AAFF Short Film – Menders by Martha Barron Griffith

An art conservator is torn between preserving a polished ideal and its unvarnished past. Menders invites viewers to see restoration as a dynamic process of making, unmaking, and remaking, through hand-made mixed-media animation.

Centering on a female conservator restoring Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus, the film’s excavating techniques remove varnish, layer paper fragments and torn images to expose imperfections and embrace fragmentation. 

The film’s process mirrors its themes—restoration becomes both subject and method, highlighting the tension between original surface and renewed memory.

Winner, Ann Arbor Film Festival Eileen Maitland Award

This short film is an official selection from the 64th Ann Arbor Film Festival, held March 24 through March 29, 2026 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is part of one of North America’s longest-running and most celebrated festivals of experimental and independent film.

Canada | 2025 | 3 min 58 sec