What is the film about?

A teenager is secretly writing explicit gay erotica in his bedroom, while his lonely mother is
falling inexplicably in love with a carrot. Separate but parallel, they confront their strange,
private desires that keep their small household afloat.

A little background information...

Carrotica draws from my own queer adolescence, but speaks to broader experiences of
loneliness, validation, fantasy, and the fragile ways we come to understand ourselves. The
film explores desire as something both deeply private and strangely absurd through three
parallel narratives: a teenage boy writing explicit gay erotica in secret, the melodramatic
fantasy world he creates, and his recently single mother’s growing obsession with her botany
work . I wanted the film to feel funny, tender, and a little embarrassing in the way intimacy
often is, inviting viewers into a miniature world where vulnerability and secrecy shape
everyday life. Beneath its surreal premise, Carrotica is ultimately about the awkward
emotional ecosystems people build to survive, and also the connected experience across
generations.

How was the film made?

Carrotica was shot frame-by-frame at 4:3 at 2K resolution. The film runs 13 minutes. Every
frame was animated by hand over an 11-month shoot, across 10 handmade miniature sets
filled with miniature props. Puppets were fabricated from foam latex, with ball-and-socket
armatures, and replacement mouth pieces and button eyes for conveying emotion, in spite of
no eyebrows.