Hanaé Sanchez grapples with dual heritage in a delirious film and accompanying zine

Hanaé Sanchez finds it hard to describe herself, but as she put together a multi-disciplinary diptych project, which is composed of a short film and a zine, she realised that her identity, background and art were deeply intertwined. After completing her A-Levels and a foundation year in fine art in France, she studied moving image at UAL, gaining skills in writing, direction and design. The culmination of Hanaé’s studies turned into At Last, proof of her multi-faceted interests in moving and printed images.

In a way to reconnect with her Khmer, South East Asian and Cambodian heritage and to “turn frustration into creation”, Hanaé brought design, animation, storytelling and live action together in her first ever film. “At its core, the work is about connecting with a parent in that unspoken, unconditional way, and about daring to take the past into your own hands in order to bend destiny,” shares Hanaé. “Some might see the film as slightly experimental, especially in a world of instantaneity where you’re expected to get your point across in seconds. But for me, that’s precisely the point: the past, though unchangeable, is always being rewritten in the present.”

The striking film blends phantasmagorical animation with soft black-and-white live action, telling a cerebral thriller of sorts, where a man falls in and out of fractal, cobalt dreams. In its monochrome visuals, backgrounds filled with South Asian furniture and decorations blend into blurred greys, encapsulating the protagonist’s ignored personal history. The protagonist’s chaotic inner world materialises in quick cuts, sinister strings and the heightening of sounds around him, but keeps the viewer at arm’s length with spectral animations that accentuate the film’s arthouse influences.

“Ever since I was a child, I’ve craved a good story,” says Hanaé. “Both the ones starting with ‘once upon a time’, which gave me that magical realism and fable-like element that seems to seep into every one of my projects, and then the epic secrets, the juicy family tales passed down on both sides of my family – of which there are plenty.”

The other side of the project, the zine, is like the film pulled right out of the screen onto paper. Adorned with checkered patterns, stark blue pages, comic illustrations and collage, the mixture of aesthetics mirrors the extra-sensory drama of the film. “The many patterns and ornamented pages are a reinterpretation of traditional Khmer motifs, often found on silk skirts, woven floor mats, and other elements of interior design in Khmer homes,” writes Hanaé on her website. Featuring a warbled typeface, cosmic patterns and ocular mazeworks that make your eyes spin, it’s a bold take on nostalgia, diaspora and familial relationships – there’s even a short crossword inside.

Experimentation was the crux of both sides of the project for Hanaé – one of the biggest lessons she learned was that “art has no rules but the ones you impose yourself”. She dabbled in rotoscopy, stop motion and other other disciplines in the process of adapting her vision, taking pleasure in every moment, even the failures. Through the process, Hanaé regained child-like wonder and excitement, not just in the release of the project, but in the journey of making it and finding playful ways to rewrite the rules. “I grew tired of waiting for someone else to decide whether my project was worthy of being made. So I channeled my heroes and the DIY kid I still very much am,” ends Hanaé.