Kate Bush has announced the release of a self-directed animated short film called Little Shrew.
After premiering at the Berlin Film Festival, Little Shrew will screen nationwide on June 24, and will be shown just before the acclaimed World War II German resistance feature film, From Hilde, With Love. It will play in all Picturehouse cinemas alongside other select theatres – you can get your tickets here.
Little Shrew will focus on a pygmy shrew in a “war-torn city” as a metaphor for children in war, and will be soundtracked by Bush’s song ‘Snowflake’ from her 2011 album ‘50 Words For Snow‘. “In 2022, with war breaking out in Ukraine, I decided I wanted to make an animation,” Bush said of the film. “In particular, I hoped to draw attention to the children caught up in war.”
Bush also said she based the storyboard around ‘Snowflake’ in particular, adding that whilst she originally wrote the song to capture her son’s “beautiful descant voice before he entered adolescence, it has taken on a new meaning within the context of this animation.”
She also stated that though she initally based the story around a little girl, she “settled on the idea of a Caucasian pygmy shrew: a tiny, fragile little creature”, explaining: “I felt that people might have more empathy for a vulnerable animal than a human.
“This little shrew would take a journey on a moonlit, winter’s night through a war-torn city, initially unaware of what was going on around her in this land of the giants,” Bush continued. “She can sense that she’s being called by a kind of spiritual presence… HOPE. She starts to search for HOPE. Sometimes hope is all there is to hang on to.”
Bush recently revealed that she was “very keen” to start working on new music.
Whilst announcing Little Shrew back in October last year, Bush spoke about the possibility of working on new music. Though she clarified she wasn’t currently making music at the time, she said she was “keen” to start soon.
“I’ve got lots of ideas and I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space, it’s been a long time,” she said.
Asked if it was something she had been hoping to do for a while, Bush replied: “Yes it is, really. Particularly the last year, I’ve felt really ready to start doing something new.”
Elsewhere, Bush has also been outspoken about the threat of AI against musicians. Alongside Elton John, Coldplay and Dua Lipa, Bush was among 400 artists to call on the UK government to change copyright laws due to AI.
