Christmas Breaking
Thesis Film Presentation and Artist Talk
Sabrina Claman, Digital Media and Design MFA
Tuesday, March 31, 2026, 2:00pm, Homer Babbidge Library Screening Room 2118C. RSVP to attend.
Christmas Breaking is an animated short drawn from Sabrina Claman’s grandmother’s passing in 2010, told through the eyes of her thirteen-year-old self. The film revisits the shock of grieving during the holidays, when private loss collides with the weight of a traditionally joyful season. Using the technical and communicative skills she has developed as an artist, she gives form to that younger perspective, translating a coming-of-age moment through imperfect, reimagined fragments of memory.
This work is part of her larger research project, Melancholy Comfort, which explores how different storytelling forms can hold space for mourning. She is interested in the paradox of grief: its heaviness alongside its intimacy and strange warmth. Through an imperfect, nostalgic and childlike aesthetic, moments remain ephemeral, acknowledging that these spaces cannot be re-experienced in the same way again.
Animator and interdisciplinary artist, Sabrina Claman explores loss, grief, and digital afterlives through moving image, comics, and immersive media. Her MFA research project, Melancholy Comfort, examines how storytelling can hold space for mourning across formats, with an emphasis on her animated film, Christmas Breaking. While obtaining a BFA in Drawing from the University of Iowa, Sabrina began blending humor with tenderness to create intimate narratives rooted in memory and ritual.
Access note
If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.
