Five years after he made an animated feature by himself (Away), director Gints Zilbalodis is back with a new animated movie — Flow. It’s about a cat on the journey of a lifetime… or maybe nine. Flow opens in select theaters this Friday Nov. 22, with a nationwide expansion set for Dec. 6. Zilbalodis shares how he explored animals, nature, weather and the Earth in cool and visually breathtaking ways. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.). Images Courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films.

Jackson Murphy: Congratulations on this, and I’m very curious to know what your transition was like from “Away” to “Flow”.

Gints Zilbalodis: So I made my first feature, “Away”, which was almost like an unofficial film school for me. I wanted to do everything myself to learn these different tasks — to do the sound and the music and animation. And I hoped that I would have a chance to eventually work with a team. And then I would actually be able to talk with all these different professionals. I would understand their craft. And so it happened. “Away” was quite successful in a lot of festivals. Had a chance to meet producers from different places and we were able to secure a much bigger budget and a bigger team for “Flow”. Actually wanted to tell a story about my experience of learning how to work together… how to trust others. So that’s what “Flow” is really about, about this cat learning to do that.

Gints Zilbalodis: And I had to learn how to articulate my thoughts. Before I could just have an idea and make it myself. I didn’t have to explain it to others. But this time I had to find words, which was a challenge. In some cases I would do that, but in other cases it is easier just for me to show my intention. For example, the music, which I still wanted to do myself. I would do the initial sketch of the music, write the themes. But then another composer, Rihards Zalupe, would take those and polish them and add a lot more detail and depth. But it was just easier for me to show it through music than using words in that case.

JM: This is a visually stunning animated film with a lot to say and a lot of movement from these characters. It is about a cat who meets other animals on quite an adventure, quite a journey. And you’re right, I wanted to ask you about these animals interacting with each other in Earth’s ecosystem and what you wanted to say about that. Clearly, that means a lot to you.

GZ: All the films I’ve done are without dialogue. So I think about ideas where it makes sense. So in this case, it’s animals, and they don’t speak, they behave like animals. I knew that having the main character be a cat, everyone understands that cats don’t like water. We don’t need to explain that. So showing its fear in the biggest way possible, having this big flood destroy its home, I thought would be really powerful and very clear as well. And in this case, we also don’t need antagonists in the film. It’s just a cat versus nature kind of a story, or maybe a cat versus itself story, because it has to overcome its fears and insecurities. And the water is something that pushes the cat to do that.

I didn’t want it to be just bleak and dark and sad. There’s also this light adventure story, and there’s this journey with these animals, and I think when you kind of balance this devastation with the humor and the adventure of the characters… that was important to have that balance. Then it can actually reach an audience because I don’t think people want to see just the bleakness and the destruction.

JM: Yes. And it’s a beautiful film to watch. You’ve got the water. You’ve got the movement of these animals, sunlight as well. What were your biggest challenges with the nature aspects and the animal movement and making it all feel like an amazing experience for families who are going to watch this?

GZ: I wanted to create an experience. I think when you go on this journey, you feel like you are this cat in this film. We have this camera following these characters very closely, and the camera is like an active participant. It’s almost like another character, and it makes you feel like you’re experiencing it from the subjective cat’s point of view, where everything seems even more big and scary, and it’s also more emotional. And because there’s no dialogue, we have more ways to be expressive with the other tools of cinema — with the sound, and the music, and the lights, and editing. That way we can push them a lot further, and we can have the score have the main role, basically. It’s not competing with the dialogue, it has a big presence.

JM: The sound work is very detailed. It’s very specific. And do you have childhood memories of the first time you heard some of these important sounds, whether it’s the sounds of these animals or the sounds of the earth and nature?

GZ: Well, I’ve had cats and dogs, so I’m very familiar with them. And I didn’t have to do much research. Our animators looked at a lot of references for cats and dogs. And we went to the zoo and… we recorded real animal voices. That was important. When I’m writing, I like to go on hikes. That’s where I got a lot of ideas. I go out into nature.

JM: The earth is complex. Nature is complex. Weather is complex. What was the most complex factor for you in making this movie?

GZ: Well, technically it’s probably the water. Like any film, even live-action films, it’s very hard to control water. But in this case we had to design all kinds of new tools to do that. Water is very different from scene to scene. And we wanted to follow the cat as it jumps in the water and the camera follows it underwater and to have it happen in the same shot is quite complicated. So that’s another big challenge was doing these long takes. We have some shots which go on for almost five minutes. And that is not something that hasn’t really been done in animation.

JM: This movie has been on quite a journey. You have been to Cannes and Annecy and Toronto. It played at a film festival near me last month (FilmColumbia in Chatham, NY). How has this journey been for you showcasing this movie to audiences around the world?

GZ: It’s great. I spent years and years on this film — staying in our studio [in Latvia], and now I have this chance to travel. I lost count of how many places I’ve been, but basically since Cannes in May, I’ve been traveling non-stop. I also feel inspired to start working again on the next film. I want to keep doing this. I want to keep making personal stories. I’m telling a personal story and it feels nice that it’s being understood. That’s like a big relief because I wasn’t sure if it would work or not. It feels really nice.

JM: What’s the most personal aspect that you wanted to make sure was included in “Flow”?

GZ: I didn’t want the simple happy ending where everything’s solved and the cat learns to overcome everything. I don’t feel like life is like that. There are certain things we can change about ourselves and we can learn and become more brave, but there’s still some anxieties we feel, at least I feel, no matter what. I wanted to show how the cat does improve on its fears, but it still has these deep down, something that it has to learn how to live with. And I wanted to show how that’s okay, and we can accept those things, and maybe there’s others who can support that.

JM: As you’ve gone around the world… have cat lovers come up to you, and what have they said about their experience watching this movie and about what cats mean to them?

GZ: So many people come up to me and show pictures of their cats. Our style of the film is not entirely realistic. It feels kind of immersive but it’s not hyper real. I wanted it to feel more graphic and abstract. And because of that, people see their own cat in the film. When it’s stylized, you’re kind of projecting your own experience onto the screen. And you feel like it’s your cat, and it becomes more intense, and more people say that it’s their cat in the film. So I’m really glad that they have this reaction.

JM: You tease that you have something else you want to work on next. What do you see as the future of animation, not just for yourself, but for the medium — for this art form?

GZ: I think it’s exciting that nowadays there’s tools available and resources online that films like this can be made in places where there isn’t a big industry. And this allows a bigger variety of perspectives and different kinds of voices telling their stories and using different kinds of techniques as well. We’ll see all kinds of different looking films and different feeling films. This is a fairly small film with a small budget, but it can reach a huge audience, especially because it’s animation. It doesn’t have any cultural boundaries. It can work for different cultures, for different ages. So I’m excited to see all kinds of independent films. It’s great that we’re often on stage, or being compared to some huge studio films, and there’s a possibility for us to be at the same stage, and that’s really exciting for me.