{"id":420977,"date":"2026-02-12T02:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T02:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/420977\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T02:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T02:22:12","slug":"from-poem-to-stop-motion-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/420977\/","title":{"rendered":"From Poem To Stop-Motion Short"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Two Black Boys in Paradise received a BAFTA Film Award nomination for British Short Animation last month, it marked another high point in a gilded festival run that has already included more than 60 international screenings and 21 awards.<\/p>\n

But the BAFTA nod is not the story here. The story is how a deeply personal poem about Black queer love became one symbolic of its creators\u2019 own journeys of openness, love, and self-acceptance.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Team<\/p>\n

Directed by Baz Sells and written by Sells, poet Dean Atta, and Ben Jackson, the 9-minute film adapts Atta\u2019s poem from his collection There is (still) Love Here into a handcrafted, stop-motion world.<\/p>\n

Produced by Manchester-based One6th Animation with support from the BFI Short Form Animation Fund, the film follows Edan (19) and Dula (18), two young Black men navigating racism, homophobia, self-doubt, and the fragile courage of holding hands in public. Their refusal to hide becomes transformative, transporting them to a paradise free from shame.<\/p>\n

For Atta, that paradise was both literal and emotional.<\/p>\n

\"DeanDean Atta<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of emotional truth in it and a lot of our lived experience,\u201d he explains. \u201cParadise, while it\u2019s presented as a real place in the film, is also a kind of state of being with someone who just gets you and being with someone that you feel completely safe and loved and accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atta and co-writer Ben Jackson have both been in long-term relationships for eight years. That stability, after confronting their own self-doubt and the fear, became central to the film\u2019s emotional architecture. \u201cWe\u2019ve both had experiences where we\u2019ve been afraid to hold our partner\u2019s hand in public,\u201d Atta says. \u201cLearning to love and accept yourself can be helped along by having a partner\u2026 but sometimes it is about an internal journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Jackson<\/p>\n

Jackson first encountered Atta\u2019s poem at a Berlin reading in 2019. \u201cI\u2019d come out by then, I didn\u2019t come out till I was 30, but I was still very much struggling with self-acceptance,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI just went away and couldn\u2019t stop thinking about that poem.\u201d By the summer of 2020, in the isolation of Covid lockdowns, he reached out to Atta about a collaboration. What followed was a five-year process that Atta describes as an unexpected but joyous education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know that was called development,\u201d Atta laughs when speaking of those early Zoom calls and pitch decks. \u201cEvery step of this journey has been a learning experience about how film works and how films are made\u2026 and then how they are sent to festivals and awards. It\u2019s been such a steep learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Poem to Puppet<\/p>\n

Atta\u2019s original poem offered only minimal visual description: two Black boys in paradise. The rest had to be invented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I wrote the poem, I relied on people having a concept of paradise, perhaps from Christianity, from the Garden of Eden,\u201d Atta says. Raised in the Church of England, he imagined a reclaimed Eden populated by two Black queer characters. During development, he began suggesting details: snow-capped mountains inspired by the Scottish Highlands, a loch rather than a generic lake, and contrasting hairstyles, dreadlocks and an afro, reflecting his own formative years. \u201cHair was a really big, important part of my experience as a Black man,\u201d he notes while chuckling about his now hairless head.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Much of the narrative expansion emerged through conversation. The market confrontation, the police stop, and the choreography of public hostility were shaped through long discussions about lived experience. \u201cWe had a lot of time to talk about what our experiences were, what we wanted to say about holding hands as a gay couple in public, what we wanted to say about the relationship between Black men and the police,\u201d Atta explains. \u201cIt was a lot of talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson and Sells translated those conversations into a script and storyboard, working closely with storyboard artist Avia Shelts-Brown. But the leap from 2D planning to 3D stop motion introduced another layer of complexity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had this very clear idea of paradise in 2D,\u201d Jackson says. \u201cBut then it was like, how do we turn this into a 3D stop motion set?\u201d Water, notoriously difficult in stop motion, became a central technical challenge. The team wanted reflections captured in-camera. \u201cThere was definitely some R&D time needed,\u201d he says. \u201cHow do we achieve that reflection? How do we create waves?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Early puppet tests explored complex internal head mechanisms and silicone faces to maximize expression. Budget and feasibility ultimately led to solid heads with replaceable mouthpieces. \u201cThe animators did such an amazing job of getting so much emotion out of those faces,\u201d Jackson says. \u201cConsidering the constraints, the way they moved the eyebrows and eyelids\u2014it was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atta admits he had to be convinced about adapting his poem to stop motion. \u201cWhen they said stop motion, I worried it could be clunky.\u201d That concern evaporated once he saw the animatic and early designs. \u201cIt\u2019s the opposite of clunky. It\u2019s incredibly fluid, almost balletic. It looks like a dance between these boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aquatic sequences, in which Edan and Dula glide underwater before surfacing into their Edenic refuge, evoke Barry Jenkins\u2019 Moonlight, a reference point the cinematography team consciously embraced. Atta finds those scenes especially resonant. \u201cWhen they\u2019re in the water, they seem incredibly free,\u201d he says. \u201cIt reminds me of becoming more comfortable in the water since being with my partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two
\nLove at the Core<\/p>\n

The production itself became an extension of the film\u2019s ethos. \u201cEveryone who got involved really believed in the project and wanted to be there,\u201d Jackson says. Cast and crew bonded deeply; some even took trips together during production. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful for the relationships this film has brought me,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt was a journey of self-acceptance for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sincerity is evident in every frame on screen. The film doesn\u2019t sensationalize to elicit easy reactions. Hostility is present, but it does not define the boys or their experiences. Instead, quiet, defiant love anchors the narrative. \u201cLove is at the heart of it for the three of us,\u201d Atta says, referring to himself, Jackson, and Sells.<\/p>\n

Crucial Support<\/p>\n

The BFI Short Form Animation Fund provided crucial financial backing alongside the U.K. animation tax credit, which was slightly lower at the time than it is today. Jackson describes the financing journey as precarious, with failed applications strengthening the eventual pitch. \u201cWe got to the stage where we couldn\u2019t imagine a world where we didn\u2019t get to make this film,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Now, as the short continues its awards run and streams in the U.K. on Channel 4 (distribution in other major territories, including the U.S., is being finalized), Atta reflects on what it means for the poem to reach audiences who may never pick up a poetry collection. \u201cI\u2019m dyslexic,\u201d he says. \u201cI love that this poem is being delivered in this beautiful film because it can reach people who don\u2019t read poetry books.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, the adaptation has been transformative. \u201cIt\u2019s been such a journey\u2026 to go from development to production to festivals to BAFTA nominees. Every screening was a delight.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Return to Animation?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Atta says without hesitation when asked if he\u2019d like to adapt any of his other works in animation. \u201cMaybe something feature-length this time. I can see how my stories can reach a much wider audience through film. Animation is such a beautiful type of storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Two Black Boys in Paradise, that storytelling feels less like escape and more like reclamation. Its handcrafted Eden allows two young men, and eventually many more couples, a place not only to exist, but to love openly, joyfully, and without apology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Two Black Boys in Paradise received a BAFTA Film Award nomination for British Short Animation last month,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-420977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}