Cammi Heath

St. Nick is the story of a brother and sister on the run. They've left their home for some unknown reason and are living in the woods, hiding in barns and sheds, doing what they can to survive. As the bitter Texas winter sets in, they strike up residence in an abandoned country house and, for a brief, happy period, manage to escape the harsh realities of their circumstances.

A woman drifts back to childhood memories of rural Texas where her discovery of the jawbone of a horse in a field leads to a fascination with, in her own words, "dead things." Her natural history collection of insects and bones takes on a supernatural quality when she finds the corpse of a strange creature that she believes must be a faery. Using still photographs, found objects and unsettling creations that briefly come to life via stop-motion animation (which evokes the work of the Brothers Quay and gives them an even more unreal presence), filmmaker David Lowery tells a phantasmagorical story, part fantastical mystery and part nightmare, as a primal memory. A CATALOG OF ANTICIPATIONS weaves imagination and experience into a haunting tale recalled in snapshots of recollection, a dark fantasy with a tactile texture that grounds it in the physical world and narration that frames it as a coming-of-age moment. - Sean Axmaker