Embedded above is a new animated short film by Martha Colburn, one of the Underground Film Journal’s favorites.  The film was commissioned by the new anthology project, Electric Literature, which is curating a series of shorts where a filmmaker adapts a single sentence from one of the stories in their anthology.

Colburn adapts this sentence: “I like the bare expanse of that half of her chest, an empty sky, an open question about what will happen next.” The sentence come from the short story “Three-Legged Dog” by Diana Wagman, which tells the tale of a frustrated young woman’s first sexual encounter after having a mastectomy.

Sounds like a bit of a downer, but Electric Literature describes the story as “funny and harrowing” and Colburn’s film is quite joyous, upbeat especially thanks to a bouncy, catchy soundtrack by Nick DeWitt. For me, the film has the flavor of one of those European soft-core porno flicks that Skinemax used to air after Midnight. (Do they still do that?) Colburn’s short isn’t really dirty per se, but it does verge on being NSFW, so be warned.

H/T to Filmmaker Magazine to spotlighting this great short film first.