Lost & Found NYC

CONCEPT:

samwsmith.net/lostfound

Lost & Found NYC is an animated short documentary built around anonymous voicemails from New Yorkers. They answer one open-ended prompt: What do you wish you could say to someone no longer in your life? Whether someone died, drifted away, or was never really reachable, the project turns unspoken grief into something shared by offering a brief space for release. Grounded in the city, Lost and Found discovers vulnerable individuality and profound universality in parallel paradox.

DOCUMENTARY PROCESS:

Lost & Found NYC is a collective spoken-unspoken poem. 200+ pull-tab flyers, multilingual wheatpaste posters, stickers, and subway slips invite diverse passersby to leave anonymous voicemails.

ANIMATION:

Lost & Found NYC will be animated entirely in 2d traditional real, physical media. This means that each frame will exist in real life, not just digitally. The film will exist in a multimedia format, utilizing multiple formats throughout. It will primarily be painted in minimalist watercolor.

The overall content of the animation will avoid obvious and representational imagery and will instead favor metaphor.

SOCIAL IMPACT:

I’d like this film to start with the process, and keep its heart in the process. The core of Lost and Found New York City is a moment of catharsis. Within the eighty voicemails received so far, it is apparent that this project is creating space for reflection and release. Crowdsoothing, if you will.

INTENTION:

I believe that, at its core, all love is exactly the same. It’s the same social-survival evolutionary experience our ancestors and their ancestors had. Love wears many different clothes and presents in many different forms. Can we bring a viewer to see grief as a beautiful, profound outfit for love to wear? Can grief become a path to connectedness?

It may be cliche, but it is more true than ever: our world is deeply disconnected. 

By offering strangers a brief moment of reflection and release, what might we discover about our shared humanity?

Will we let suffering close us off? Or will we let our hearts break open, together?

Is grief an expression of love?

The ultimate goal of Lost & Found is to make a film that honors the callers’ love (present, prior, or ambiguous) for those they can no longer contact. Perhaps, in the process, a viewer will be reminded of the importance of those still in their lives, motivated by the inherent nature of their impermanence.

Timeline

Lost & Found New York City will be finished by March 2025. The edit and animatic will continue to evolve through August. Animation will continue through the summer, fall, and winter.

After the film is completed, it will be shared via film festivals, and, ultimately, it will be accessible to stream.