Heart’s Rooted Dove

A short created in a single travelling notebook, celebrating peace and resilience and cultural beauty.

Heart’s Rooted Dove (30s) – A stop‑motion short made in a travelling notebook, celebrating peace, resilience and cultural beauty. Created for @ac4pal and @joannaquinn’s “To Gaza with Love: A global Anijam” in support of @animator_haneen and the young filmmakers she mentors. More info and donations at @ac4pal

Film Specifications
Director & Animator: Kim Noce
Length: 0:30 sec
Format: 1920×1080 HD 16:9 H264
Sound: Recording pot‑banging demonstration
Colour

Vimeo https://vimeo.com/1106648190
Film Website https://filmfreeway.com/projects/3920688
Website: https://kimnoce.wordpress.com
Interactive Website https://togazawith.love/

Offcial selection up to 16 Nov
2025 12 Nov Brighton Animation festival Special, UK
2025 4-8 Dec I am not a Lady, Bologna, Italy
2026 15 Jan PIAFF, Paris International Animation Film Festival, Paris, France
2025 10 Nov Brighton Animation Festival , Brighton, UK
2025 - 7 Nov Dublin Animation Film Festival Dublin, Ireland
2025 – 7-12 Oct Animage 15th International Animation Festival of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
2025 – 21 Oct Secondigliano Film Festival Naples, Italy
2025 24-28 Sep StopTrick, Slovenia

Online Reach 9096 views https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM2Bdr6xNTQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Director’s Statement – Short
Heart’s Rooted Dove is a 30‑second stop‑motion and mixed‑media film, created entirely within a travelling notebook and filmed in multiple locations. Using watercolour, stop‑motion, and pixelation, the work embodies resilience and creativity emerging from limited means, culminating in the final image of a dove drawn in sand.

The film draws inspiration from Palestine, where creative expression becomes a form of survival. Its imagery reanimates tangible elements of Palestinian culture—traditional patterns, textiles, dance, and daily life, restoring visibility to their beauty and strength amid ongoing trauma. The soundtrack is the rhythm of heartbeats, built from the real sound of a pot‑banging protest, echoing resilience and solidarity shared by all of us who hold them in our hearts.

Created for To Gaza with Love, the film offers hope to young Palestinian filmmakers, showing that art can arise anywhere, with whatever materials are at hand, as an act of love, remembrance, and quiet resistance.

Director’s Statement – Long
Heart’s Rooted Dove is a 30‑second stop‑motion and mixed‑media short film created entirely in a single travelling notebook. The film carries the essence of resilience, hope, and cultural memory, reflecting the strength of the Palestinian people through visual poetry.

I approached the film as both an artistic act and a gesture of solidarity. The soundtrack features the real sound of pot‑banging protests, layered as heartbeats, evoking lives persisting under duress. This heartbeat‑like rhythm is an echo of what cannot be fully expressed: the grief, the love, the endurance of a culture under threat.

The imagery of the film draws upon tangible and symbolic elements of Palestinian heritage. I studied traditional textiles, patterns, dance, and fragments of everyday life, recreating them in watercolour, stop‑motion, and pixelation. By reanimating these cultural artefacts, I wanted to bring life back to what the world is in danger of forgetting amid the overwhelming documentation of destruction. It is a celebration of continuity—of children caring for cats, of shared meals, of patterns sewn by generations—showing that beauty and identity endure even in times of immense suffering.

The final image of the dove drawn in sand is a gesture of impermanence and faith. It represents a form of creativity that survives without studios, tools, or resources—art made from what is at hand, ephemeral yet powerful. This is how many young Palestinian filmmakers and artists work: from necessity, but also from an unbreakable will to create.

Heart’s Rooted Dove is created for @animator_haneen and the young filmmakers she mentors—a dialogue with them, to support them emotionally, and to honour their strength, resilience, and creativity. It is my gesture of respect for their rooted hearts and the hope that carries them, like wings, into the future.

