{"id":52593,"date":"2025-08-08T10:56:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T10:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/?p=52593"},"modified":"2025-12-09T21:52:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T21:52:00","slug":"alex-boya-bread-will-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/alex-boya-bread-will-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Bread Will Walk | Q&#038;A with Alex Boya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Continuing a fruitful creative relationship with the National Film Board of Canada, Bulgarian-born, Montreal-based animator\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/alexboya.com\/\">Alex Boya<\/a>&#8216;s latest film Bread Will Walk is an examination of &#8216;dystopian absurdity [&#8230;] where the grotesque and poetic intersect&#8217; told through 4,000+ hand-drawn, ink-on-paper frames embellished via a unique cocktail of digital and photocollage processes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>In a world where the planet is starving, a malevolent enterprise known as The Mill offers the solution of &#8216;miracle bread&#8217; that turns all who consume it into bread themselves. When young Magret realises her brother has become one such bread zombie, she takes it upon herself to protect him from a ravenous, addled society at all costs and against increasingly frenzied odds. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>With the film currently screening at International Countryside Animafest Cyprus and upcoming selections including the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Skwigly caught up with Alex to learn more about the project&#8217;s unique concept and visual approach.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bread Will Walk | EXCERPT No.1\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1065843108?h=d61fbd1b09&amp;dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>We\u2019ve spoken with you previously about your prior short film work <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/nfb-hothouse-10-focus-alex-boya\/\"><em>Focus<\/em> (2015)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/alex-boya-turbine\/\"><em>Turbine<\/em> (2018)<\/a> \u2013 can you bring us up to speed with what you\u2019ve been up to since then and how it led to the production of your latest film <em>Bread Will Walk<\/em>? <\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Bread Will Walk<\/em> is a natural extension of my earlier works but began in another medium: with my graphic novel The Mill (Chapter 1): Walking Bread, completed in 2018. That world\u2014circular, man-made, existentially industrial\u2014felt like the logical next stage of my filmmaking after <em>Turbine<\/em>. I brought the concept to the NFB in 2019, and after some development positioning, I began production in May 2021. It was a four-year journey through analog, digital, and hybrid processes. The NFB\u2019s creative environment allowed me to go deep into that process, treating animation as fermentation rather than manufacture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Where did the concept of \u2018nonviolent bread zombies\u2019 originate from?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It began with a visual pun on emotional dependency. What if bread, the symbol of basic comfort and sustenance, could turn against us not with violence, but by absorbing our love? The zombies in the film aren\u2019t predators. They\u2019re lost beings made of our most familiar food, walking with ritualistic aimlessness. They mirror our own hunger, not just for nourishment, but for meaning, for purpose, for each other.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_52608\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52608\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BreadWillWalk_still1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"324\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52608\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image from <em>Bread Will Walk<\/em> &#8211; Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Is \u2018The Mill\u2019 a stand-in for a particular organization or governmental body?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Not explicitly. The Mill is more of a behavioural schema than a bureaucracy. It mills not flour but willpower. Its shape is circular, suggesting inescapability. I wasn&#8217;t targeting any specific entity but rather mapping a structure we all internalize, the one that teaches us to sacrifice intimacy for productivity, clarity for belief.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Having worked with them previously in your career, did you always intend for this film to be an NFB production, and how did their involvement help get it made\/developed?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Absolutely. After <em>Turbine<\/em>, the trust with producer Jelena Popovi\u0107 and the NFB was firmly in place. From the beginning, the NFB supported this film not just financially but ideologically. It gave me access to a collaborative space where invention and imperfection are valued. It also gave me time\u2014four years\u2014to knead the story, test methods, abandon others, and return to core instincts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>The film has a very specific, multi-layered visual approach. Can you tell us a bit about how you developed this and how it technically breaks down?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The process started with thousands of ink-on-paper drawings done straight-ahead, scanned and composited in Photoshop. I performed shape segmentation on each frame to isolate layers, skin, fabric, structures, before overlaying photo textures. Bread textures were collaged from real photographic elements, sometimes even baked, shot, and dissected. The final look came from digital compositing in After Effects, where Mathieu Tremblay created a custom \u201cpastry glaze\u201d blend of filters that softened harshness and gave the image a glazed, fleshy cohesion. Norman McLaren\u2019s spirit was constantly invoked. Animation happens between frames, not just on them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>I remember seeing that, during the development phase, you were dabbling with AI. What ultimately led to you moving away from that path?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>AI was useful as a preliminary texture generator, especially in-house tools I was developing at the NFB. But visually, AI has a flattening effect. It draws from statistical norms and delivers what you expect rather than what you feel. I didn\u2019t want that probability grid dictating the emotional tone. We ended up using AI-generated outputs as references, volume, light, colour cues, and repainted or redrew them entirely by hand. I\u2019d describe it as using AI as a prosthetic for imagining, not replacing, the artist\u2019s gesture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_52605\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52605\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-52605\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BreadWillWalk_feat-600x333.