Flights for Survival: David Baute’s ‘Black Butterflies’ Animates Three Eye-Opening Climate Refugee Stories

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The Annecy Festival Contrechamp prize-nominated feature Black Butterflies (Mariposas Negras) spotlights the plight of climate refugees from different regions of the world who have to flee their homelands to find shelter from various weather-related catastrophes. The animated feature is directed by talented Canary Islander David Baute, who has spent years traveling and collecting climate-related stories.

The film centers on Tanit, Valeria and Sheila — three women displaced from their rural lives who have to find their way amidst cramped urban sprawls. Navigating a labyrinth of government bureaucracy, abuse and furthered poverty, they will be stripped of their dignity, community and identities as they fight for survival.

“I like to work on thematic documentaries that deal with social and environmental issues,” Baute tells Animation Magazine. “I began to investigate climate issues over 20 years ago, not only from the perspective of climate data, but also its consequences in human beings. I focused on the migratory flows it produced, which were more limited at the time but now affect millions of people. This led me to Saint Martin in the Caribbean, Ghoromara in India and Turkana in Africa. I started shooting hundreds of hours, documenting everything, following women across the globe forced to leave their homelands when natural forces render them uninhabitable. We visited the same places every two or three years, and we shot as much footage as we could, which later served as inspiration for the film, both visually and for its sound design.”

An Immersive Experience

The film’s producer, Edmon Roch (Tad the Lost Explorer movies, Jokes & Cigarettes, Garbo: The Spy), believes that the line between fiction and non-fiction is becoming thinner these days. “It’s wonderful to have been selected not only by the most renowned animation film festivals in the world, but also by the most important documentary festivals as well,” he notes. “Black Butterflies is an animated documentary for a global audience. We have been awarded as Best Animated Feature Film by the Spanish Film Academy (Goya Award), Catalan Film Academy (Gaudí Award), Spanish Film Producers (Forqué Award), and the prestigious Ibero-American awards Platino and Quirino, prior to releasing the film in the U.S.”

“I hope audiences will be entertained and moved by this film. Animation is the best way to capture the essence of true stories. We’re all surrounded by all kinds of ‘black butterflies,’ but we must be able to acknowledge them. We live in a precious world, and we have to care for it.”

— Producer Edmon Roch

 

Baute says he was fortunate to have a most talented team attached to the project. “Pepe Sánchez (Run Ozzy Run), who started with me to design the entire production, acted as the animation director as well,” he notes. “María Pulido was the director of photography and art director. Twelve-time Grammy Award winner Panamanian musician Rubén Blades composed our original song, ‘Inmigrantes,’ and Diego Navarro created a beautiful score, weaving the three stories together through the unique sounds of each place. In addition, Oriol Tarragó (Jurassic World, The Impossible) and Sara Romero did an exquisite job on the film’s sound design. On top of it all, Yaiza Berrocal, who worked closely with me, wrote a precious screenplay.”

The director also believes that films belong to their audiences, but he also thinks that Black Butterflies also belongs to the women portrayed and their communities. “Tanit, Valeria and Sheila have powerful, true stories,” he adds. “Animation is the best possible way not only to depict them, but to make them reach wide audiences all over the world.”

“When David told me the stories of these women, I knew this was the animated feature film I had to produce,” says Roch. “Besides the different awards we’ve won, to me the most precious one was UNHCR [United Nations Refugee Agency] director Sivanka Dhanapala welcoming us to their headquarters in New York and thanking us for the film. I like movies that not only entertain but make us grow as conscious human beings.”

Just like that other award-winning European feature Flow, Black Butterflies’ eye-popping animation is produced by Blender and Grease Pencil. The film’s visuals were praised by several publications. As Variety pointed out, its “delicate 2D animation is informed by art from regions the film depicts — the Caribbean, India and the Turkana County. Rich textures and dreamy watercolors draw the viewer into the scene as the score ranges from ambient and ethereal, to ancestral, to employing acoustic hand-strung guitar chords.” Surprisingly, the estimated budget for the project was under $3 million.

When asked about his desired impact of the movie, Baute responds, “As a filmmaker, I am inspired by true stories. On the environmental and climate issue, we hear such disparate testimonies every day from experts, politicians, citizens, that it’s already beginning to generate a certain fatigue in the population, and this is dangerous. For this reason, we’ve tried to put a face to this drama, which is also the leading cause of migration in the world, and help generate a deeper debate.”

“I hope audiences will be entertained and moved by this film,” adds Roch. “Animation is the best way to capture the essence of true stories. We’re all surrounded by all kinds of ‘black butterflies,’ but we must be able to acknowledge them. We live in a precious world, and we have to care for it.”

 

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Black Butterflies is a Spanish-Panamanian co-production between Edmon Roch’s Ikiru Films David Baute’s Tinglado Film, Cesar Zelada’s Tunche Films, Marc Sabé’s Anangu Grup and Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals.

Pink Parrot Media holds the film’s global rights. It will be released in the U.S. on December 5.