The Leaf

The Leaf is an animated short film about hope and courage. The story follows an indigenous child who receives a magical leaf from his tribe’s shaman and must cross a burning forest and face evil spirits and powerful machines to save the Tree of Life from destruction. The importance of the fight to preserve the environment and the climate crisis was the main inspiration for the film, which wanted to awaken this conversation for children. It is a small fiction adventure with strong visual references from indigenous culture, the Amazon rainforest and Brazil. The Leaf was all created digitally by just one person, using animation and painting software, and was developed in the Vancouver Film School Classical Animation program.

Leonardo Sá (CA)
Leonardo Sá is the director, producer, animator and writer of The Leaf. He’s an animator and visual artist, born in Brazil and living in Canada (Vancouver, BC). He graduated from the Vancouver Film School in the Classical Animation program, where he was able to intensively experience all stages of animation development and production. He also holds a BA in Advertising with a specialization in Computer Graphics and an MBA in Communication. He has worked as an art director, graphic designer, screenwriter, and illustrator in advertising agencies, TV shows, in the corporate communication market and as a freelancer. He loves music (and played bass in obscure bands), diving, street art and walks in nature.