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"333\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52605\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image from <em>Bread Will Walk<\/em> &#8211; Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>In our last interview, you also mentioned that stop-motion might play a part in this project, then titled The Mill. Did any aspects of this approach remain in the final film?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We went fairly deep into it. We tested bread-based pixillation sequences, including 3D-printed bread forms and discussions about rigging real dough in a fireproof green- screen oven. But safety concerns (and the impracticality of baking frame-by-frame) meant we couldn\u2019t continue on premises. Still, that inquiry shaped the logic of textures, lighting references, and rhythm. There\u2019s a stop-motion spirit in the final piece, a stiffness, a tactile impulse, even if it\u2019s entirely 2D.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>The film makes use of a continuous \u2018long take\u2019 shot method occasionally seen in live-action and, rarer still, animation. Were there any particular artists or films\/projects that influenced this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In <em>Turbine<\/em>, I had already begun wrapping camera logic around the characters. This time, I committed to one uninterrupted take, a fresco rather than a montage. B\u00e9la Tarr was an influence, and so was the tradition of single-shot stage theatre. But technically, it was the absence of editing that interested me most: a psychological claustrophobia. The viewer isn\u2019t allowed to look away. You are implicated in the breathlessness. That\u2019s the trap.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_52606\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52606\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52606\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BreadWillWalk_still2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"324\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52606\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image from <em>Bread Will Walk<\/em> &#8211; Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Was there any particular significance to the film\u2019s main protagonists being brother and sister?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Yes. Siblinghood embodies involuntary love. Gerben\u2019s sister, Magret, shelters him not because she must, but because she remembers who he used to be. This relationship predates ideology, predates consumption. In that sense, she\u2019s a kind of Antigone, trying to restore dignity to a body society has discarded. The brother, now made of bread, represents both personal loss and cultural rot in the zettabyte age.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>How did you come to work with Jay Baruchel on the film and what was behind the choice to have him take on all the voices?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Jay and I first connected by phone, and I was immediately struck by his instinct to stretch a single voice across a fractured cast. His range isn\u2019t just technical, it\u2019s architectural. He sculpts entire worlds through tonal shifts. What stood out most was the rawness and pliability in his performance, which made the piece feel lived-in. By assigning every role to the same voice, we weren\u2019t just blurring identities, we were building a sonic ecosystem, where each character feels filtered through the same worn machinery.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Previously you had mentioned scoring the film to Edvard Grieg\u2014in the end Bread Will Walk is bookended by the classical Chopin piece Nocturne in E-Flat Major and the jazz standard All of Me, both interpreted by Martin Floyd Cesar. Can you tell us a bit about the musical direction of the film and working with Cesar to achieve it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Martin Floyd Cesar brought a needed vulnerability. Grieg was too architecturally grand. Chopin and \u201cAll of Me\u201d gave the film an emotional echo: one classical, one vernacular. Both pieces were interpreted as if overheard through a cracked window. Martin\u2019s voice wraps around the final moments like a memory you didn\u2019t know you had. The song \u201cAll of Me\u201d became unintentionally literal. The crowd in the film wants all of Gerben. But also, Magret gives all of herself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_52607\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52607\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52607\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BreadWillWalk_still3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"324\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52607\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image from <em>Bread Will Walk<\/em> &#8211; Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>The film premiered as part of the Directors\u2019 Fortnight in Cannes in May of this year \u2013 how was that experience and has it opened doors for the project\u2019s visibility and distribution? <\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Premiering at Cannes on May 22 was surreal. It\u2019s not just about the prestige, it\u2019s about context. Watching Bread Will Walk on a giant screen with an international audience, in silence, during the final scenes\u2026 that kind of reception reinforced that even the strangest concepts can resonate viscerally. Since Cannes, the film has screened at Annecy, and several upcoming festivals have expressed interest in the film. International interest in the distribution has increased significantly, especially from curators seeking hybrid or speculative animation. The conversations happening now wouldn\u2019t have occurred without the visibility the Directors\u2019 Fortnight provided.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div><em><strong>Upcoming screenings for <\/strong><\/em><strong>Bread Will Walk<\/strong><em><strong> include <a href=\"https:\/\/animafest.com.cy\/\">International Countryside Animafest Cyprus<\/a> (9pm August 8th, International Competition I), <a href=\"https:\/\/off-courts.com\/\">Off-Courts &#8211; Trouville<\/a> (3:30pm September 7th, 6pm September 9th, Qu\u00e9bec 2) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.animationfestival.ca\/festival\/schedule\/\">OIAF Ottawa International Animation Festival<\/a> (TBD, Official Competition, Narrative Shorts)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Continuing a fruitful creative relationship with the National Film Board of Canada, Bulgarian-born, Montreal-based animator\u00a0Alex Boya&#8216;s latest film Bread Will Walk is an examination of &#8216;dystopian absurdity [&#8230;] where the grotesque and poetic intersect&#8217; told through 4,000+ hand-drawn, ink-on-paper frames embellished via a unique cocktail of digital and photocollage processes. In a world where the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":52605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,755],"tags":[2727,8902,5019,1785,10317,557],"class_list":["post-52593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","tag-alex-boya","tag-bread-will-walk","tag-cannes","tag-jelena-popovic","tag-martin-floyd-cesar","tag-nfb"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - 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