''Wade'' is an Indian animated short film written and directed by Upamanyu Bhattacharyya and Kalp Sanghvi. It follows a group of climate change refugees in
Kolkata, India
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
, as they are attacked by an ambush of Royal Bengal Tigers. It imagines futures around
sea level rise
The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...
,
global warming
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
, ecological disruption and
mass migration
Mass migration refers to the migration of large groups of people from one geographical area to another. Mass migration is distinguished from individual or small-scale migration; and also from seasonal migration, which may occur on a regular basi ...
.
The film was made in Kolkata by Ghost Animation and premiered at the
Annecy International Animation Festival
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring ever ...
2020, where it won the City of Annecy Award.
Premise
Kolkata, India, in the near future, has been badly affected by climate change and sea level rise. The floodwater has forced most people to move out of the city, turning it into a ghost town. The Sundarbans forest, just to the city's southern fringe, has also been devastated, forcing a lot of wildlife, including tigers, to move north into the shell of Kolkata.
However, a few people remain in the city, wading around, looking for sustenance. A family of climate change refugees arrive in a flooded Park Street, where they are attacked by a hungry tiger. While some are killed, the rest manage to flee into a building nearby, leaving behind a blind girl who uses a raft made of plastic bottles for her conveyance.
When a much larger ambush of tigers arrives on the scene, things begin to take a dark turn when both species go to extraordinary lengths to survive.
Production
Writing
Writing began in April, 2016, in Mumbai. The film subsequently took inspiration from writings such as The Great Derangement by
The Uninhabitable Earth
"The Uninhabitable Earth" is an article by American journalist David Wallace-Wells published in the July 10, 2017, issue of ''New York (magazine), New York'' magazine. The Long-form journalism, long-form article depicts a worst-case scenario of ...
by
David Wallace-Wells
David Wallace-Wells (born 1982) is an American journalist known for his writings on climate change. He wrote the 2017 essay "The Uninhabitable Earth"; the essay was published in ''New York (magazine), New York'' as a Long-form journalism, long-fo ...
. For reference for the background art, the crew took photographs in Park Street, Kumartuli, and Shovabazar in Kolkata. The crew made research trips to
Alipore Zoo
The Zoological Garden, Alipore (also informally called the Alipore Zoo or Kolkata Zoo) is India's oldest formally stated zoological park (as opposed to royal
and British menageries) and a big tourist attraction in Kolkata, West Bengal. It has ...
crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...
campaign on the Indian crowdfunding platform,
Wishberry
Wishberry Online Services Pvt. Ltd. (Wishberry) is a Kickstarter-inspired crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a ...
.
Animation
The film was animated on
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...
,
TVPaint
TVPaint Animation (also known as TVPaint, TVP, and before as Bauhaus Mirage or NewTek Aura) is a 2D paint and digital animation software package developed by TVPaint Developpement SARL based in Lorraine, France. Originally released for Amiga in ...
and
Krita
Krita ( ) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital art and 2D animation. Originally created for Linux, the software also runs on Windows, macOS, Haiku (operating system), Hai ...
. Production largely took place in the Ghost Animation studio in Kolkata, and the directors worked with a team of 30 artists. The film was made in a 4:3 aspect ratio to make the human-tiger standoff situations feel more 'claustrophobic'. The film was composited on Adobe AfterEffects. The sound design was executed on
Ableton
Ableton AG is a German music software company that produces and distributes the production and performance program Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments and sample libraries, as well as their own hardware controller Ableton Push. ...
, and audio recordings took place in a river
Vashind
Vasind is a city in Shahapur taluka of Thane district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is suburban city of Mumbai.Mumbai-Vasind distance is about 63.1 km. Vashind is a census town.
Economy
Vasind hosts various medium and large sc ...
, Maharashtra, to add authenticity to the nature sounds and splashes.
Festival screenings
'Wade' has played in numerous festivals globally, and also went on a domestic tour in India, playing i 23 venues across 8 cities