Man With Social Anxiety Tries to Overcome His Past to Connect With Others in the Claymation Short 'Facing It'

In the brilliantly edited mixed-media claymation short “Facing It” by Sam Gainsborough, a young man named Shaun sits alone at a table waiting for his parents to join him at a pub. As he nurses his drink, Shaun battles his crippling social anxiety that keeps him from connecting with others.

Despite his best efforts to enter into a casual conversation, Shaun cannot connect in any profound way due to a symbolic hand that pops up to cover his mouth, knock over drinks, interrupt forays and even make Shaun smile when he doesn’t want to. This hand, we discover, is a memory involving his silent, similarly insecure parents who shaped Shaun’s world. It’s only when Shaun lets himself break completely loose from his past, that he’s able to see the world through clearer eyes.

Shaun always feels separate and isolated from the confident, happy world around him. Whilst waiting for his parents in a busy pub, Shaun struggles valiantly to join in with the admirably happy people in the crowd, but the more he tries, the more he goes awry. As everything in the pub goes from bad to worse, Shaun finds himself confronted by the painful memories that made him who he is.

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