of Julia Butterfly Hill, who lived in a redwood tree for two years to ensure that it couldn’t be logged by the Pacific Lumber Company. Wings for Butterflies was animated using a paint on glass technique, which involved hand painting individual frames with a mixture of acrylic paint and glycerine. It is the director’s graduate film from the animation course at UCA Farnham, UK.
