Confusion Through Sand: A Short, Hand-Drawn Animation on the Terror & Confusion of War

Back in Octo­ber 2012, Ornana Films raised $30,000 through a Kick­starter cam­paign to pro­duce Con­fu­sion Through Sand, an ani­ma­tion that “explores the spec­trum of haze expe­ri­enced by today’s sol­diers in the desert.” It’s an inter­pre­ta­tion, Ornana tells us, “of what hap­pens when top train­ing encoun­ters cir­cum­stances beyond the realm of human con­trol, in both inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or con­flicts.” The action takes place “on the ground, under the hel­met of a 19 year-old infantry­man.” Once com­plet­ed, the film pre­miered at the 2013 SXSW film fes­ti­val and took home the Jury Award. Now, a year lat­er, it’s free online. And even bet­ter, it comes accom­pa­nied by a behind-the-scenes film that takes you inside the film­mak­ers’ artis­tic process, show­ing how they hand-ani­mat­ed the film with mark­ers on recy­cled paper. Enjoy both.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!