The Mark We Leave On The Land: Maya Sanbar On Her Short "Footsteps On The Wind"
Director Maya Sanbar is a multimedia artist who can relate to the plight of refugees as her own family has a history of refugee displacement, her father having fled Haifa, Palestine in 1948. Her animated short film, Footsteps On The Wind, tells the story of two siblings who go on a mysterious journey after tragically losing their parents. The 17-time Grammy Award-winning artist Sting gave his refugee-inspired song “Inshallah” to Maya so that she could create an animation film as a therapy tool for traumatized refugee children and to raise awareness of the growing refugee crisis around the world. Maya, who wrote the screenplay for the film with Pedro Paulo de Andrade, has worked on a variety of films and documentaries including Wajib, Freak Show, House In The Fields, The Idol, The Muslims Are Coming, The Time That Remains, and Trouble The Water.
Footsteps on the Wind follows the plight of Noor and her little brother, Josef as they journey far away from home, orphaned from a devastating earthquake.
Footsteps On The Wind is the first animated short film ever made to a song by Sting. The film has won a variety of awards. We had the pleasure of chatting with Maya about her film, its origins, working with sting, creating the visual look, and much much more!
How did the concept for Footsteps On The Wind originate?
I’ve been wanting to make a film about refugees for a while, I have family history marked by it, and when I heard Sting’s song “Inshallah” it felt like the perfect fit.
The meaning of Inshallah is “If God permits, it will come to pass”, and while I was working on the story with Sita and Onjali, we talked a lot about the walk refugees make on their journeys with nothing but their feet to carry them to a distant life of safety. During one of the workshops we did with refugees we ended up doing a musical dance to Ethiopian music, and being on a walk together somehow reminded us of the reality of these footsteps. We even all drew around feet and decorated these “steps” — each person had a story to tell. How do you walk all the way from country to country, putting one step in front of the other in hope.
When you go camping, spend the night somewhere, you usually leave a mark on the grass. After a day or two the mark goes as the wind and other footsteps sweep that memory away. I do a lot of camping and think about the marks we leave on the land.
The wind knows no borders or boundaries, so we thought the title Footsteps On The Wind would work for what we wanted to say about these anonymous marks refugees make on their journey, and how the wind can carry their wishes and intentions to safety. That’s why in the film at some point the footsteps lift up and some transform into wishing flowers.
What was it like working with Sting? How did the two of you get connected?
We can see from Sting’s track record that he creates from the heart, and he wrote this song “Inshallah” in reaction to seeing the terrible images of the Syrian refugee crisis, with the devastating pictures we all remember of children’s bodies washed up on the shore. I had met him a few times from working with his wife Trudie, and when he was recording the song we had a conversation about the meaning of the word as he was very sensitive to it and how it should be pronounced, which touched me. The minute I heard it, I was overtaken by its hypnotic melody and deep sincerity, I asked him if he would donate the song to a film I’d like to make about refugees. He immediately said yes. Now, here we are!
He gave feedback from time to time, but trusted our process and simply left us to it.
Can you talk a bit about the writing process for the film? Did you and Pedro Paulo de Andrade put the story together with the song in mind?
I actually developed the story first with Gillian, Sita and Onjali. I loved the song and know a lot about the refugee experience but we wanted to anchor it in the child’s perspective so we did workshops with refugees.
Pedro Paulo and I shifted the story on a few levels to adapt and create shortcuts for us to be able to fit everything we wanted to say within the 6 minute length of the song.
The song was always there from the beginning. It guided us but we worked independently from it: we don’t follow it literally, only spiritually in its intention.
Talk a bit about how you and your animation team fine-tuned the visual look and nailed down the film’s aesthetics.
Animation has a way of going beyond words, straight into the emotional. We used inspiration from classic fairytales like Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and The Wizard of Oz. They are scary in one way, addressing the very difficult situations faced by child refugees.
It’s a big responsibility to show the refugee experience of millions of people each with their own situations, in just 6 minutes, so we have a lot of say — and with animation we were able to use symbolism and shortcuts to messaging that was important to us from our research. We made the animation very colorful and warm because the artwork that came from our storytelling workshops with refugees were extremely colorful and hopeful.
We used visual cues and worked on creating characters that all 5 major continents could identify with. We wanted the visuals to be strong and clever in their simplicity. There are no words to the film, so it can travel across cultures easily. We wanted to makes sure that the pictures within it would speak a thousand words.
What drew you to the visual arts? How did you get into animation and directing?
I’m a multi-media artist, so by nature I love experimenting with new materials to get my point channeled through. Animation felt right for this project.
One of our aims is to use the film as a storytelling therapy tool for anyone who has experienced loss or displacement — animation has a way of depersonalizing the situation and talking about the character more easily than with live action. Animation helps find different levels of messaging in the audience whether adult or child. But most importantly, the film is about unaccompanied children, we kept the camera angle low in the scenes and with animation even the sea has its own character voice, as well as does the red scarf.
Directing the animation piece together whilst living in different countries during lockdown was challenging. I’m in the UK and Faga and Leal are in Brazil, and our producer is in the USA, so co-directing the animation process operated on trust and enthusiasm.
What films or filmmakers have inspired you, your style, or your approach to telling a story?
I love Studio Ghibli for its combined strength and softness. I also have always loved watching black and white 1930-1960 movies. Orson Wells’ The Third Man is a visual masterpiece I refer back to regularly. I loved black and white films even as a child. Also my father and my grandmother were captivating storytellers, they taught me how to filter the key points and carry the audience with me sincerely with a story.
For me, when telling a story it’s a channeling I feel of others stories, particularly in documentary work when you’re never sure what you might expect for an interview. . The exhibition I did for the United Nations is called Voices On The Wind. It shares another angle of the story we are sharing here: I am inspired always in telling a story — even an old and used up one.
What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
Our mission is to raise awareness and compassion, and for it to be used as a therapy tool. It will also be used as an education tool, we have a learning pack on our website www.footstepsonthewind.com
I love that we can use film, storytelling, and art to shift hearts and minds, something I endeavor to do with all my work.
What I hope they take away is a sense of understanding that people to not choose to leave their home unless they have to, and to be kind can compassionate wherever they tread. I can be reached via our website or on IG: @chasingthelightstudio
Do you have any future projects in the works that you can share with us?
Yes! I have a film installation I’m working on at the moment — it involves water and natural elements. I will keep you posted!
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!