Ages of Sand is a short film that blends the worlds of animation and live-action to tell the tale of a young girl learning the value of water in a polluted world.

The film is currently in post-production, check the Concept Art page for regular updates on creature development and animation.

The Story
Today our children encounter a kind of living penance as we alter the balance of life on earth. It is only by seeing the healing and life giving powers of water in a dream that a young girl named Nika is able to awaken an understanding of the delicate balance between water and life. The film explores the fantastic imagination of a child as a tool for change and transcendence.

With a fanaticism for details, Jonathan Sager and his team set about to create the technical specifications that would bring the story to life. The film has gone through various stages of development including a large 1/6 scale desert environment and experiments in computer controlled puppetry.

The Inspiration
The story for Ages of Sand evolved from a Buddhist tale called the Sai-no-Kawara-kuchi-zu-sami-no-den. The Sai-no-Kawara, or The Dry Riverbed of Souls, exists in one of the six purgatory realms of rebirth in Japanese Buddhism. Within the 300-year-old hymn was a subtle environmental parable pertaining to modern children growing up on an increasingly ravaged planet. In the hymn of the Sai-no-Kawara deceased children enact penance in the desolate purgatory of a dry riverbed.