As an animated anthology series, Star Wars: Visions gives animation studios from around the world an opportunity to bring their perspective and inspirations to the Star Wars universe. Chilean director Gabriel Osorio brought Patagonian influences to the story of his episode “In the Stars.” The short follows two sisters living in hiding from the invading Empire. As the last of their kind, they must fight back when they are discovered. Using the Empire as a colonizing force, Osorio brought in elements of the actual story of how Patagonia was colonized and used the appearance of stop motion for the animation to give the short a “handcrafted feel.”
What was your inspiration for “In the Stars”?
GABRIEL OSORIO: The most important inspiration for us is the story of the original nations in Patagonia here in Chile. The story is that they were one of the last nations in South America that were colonized. Their colonization was happening even less than a hundred years ago, and they were hunting people. It was a very, very rough and terrible story of colonization. That was our main inspiration because we feel that this is the same story that has repeated, not only in Latin America, but in every country that has been colonized. That theme is actually in Star Wars, so I felt that this was the perfect place and the perfect universe to tell this story about injustice and about suffering and about separated families.
Why choose stop motion for the animation style?
OSORIO: It really is a mixture of formats, but it’s mostly CG. It looks like stop motion, but that’s because we did a lot of real backgrounds and then we scanned them with a photogrammetry technique. So, it has that flavor that it looks handmade. And for us, it was very important to have that handcrafted feel because in some ways it connects us more to nature and the themes that we were talking about.
What connection do you have to the Star Wars universe that made you want to be a part of this series?
OSORIO: I lost my father when I was very young, when I was like four years old. So, I really remember, at six years old, looking at this film, The Empire Strikes Back. And I remember clearly seeing Luke fighting and suddenly the big plot twist happens that the bad guy is his father. That was a very touching moment where I felt that Luke was the same person as me, because he also didn’t know who his father was.
Even as a child, I started writing stories. I saw those stories the other day and there are a lot of lightsabers and blasters and all of that. I think it was my way of escaping and coping with all of those complex themes that everybody has in their life. We all have our own traumas, and I started creating stories as a way to escape from all that messed up stuff. That was one of the things that lead me to tell stories, because one of the biggest stories that I heard, as a kid, about a father and his son was in Star Wars.
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Credit: Deadline.com
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