Handshake 2004

Directed by Patrick Smith

In this animated film, an innocent greeting between two people is quickly transformed into a tangled struggle, illustrating the twists and turns of a love affair. Relationships are visceral attachments, often leading to one dominating and consuming the other, then moving on easily and heartlessly. This film is autobiographical, a visual metaphor of an experience I had in my youth with one of my first girlfriends, perhaps the first love of my life. We learn a lot from experiences like this.