In addition to the Society for Animation Studies (SAS) community celebrating the life and work of Millie Young in Sydney during SAS35, her friend Pedro Serrazina closes the tribute to Millie in the Animation Studies 2.0 with a personal message.

Figure 1. Millie Young in orange dress, taken at the Society for Animation Studies’ (SAS) conference in Lisbon 2019, during the workshop Millie coordinated with Debjani Mukherjee and Eduardo Amaro. Photo by Eduardo Amaro.
Figure 2. At the SAS conference in Singapore 2016. From left, Karen Kriss, Yanyun Chen, Millie Young, Pierre Floquet, Pedro Serrazina, Robert Musberger. Photo by Karen Kriss.
Figure 3. Millie Young during the workshop at SAS in 2019. Photo by Eduardo Amaro.

Dear Millie,

I am sorry I took so long to write these words.

I guess I couldn’t quite believe that I had to.

Somehow, your energy seemed untouchable, unquestionable and everlasting.

I remember you in Lisbon, eager to run that workshop with Eduardo “Duda” and Debjani. I remember your “elephunks”. I remember us talking about the potential of using the dome in that planetarium in Montreal.

Was it Montreal?…

I am not sure anymore, I always thought we’d be meeting again, so we could discuss the latest stages of your work and the many ideas you had to share.

There were other moments and conversations, but my memory isn’t reliable, and the details are slowly fading.

Still, no matter what, your enthusiasm and your smile, that big smile, will stay with me.

Until we meet again,

With a big hug,

Pedro

Pedro Serrazina is an animation director and senior lecturer in animation at Universidade Lusófona. His work has been exhibited and published internationally, ranging from film, site-specific installations, to documentary, music videos and academic projects. Serrazina’s research interest is the interconnections between architecture, documentary and animation, and his practice-based PhD was dedicated to the use of animated space as a tool to reflect on social space.  A member of the Society for Animation Studies (SAS) and co-organiser of Ecstatic Truth that is a symposium dedicated to animation and documentary practices, Serrazina is currently preparing his next film; “What Remains of Us”.