Pivot, Ana Gusson’s animated short exploring the conflicting societal pressures girls face in the modern world, is now available to watch for free online for a limited time, following a successful festival run. Based on a true story and written by Robyn Campbell, the Oscar-qualified film centers on 12-year-old Ashley, whose idea of who she should be is at odds with what her well-meaning mom thinks.
Watch Pivot on YouTube or at the bottom of this article.
The film was produced in Vancouver by Women in Animation’s successful Canada-wide ACE program, which aims to elevate women from midlevel animation careers to industry leaders through mentorship during the course of creating an animated short film.
Gusson is an award-winning director (Isabel & Nicki’s Super Duper Twin Adventures) and accomplished 2D animator based in Vancouver. She has animated for productions including My Little Pony: The Movie, Netflix’s Archibald’s Next Big Thing and DreamWorks’ Trollstopia.
Campbell is an award-winning Canadian screenwriter, currently writing for LEGO Friends, produced by The LEGO Group. As a bisexual female millennial, Campbell is driven to create characters and stories that are inclusive, diverse and encourage audiences to be themselves, even when it’s difficult.
Pivot is produced by Tini Wider, who is currently based in Canada and owns her own production company Wider Entertainment Inc. Having completed the animated short, she is now working as a VFX producer on an animated CG feature film at Industrial Light & Magic.
The film also tapped the talents of Cindey Chiang, an award-winning art director and visual development artist whose credits range from animating on the Beatles “Covers” ad for Apple to working on both of The Angry Birds movies as a vizdev artist, and is currently a Visual vizdev artist on the 2024 Garfield animated feature; award-winning, Vancouver-based animation director Erica Miles (Hilda, 101 Dalmation Street, Trollstopia, Young Love), who is now working on a series for Disney at Atomic Cartoons; and Eva Pekárová, a composer and musician for documentaries, film and animations, whose upcoming album incorporates orchestral performances and Eastern European folk instruments.
