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Karmic Knot title
About

​​Karmic Knot is an independent animated feature film for grown-up audiences by

Signe Baumane

and follows the success of her first two animated features

Rocks In My Pockets (2014)

My Love Affair With Marriage (2022)

(Click image for trailer and website)

Rocks In My Pockets Poster
My Love Affair With Marriage Poster

ABOUT KARMIC KNOT

As the country around them collapses in chaos and violence,

a tight-knit family swaps their dreams for survival and profit,

but the ambitions of one of them puts the family knot in danger. 

Karmic Knot is in production and will premiere in 2028. 

The film is a Latvian / USA co-production 

and is being supported by

grants, foundations, and

individual backers - people like YOU.

 

The Family Members of Karmic Knot:

Patrick Wilson recording for Karmic Knot
Dagmara Dominczyk recording for Karmic Knot
Gracie Lawrence recording for Karmic Knot
Emma Kenney recording for Karmic Knot
Erica Schroeder recording for Karmic Knot
Stephen Lang recording for Karmic Knot
Jay O. Sanders recording for Karmic Knot
Matthew Modine recording for Karmic Knot

and

36 top New York and Latvian Theater actors

in supporting roles.

See announcement of the Karmic Knot cast in Variety

Story

THE STORY

Karmic Knot tells the epic tale of a family trying to survive in occupied Latvia from the 1970s to early 1990s. The family bargains, compromises, and ingeniously builds their own world, insular from the political reality. When the Soviet Union starts to collapse and shatters their world, the family aspires to rebuild it even more insular than before. One family member, however, has ambitions.

 

Karmic Knot is a mixture of drama, comedy and horror.

FROM DIRECTOR SIGNE BAUMANE

"I believe that animation is the best medium to tell this complicated story, where each point of view or character’s inner thoughts can be represented in different visual styles. The film will employ a variety of animation techniques including stop motion, traditional animation and CGI 3D."

Karmic Knot character design: Ansis
Karmic Knot character design: Vizma

Ansis, Father, 33

Vizma, Mother, 29

Karmic Knot character design: Ragne age 5

Ragne, 5

Karmic Knot character design: Ragne

Ragne, 22

Karmic Knot character design: Kaspars

Kaspars, Son, 5

SUPPORT FOR KARMIC KNOT

Production began in 2024. It is a 5-year process. The film has co-producing partners and teams in Latvia that received funding for their part of the process, but in the U.S. financing is needed for the Brooklyn studio where the following is created:

  • designing and building background sets

  • papier-mâché-ing  and painting sets

  • lighting and photographing sets

  • animating the characters

  • shading and scanning the animation drawings

Karmic Knot character design: Zinta age 7

Zinta, Sister, 7

Through the non-profit fiscal sponsor Filmmakers Collaborative

THE CHALLENGE

​Like Signe’s other films, Karmic Knot is an independent animated feature that defies commercial formulas and pushes the boundaries of visual storytelling, taking creative risks that commercial productions are not willing to take. We do not work with investors, so here’s the challenge: with grant money scarce and the animation process so time and labor consuming how do we keep working without interruption for the next five years and premiere the film in 2028?

 

YOUR SUPPORT

Your donation will allow Signe to continuously animate, pay rent on the Brooklyn studio, and make it possible to hire three young artists full time.  After graduating, many talented young artists struggle to find viable ways of establishing themselves in the animation industry. Our studio, along with your support, aims to help a few of them.

DETAILS

Five-year budget: $2,500,000

Secured so far: $1,000,000

U.S. Producing Company: The Marriage Project LLC

Latvian Producing Company: Studio Locomotive

U.S. Non-profit Fiscal Sponsor: Filmmakers Collaborative

 

All income from Rocks In My Pockets

and My Love Affair With Marriage

goes into the making of Karmic Knot.

Karmic Knot character design: Zinta

Zinta, 25

Karmic Knot character design: Esme

Esme

Background sets for Karmic Knot built, painted, lit and photographed:

Set of Tuberculosis Hospital
Set for World War II Cellar

DIRECTOR SIGNE BAUMANE ON THE ORIGINS OF KARMIC KNOT

 

One overcast morning in the midst of the pandemic, I was looking outside the kitchen window of my Brooklyn studio when a familiar feeling hit me: the world-as-we-know-it was ending. It was not just the first-world problems that made me feel this way - the undelivered or stolen packages, or the impossibility of getting toilet paper. People had become terrible drivers. During each of my late-evening walks someone always nearly ran me over going through their red lights. Traffic rules didn’t matter anymore. Everybody was following their own rules. Never before the pandemic had I seen people smoking in subway cars. Now it seemed to happen every time I took the subway. The social contracts we had with each other were collapsing.

