Descant for Alma is an animated feature film about survival, memory, family, and the small things people carry with them when the world they know disappears.
Set generations after catastrophic flooding has transformed the landscape, the story follows Alma as she leaves the isolated home where she grew up and gradually discovers other people, new ways of living, and a world still changing beneath her feet. Music runs through the film as both memory and language, evolving alongside Alma as she builds, loses, and rebuilds a life.
The film is directed by Joel Benjamin, a filmmaker, writer, animator and Animation professor at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. His filmography can be found here, including information about his previous feature, Where it Floods.
This site is an evolving record of the film’s creation. The maps contain artwork, animation tests, character and environment development, production experiments, and other fragments from behind the scenes. Rather than presenting the project as a conventional production blog, the site is meant to be explored, with pieces of the filmmaking process attached to the places and environments where they belong.
To be totally honest, the site is this way because I loathe making and keeping up with social media posts. This lets me play a little with interactivity, coding and something more fun for ME to create.
NOTE:
You may see some temporary images of questionable origins. These tend to be placeholders until I have time / money to replace them. As of August, 2026, this FEATURE FILM (!!!!) has $0 budget.