The Feeling of a Body
A Stop Motion Animated Feature Film
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Contact:
Emily Ann Hoffman: emilyannhoffmanfilm@gmail.com
Sean Weiner: seanmweiner@gmail.com
Brooklyn lesbian Mila’s life is turned upside down when she inexplicably wakes up in the body of a straight woman in rural Poland.
The Feeling of a Body is a poignant, dark comedy stop-motion film about bodily autonomy and our sense of self, told through an unexpected body swap.
Think: Anomalisa meets Poor Things.
Synopsis:
Mila is a queer, urban farmer in Brooklyn. Though she lives with her long-term girlfriend, Naomi, she can’t shake the shame she feels around her sexual identity. She’s haunted by the memory of her mother catching her in her first lesbian kiss and is stuck in a pattern of dissociation, unable to stay present in her body. After Mila and Naomi’s boss interrupts them kissing passionately, Mila loses her cool and throws an out-of-proportion tantrum, leading to a blowout fight with Naomi. Mila has a panic attack and dissociates from her body beyond recovery.
Across the globe in a small, Polish village, Piotr’s girlfriend, Agnieszka, suddenly wakes up speaking English and unable to walk. Mila has inexplicably landed in Agnieszka’s body. What at first seems like a temporary, Freaky Friday-style body swap quickly becomes darker: Mila learns her body in New York has died and she is trapped in Agnieszka’s life permanently.
As Mila struggles to regain control of her body and life, she forms an unexpected bond with Agnieszka’s grandmother, Babcia, and with the matriarchal folk art traditions of her new home. Eventually, Mila learns that her new body is pregnant. But it’s too late for her to return to New York for an abortion – Naomi and her friends have filed a restraining order against the random Polish woman who won’t stop calling them. Isolated and at the mercy of Agnieszka’s past decisions, she’s forced to navigate a new body, a controlling boyfriend, and the specter of both Mila and Agnieszka’s absent mothers until she can learn to wholly accept herself, including the body she didn’t choose.
Project Support:
2026 Dean’s Faculty Research Grant, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
2026 NYU-DC Writing Salon, Center for Faculty Advancement, NYU
2025 Catwalk Institute - Artist Residency
2025 Easton’s Nook - Writing Retreat
2024 The Parador, Santa Fe - Artist Residency