The story at the very early stage was inspired from interviews by autistic philosophers, e.g. Josef Schovanec, whose works specialise in decoding our daily social life and customs. Our daily life is like a social theater, as if everybody plays a role at different times and occasions. 

 

Theo Jamin, Kayu Leung, Marion Philippe and Jean-Géraud Blanc were born and raised in  different backgrounds, from northern to southern France to Hong Kong, countryside and city, French to English to Cantonese. The philosophers’ questioning of social life is poignant and resonates in all of them, despite their differences.

 

They immediately all realised there is something inherently cinematic in their points of view. They embarked on a journey of interviews and research. The scenes in the film are inspired by those interviews, and the testimonials of people with autism. The members of the team all come from different walks of life, with diverse references, approaches, and with their own technical specialties. They realised that CG animation, in various types of rendering, is the best tool to do justice to the creative stories of their interviewees. The theme is specific but the struggle is universal.  

 

They rearranged and distilled the anecdotes collected and their personal experiences into one character -- Louis, who we see at a pivotal moment in a class, putting the memory of one day of his school life under a microscope. 

 

Louis’ shoes are the support structure of Louis’s world, the narrative device of the film, and somehow is also the support structure for their production, through all the difficult times...the pandemic, the lockdown, remote working...yet they never lost sight of the importance of being a solid, united team, in order to create Louis’ particular way of seeing the world, which is at the same time  a way of seeing ourselves, by walking, together, in his shoes.

 

The team graduated in June 2020 from Ecole Mopa, the CG animation school in Arles, France.  Today, Louis’ shoes are running in schools and festivals around the world including Festival du Court Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand, Animafest Zagreb,ITFS Stuttgart International Festival,  Spark Animation Festival etc. In 2021 the film won the Gold Medal of Student Academy Awards from The Academy in the International Animation category. The courage demonstrated by Louis, when he introduces himself to his class, gave the team courage to present themselves in festivals and embark on their professional journey.