Canada based author Thao Lam and animator Kjell Boersma’s National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short Boat People has been featured as a Staff Pick on Vimeo from 19 November. The animated short is also available in Canada on NFB’s official website and YouTube, and in the US on PBS official app and POV.org.
The short is produced by Justine Pimlott and Jelena Popović for the NFB. The short was inspired by Boersma’s personal experiences as her family were among over 1.6 million refugees who fled the chaotic aftermath of the Vietnam War, venturing across the South China Sea in precarious open boats.
The animated short Boat People employs a hybrid of traditional 2D animation, stop-motion multiplane, and 3D rendering to capture the unique aesthetic of Lam’s handmade paper textures and patterns. The film speaks across time and culture to anyone who’s ever fought to protect their family or community.
The short’s official synopsis reads as: As a little girl in Vietnam, Thao’s mother would rescue ants from bowls of sugar water. The tiny creatures would later return the favour, leading her desperate family through darkness—and pointing the way to safety.
Boat People directors Lam and Boersma shared, “This film began as an opportunity to explore one family’s unspoken history. Along the way, we met families with similar struggles; the details vary, but the theme of sacrifice and resilience is consistent. Boat People is a reminder that nobody willingly abandons their home, leaving behind their family, friends and possessions. Throughout history, every migration, animal or human, is done out of necessity, and should be embraced with empathy and understanding. Grateful to Vimeo for bringing this to a global audience.”
“We’re proud to feature Kjell Boersma and Thao Lam’s Boat People as a Vimeo Staff Pick. The curation team was impressed by how the film employs a deceptively simple, children’s storybook-like animation style to tell an emotionally rich and complex story of war, loss and survival,” said a Vimeo representative.
Boat People has been selected by more than 40 festivals around the world, receiving 10 awards to date including the Helen Hill Award for Animated Short at the New Orleans Film Festival, a short-films qualifying festival for the 97th Academy Awards. The short was previously selected for festivals like the documentary festival DOC NYC, Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, BFI London Film Festival, Palm Springs ShortFest and Ottawa International Animation Festival back in 2023.