Elizabeth Mehling
Photo credit: Elliot Frances Flynn
Elizabeth Mehling is an animator, filmmaker, and editor who has a strong sense of herself and why she’s in animation and film. It’s rare to meet someone who has the courage to understand who they are and the drive to create stories that allow others to embrace their true selves too. Elizabeth’s current film, Memories of Rain is an award winner at the Toronto International Women Film Festival and has been a selection or finalist at multiple other festivals. The stop motion short’s logline: A young woman must confront a physical manifestation of her mental illness if she is to win back control of her mind and her memories. You can watch the trailer here.
Read and listen along to learn more about how Elizabeth came to become passionate about animation, how she hopes the industry will evolve and the lessons she learned from creating Memories of Rain.
How do you identify as a creative?
I identify presently as a queer, feminist, neurodivergent animator/filmmaker/editor.
That is the path that I am currently on and cultivating for myself. And that's something that I've grown to become comfortable with accepting. I like to use that also as a way to drive my storytelling and inform my storytelling.
So for example, I like to do a lot of queer-centered stories, but also ones that take in elements of neurodivergence or mentally ill individuals and include depressive episodes or anxiety, which figures a lot into this film (Memories of Rain).
At what point in your life did you realize you wanted to focus on that with your work? Was anything a catalyst for that?
Well, I know animation was definitely the first visual storytelling language that I was exposed to. And that's true, I think, for a lot of people, which is why I feel that having rich and different types of storytelling is so important in animation and things that are geared towards younger audiences.
So, what was a real catalyst I do remember was when I watched Miyazaki’s Spirted Away because up until then I had only watched Disney movies. That was the first film I watched that first of all, was coming from a non-American filmmaker. So that was a big shift. It made me realize the global impact of filmmaking. It was also an animation that was very so detailed, and so well-rounded, and rich. Not to say that Disney films aren’t in a lot of ways, but that was just such a big shift from what I was used to— especially like coming out of say, the princesses.
Then on top of that, I was watching the animation, claymation shorts, Wallace and Gromit, which are British based. That was what I grew up on, and it helped grow this fondness for stop motion. I remember just noticing all the little hands-on parts of it: just seeing the fingerprints on all the clay people and realizing that this was something touched by human hands. . . it gave it this realness and interaction that I hadn’t experienced before either.
Well, Memories of Rain is a stop motion film, let’s talk about that and your process in creating it. What about it do you want people to know who might want to try their own stop motion project, after having done it yourself?
Poster created by Dan Pham.
What do you hope people walk away with after they see the film?
First of all, especially in this country, I hope people see animation as a valid form of mature storytelling, but also as a very good vehicle for introducing representation and story concepts to a younger audience. Because as I stated before, animation is sometimes the first visual storytelling language that we're exposed to when we're younger. So representation and different types of diverse stories are very important for that reason.
And then I also hope filmmakers who watch it can realize that just because you're insecure about, and might think the film doesn't look 100% polished or refined, that you can embrace that aspect of it and think about what it means from a more layered perspective. And the ripples that it'll create and how it will broaden its identity, and just really get hands-on and not be afraid to sort of just fall into it, so to speak.
I love that you said that animation can be a gateway of sorts to introduce younger audiences to a lot of different kinds of stories. What kinds of stories do you wish you saw more of?
Have you ever faced disrespect or discrimination in your life, whether it be in an educational or professional setting? And how did you cope with it? Do you wish you coped differently looking back at it now?
Yeah. . . it’s interesting because I feel like in most situations, people didn’t outright say: you can’t do this because you’re fill-in-the-blank. It’s more of a subconscious implication that they make. I’ve noticed that sometimes if I say Oh, I can do this or I’m going to do that, then some people will look at me with this face that says Really? Are you really sure you can do that though? Sometimes they even jump right into showing me how to do whatever I’m working on. I understand that might come from a place of dealing with people who say they can do something and end up bailing on it, but it still feels a bit jarring to be on a set and to be taking up that kind of space.
Sometimes it feels like you have to hyper-vigilant about your actions and you can’t mess up in any capacity. Because you're afraid that as soon as you do, it's going to reflect on who you are, how you identify, and how that could ripple through people who might come after you. So that can be frustrating.
What is bringing you joy right now?
Definitely creating an organized and peaceful space because I’m working from home a lot, and that’s important. I also live with my two cats who are a little pain in the neck, but I love them so much. And then trying to get back into watching new things and reading new things. I think it's especially important now, where we live in this time void, so to speak, it's important to remember that this isn't going to last forever. Once we get back out there that we might actually see this new explosion of art, I think, because of what's been going on. I just think back to how the Renaissance came out, after the plague. So I’ve been wondering if, you know, after bad times, we can have this explosion of art, and I'm anticipating that will hopefully come around. As soon as we fix the issue with unemployment and everything else, and people are actually able to get back to work, which is extremely important.
Absolutely. What’s the last book you read?
The last book I completed was called My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem. I started going back to therapy a couple of months ago, and I got interested in that book because it's about bodily trauma, specifically, the racialized trauma that white people and black people, and just people in general, hold over generations of certain forms of violence and forms of trauma and how that genetically informs our reactions to things.
It was really just kind of a world-shifting view of how when you think really deep into why your body reacts to certain things, and how it's sort of programmed that way and actually started way back. It's almost like we're coiling ourselves up, and we have to learn to release and take up space in a way that's healing and not destructive. I don't think I'm ever going to be done reading on that aspect of deconstructing certain biases and parts of ourselves.
Wow. I really love that sentence: “we have to learn to release and take up space in a way that’s healing and not destructive.” What was the last thing you watched?
The last thing that I watched was the first episode of The Queen’s Gambit, which so far is fantastic. I was really taken, first of all, by the cinematography, the set design, and the costumes — I love vintage costumes. Love anything vintage. And also the main character's name is Elizabeth so, automatically liked it.
Final question: if you could tell a younger version of yourself one thing, what would it be?
Hang on to some of your toys because you’re going to need them for a film later!
What I would really say is it’s going to be hard, but it’s going to be worth it. And just because it isn't here yet, doesn’t mean it's not on its way to you already.
Love that. That’s a wrap! Thank you so much for sharing your story with us Elizabeth.
Support Elizabeth’s film, Memories of Rain on Instagram here and Facebook here.
Watch the trailer here!
