Masses of debris mobilize in Hewitt's study of discarded possessions. View a clip now. © Zagreb Films.

Editor's Note: If you have the QuickTime plugin you can view clips from In Between.

At Zagreb 2002, the 15th World Festival of Animated Films, I had the opportunity to view In Between, a new short film from Zagreb Film by filmmaker Nicole Hewitt. We often think of animation as being a very controlled medium, but here, Hewitt takes to the streets in a form of "guerrilla animation," animating mounds of trash that has been left on the streets of Zagreb. From heavy washing machines and refrigerators to wicker baskets, couches and beyond, the film focuses on our displaced possessions.

Heather Kenyon: First off, why was all this trash out on the sidewalks and whatever gave you the idea to animate it?

Nicole Hewitt: The city of Zagreb organizes an annual clearance of large household refuse. This takes place every year starting in April on the outskirts of the city, making its way into the center by the summer and then moving out again toward September. Each borough or neighborhood is allocated a specific day to chuck their stuff out, so during that period piles and piles of rubbish appear all around town. This has been going on for years and has always been a source of fascination to me. There's a kind of continuos choreography going on with the rubbish as people empty their garages, attics or whatever and other people look through the piles; some just perusing, others collecting toys or looking for antiques, the Romany gypsies [Editor's note: Romany gypsies are an ethnic group of wanderers that have been in Europe since before the 14th century. Originally from northwest India, they began their migration before the 9th century. Once in Europe, they suffered discrimination, and even torture and slavery. Prejudice continues to this day.] collecting metal, wood and plastic. It's like a whole archaeology of the city on public display.

HK: What point are you making with your film? Is it more a study of the trash items, their form and nature, or are you making an environmental point?

NH: Rubbish is to me a fascinating subject and I was initially interested in the identity status of these objects. The anthropologist Mary Douglas calls rubbish 'matter out of place' -- discarded objects still retain traces of their previous identities, they have not yet disintegrated into an amorphous and unidentifiable mass, they are still recognizable objects, but in the wrong place and with traces of ownership still lingering. They are, to my mind in an In Between state of things, on their way to becoming nothing, non-objects. In the Zagreb case, the matter is even more fascinating as other factors come into play -- private vs. public space, bourgeois taboos of cleanliness are confronted with 'scavenging.' There is a whole alternative economy going on in the streets, with the Romany people sorting and reclassifying the rubbish according to material. There are also cases of people throwing their own junk on the pile and taking something their neighbor threw out...

HK: How did you come to make a film for Zagreb Film? Don't you usually live and work in the U.K.?