Directed by Élise Simard • Animation • 2012 • 7 minutes

To find light, we must first journey through the darkness. So begins Elise Simard's My Little Underground, a sombre and beautiful autobiographical story that follows a young girl's bus ride home in winter. Drifting between real and imagined events in her past and present, the girl travels towards some semblance, however complex and uncertain, of self-discovery and rebirth. Using a mix of time-lapse photography with ink and pastels, Simard creates a haunting, compassionate exploration of the pain and fragility of addiction and existence. Acknowledging the difficulties of beginning anew, the girl nevertheless clings to the hope and belief that love, whatever its form, will return and breathe new possibilities into a life momentarily gone astray.