 

This was familiar to me. In the 1990’s I had lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union. Standing in my kitchen I thought I should revisit what my Latvian family and I experienced as the Soviet Union crumbled, throwing Latvia into social turmoil. Perhaps, I thought, this story might be relevant to some of the issues we are going through today.

 

It took a long time to write the script of Karmic Knot - partly because it’s an epic story spanning 25 years, and partly because of the challenges of turning a personal story into compelling drama.

Also, aside from the eight family members, there are 50 other speaking characters in the film, and each comes with their own unique perspective. In the end, I wrote the best script I have written so far.

 

I believe that animation is the best medium to tell this complicated story, where each point of view or character’s inner thoughts can be represented in different visual styles. The film will employ a variety of animation techniques including stop motion, traditional animation and CGI 3D.

THE WORK

Summer / Fall Interns

Julia, Art Assistant for Karmic Knot
Vivian, Art Assistant for Karmic Knot
LJ, Art Assistant for Karmic Knot

In the Brooklyn Studio

Work in progress, sets for Karmic Knot
Sturgis Warner, Head Carpenter for Karmic Knot
Work in progress, Cellar Set
Work in progress, Cellar Set
Photographing Cellar Set, Karmic Knot
Work in progress: papier-mache mannequins
Paint box for Karmic Knot sets
Apartment Wall Set, Karmic Knot
Toilet Set for Karmic Knot
Art Assistants at work making sets for Karmic Knot
New Apartment Set, Karmic Knot
Work in progress Train Set, Karmic Knot
Train Set, Karmic Knot
Agnes, Art Assistant for Karmic Knot
Work in progress: New Apartment Set
Cramped Apartment Set, Karmic Knot
Director Signe Baumane photographing a set for Karmic Knot
Lighting Designer Sturgis Warner
Photographing Tuberculosis Hospital Set for Karmic Knot
Director Signe Baumane photographing sets
Tuberculosis Hospital Set as seen by Dragonframe
Director Signe Baumane animating for Karmic Knot

KARMIC KNOT

Running Time: 100 minutes

Medium: Animation

Completion: 2028

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer

Director

Animator

SIGNE BAUMANE

Composer

KRISTIAN SENSINI

U.S. Casting Director

Head Carpenter

Lighting Designer

STURGIS WARNER

Latvian Casting Director

ANETE UŠČA

Head of Coloring

ANETE MATVEJEVA

Head of Compositing

GEORGS HARIJS ĀVA

PRODUCING TEAM

DOMINIKS JARMAKOVIČS - Latvia

ROBERTS VINOVSKIS - Latvia

STURGIS WARNER - United States

SIGNE BAUMANE - United States

THE FULL CAST

Patrick Wilson

Dagmara Dominczyk

Gracie Lawrence

Emma Kenney

Stephen Lang

Matthew Modine

Erica Schroeder

Jay O. Sanders

Vadims Grossmans

Laila Robins

Michele Pawk

Rodion Kuzmin

Andrew Garman

Steven Boyer

Jurijs Luniks

Keith Randolph Smith

Juris Djakonovs

Andres Munar

Armando Riesco

Marylouise Burk

Zane Daudziņa

Brian D. Coats

Ritvars Toms Logins

Chris O'Connor

Cindy Cheung

Anatolijs Fečins

Anna O'Donoghue

Crystal Finn

Stephen Hauck

Juris Kalniņš

Florencia Lozano

Myra Lucretia Taylor

Greg Keller

Najla Said

Lauris Reiniks

Kasjan Wilson

Jānis Biezais

Kate Forbes

Mārtiņš Šmits

Kelly McAndrew

Irina Krasta

Sturgis Warner

Signe Baumane

Karmic Knot character design: Ansis age 55
Karmic Knot character design: Vizma age 55
Karmic Knot character design: Imants
Karmic Knot character design: Victors Old
Karmic Knot character design: Zina
Karmic Knot character design: Dog Seller
Karmic Knot character design: Militsioner 1
Karmic Knot character design: Militsioner 2
Karmic Knot character design: Party Official
Karmic Knot character design: Peteris
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