Flow

Inspiration

Created during a hospital stay with my baby when he was seriously ill with pneumonia and sepsis, Flow began as a way to process the emotional overwhelm of the ICU. It explores a mother’s quiet struggle to pump milk amid stress, machines, and love.

What it does

Flow is a short stop-motion-style animation that blends real hospital sounds with AI visuals to depict a deeply personal, internal journey - from fear to hope.

How we built it

Made almost entirely on my phone using MidJourney and Chat GPT for stills and capcur for editing, then once my son had fully recovered, I animated using Runway and Kling for animation, audio was recorded in hospital.

Challenges we ran into

AI struggled to depict breast pumps, so I filmed real footage and stylised it.

Balancing emotion with subtlety, without music or dialogue, was also a creative challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Telling a meaningful, emotional story using just a phone, real sound, and AI tools - at a moment when I felt powerless. My film has been screen at various media conference as an example of how AI can be used for emotional storytelling. I have many women get in touch with me to say how moved they were by the film and how it resonated with similar experiences they'd had.

What we learned

That AI can be used to tell raw, personal stories and that creativity can still happen in hospital corridors.

What's next for Flow

I’m exploring the process and meaning behind the film as part of my pratice - led PhD research AI filmmaking, I'm submitting to festivals and developing more short films blending lived experience with AI animation.

Built With

• chat
• gpt
• kling
• midjourney
• runway