In this rare appearance as a documentary subject, George Saunders reveals the pitfalls of bad storytelling and explains the openness and generosity required to breath life into great characters. The film offers a direct look at the process by which he is able to take a single mundane sentence and infuse it with the distinct blend of depth, compassion, and outright magic that are the trademarks of his most powerful work.
Blending CG 3D and 2D drawn animation techniques, Meanwhile follows four characters traversing a city, each lost in their own separate worlds, trapped in their memories, regrets and frustrations. Meanwhile uses bold colour schemes and fragments of narratives to examine empathy in urban insularity. By Stephen McNally