About “To Gaza with Love: A global Anijam”
To Gaza, With Love: A Global Anijam brought together animators and artists worldwide to create short 10–30 second animated messages of love and solidarity for the Palestinian people. These animations – over 250 submissions from 650 registered participants – are gathered on an interactive global map, highlighting points of support from across the world, and premiered in a live-stream event in August. A curated selection will also be screened at international animation festivals, extending the project’s reach to diverse audiences.

The initiative was organised by the Animation Community for Palestine (AC4PAL), inspired by the work of Haneen Koraz and her team in Gaza,, whose stop-motion workshops with children continue to offer hope through creativity. The project aimed not only to connect global voices in animation but also to raise funds and awareness for Palestinian causes, amplifying messages of unity and resilience.

Looking ahead, the visibility of this collective effort set the ground for future collaborations, screenings, and creative activism, ensuring the voices of artists remain part of the ongoing conversation around justice and solidarity with Gaza.

Impact
1. About the Project
Heart’s Rooted Dove is a 30-second stop-motion short created entirely within a travelling notebook. The film celebrates peace, resilience, and cultural beauty through mixed-media animation. Produced for To Gaza with Love: A Global Anijam—an initiative led by @ac4pal and @joannaquinn in support of Palestinian animator @animator_haneen and the young filmmakers she mentors—the work stands as both a creative act and a gesture of solidarity.
2. Title
Heart’s Rooted Dove
 Director & Animator: Kim Noce
 Duration: 30 seconds
 Format: 1920×1080 HD (16:9, H264)
 Sound: Recording of pot-banging protest
 Colour: Yes
 Websites:
 – Film Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/1106648190
 – FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/projects/3920688
 – Artist site: https://kimnoce.wordpress.com
 – Interactive project site: https://togazawith.love/
3. Synopsis
 Created in a single travelling notebook, Heart’s Rooted Dove celebrates peace, resilience, and cultural continuity. Through watercolour, stop-motion, and pixelation, it transforms limited materials into a visual poem of endurance and care, culminating in the image of a dove drawn in sand—a fleeting yet powerful symbol of hope.
4. Director’s Statement
Heart’s Rooted Dove was conceived as an act of artistic resistance and compassion. The soundscape builds from the real rhythm of pot-banging protests, layered as heartbeats, reflecting both defiance and endurance. The imagery draws on Palestinian textiles, dance, and fragments of daily life—children, patterns, gestures of care—reanimating their beauty and meaning amid adversity.
The final image, a dove traced in sand, embodies impermanence and renewal. It affirms that art can emerge anywhere, from whatever materials are at hand. The film is dedicated to @animator_haneen and her students in Gaza, offering emotional solidarity and respect for their strength, creativity, and rooted hope.
5. Festivals and Screenings
 – Paris International Animation Film Festival (PIAFF) – Paris, France (15 Jan 2026)
 – Brighton Animation Festival – Brighton, UK (10 Nov 2025)
 – Dublin Animation Film Festival – Dublin, Ireland (7 Nov 2025)
 – Animage – 15th International Animation Festival of Pernambuco – Recife, Brazil (7–12 Oct 2025)
 – Secondigliano Film Festival – Naples, Italy (21 Oct 2025)
 – StopTrick International Film Festival – Maribor, Slovenia (24–28 Sep 2025)
6. Themes
 – Animation as cultural preservation and resilience
 – Artistic solidarity and creative resistance
 – Mixed-media and site-responsive filmmaking
 – Global collaboration and care in times of conflict
7. Purpose and Impact
 Created as part of To Gaza with Love: A Global Anijam, the film contributes to a worldwide artistic movement of solidarity with Palestinian filmmakers. It demonstrates how animation can serve as both a language of empathy and a mode of survival. The work highlights art’s potential to sustain connection, dignity, and hope in times of crisis.
8. Timeline
 – July 2025: Creation within the travelling notebook
 – August 2025: Global Anijam premiere (livestream and interactive map)
 – September–December 2025: Festival circuit and international screenings
 – 2026: Continued dissemination and inclusion in cultural activism platforms

• https://kimnoce.wordpress.com/2025/08/02...
• https://linktr.ee/ac4pal
• https://vimeo.com/1106648190
• https://www.youtube.com/@AC4PAL
• https://togazawith.love/