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Unreal Inc

The Dying World, Part 1: Forgetting

Stop-motion girl on a swing beside a giant black bird atop a mound of debris, with film credits below

The Dying World Part One: Forgetting is a short animated film by Lauren Tsai that uses stop-motion animation and hand-crafted imagery to construct a fragmented narrative centered on memory, loss, and transformation.

At the center of the film is Astrid, a recurring character in Tsai’s work, who moves through shifting environments in states of vulnerability, repetition, and change, accompanied at times by a crow-like figure that appears throughout the film as both a presence and an observer.

Through Astrid’s journey and the intermittent appearance of Crow, the film unfolds as a series of symbolic sequences rather than a linear storyline, in which emotional and psychological states are rendered through objects, figures, and constructed spaces. As Astrid navigates these fragmented worlds, the work explores the erosion and persistence of memory and the ways identity is shaped through cycles of remembering and forgetting.

Girl faces a giant black raven amid twisted metal and ruined furniture under a gray sky.
Claymation doll on swings
Character sketches and reference art surround sculpting tools arranged on a white worktable.
Artist uses a fine brush and palette to paint details on a large gray sculptural model.
Miniature office set with a seated figure at a computer, photographed beside a visible camera.
Animated pale girl with black hair lies beneath machinery, staring upward in a dim blue-lit scene.
Stop-motion woman with a black bob and large dark eyes examines a small bottle in her hand.
Gothic stop-motion set with a girl puppet beside a large black bird on a swing in a workshop.
Artist adjusts a dark sculptural installation of tangled cables, poles and mechanical debris on a table.
Stylized doll with large eyes, black bobbed hair, a gray turtleneck and black skirt against a dark background