I, Pencil

Synopsis

Blurring the lines between human and things, object and its user, live action and animation, the film opens with a human sinking in graphite, thus beginning the fabrication process.

Shot at the 100-year-old Musgrave Pencil Company – the last remaining pencil manufacturer in “Pencil City USA” (Shelbyville, Tennessee) – the factory is turned into a film-set, with supernatural light giving birth and identity to a singular pencil, showcasing it as a monumental event. In a later scene, the pencil arises by itself to embody the gestures of an invisible hand. The giant pencil is operated as a marionette, and when a girl discovers the anthropomorphized pencil, a dance begins.

The title is taken from a short story by Leonard E. Read, published in 1958, written from the point of view of a pencil, detailing the complexity of its own creation.