‘Spanish Moss’ is a dazzling work of stop-motion animation and Tarantino-like melodrama

Sebastian Soler’s Kennesaw State University thesis project will screen at the Tara this weekend.

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For a variety of reasons, the new independent feature film Spanish Moss, which will hold a special screening at the Tara Theatre at 2:30 p.m. on August 29, is a remarkable and original artistic feat worthy of the city’s attention. 

Created by Sebastian Soler as a thesis project at Kennesaw State University before graduating this year, the 62-minute film is a fun, action-packed 1970s South American family saga full of twists and thrills. 

More impressively, it is a dazzling work of stop-motion animation, meticulously cultivated by Soler. He animated more than 29,000 individual frames by hand over 30 weeks to tell this story, using Lego figurines to portray the characters.

“It’s a labor of love,” Soler said in a recent interview. “I was very passionate about it. It was tedious, but I think it paid off. I hope audiences can tell when they watch it that it’s a handcrafted film through and through.”

Soler credits his family, who gave him his first video camera when he was 6, with inspiring much of Spanish Moss. He first had the idea for the story while on a trip with relatives in January 2024.

“My mom had a conference in Savannah, and she invited my uncle and I to tag along,” he said. “I’d never been before, but I fell in love with the environment. It felt like we were stepping into a different time. There was, obviously, a lot of Spanish moss draped from all the trees there. It reminded me of trips I’d made to South America. That planted an idea for me: What if a whole action movie took place here?”

So the Quentin Tarantino-infused melodramatic tale of Marando Montero emerged from Soler’s imagination.

In Spanish Moss, Marando (voiced by Luis A. Landa) is shot and left for dead at his wedding, while his bride is abducted, and he goes on a quest for revenge, realizing that his own family might have a hand in what happened.

“It’s a story about growth and transformation,” Soler said. “Just like moss growing on trees, there’s a tangled web of these different characters. Some evolve, and they switch sides during the story, while others are more set in their ways. That dynamic really fuels engaging storytelling.”

Soler’s family had its own hands in the literal crafting of Spanish Moss.

“They helped construct the sets out of spare wood,” he said. “We literally went outside and picked up twigs to make the trees. The gravel used in the mansion is from an old fish tank. It’s a lot of recycled material. It was a family effort, for sure.”

Soler said much of his stop-motion technique was self-taught.

“I started playing with Legos when I was very, very young,” he said. “I saw these Lego YouTube videos, and I was inspired. I wanted to tell stories with my toys, and that sparked the idea that maybe I could learn to do this on my own. I didn’t really attend any classes. I just experimented and kept experimenting until I started making these little short films. They started getting into local festivals when I was a teenager at Brookwood High School. Then, I started to get more serious about it.”

Kennesaw State University Professor Matthew Terrell caught one of the shorts at the Kennesaw Film Festival and was bowled over by Soler’s abilities.

“They didn’t have any dialogue, but there were just incredible visuals and camera work,” Terrell said. “So I reached out to him and said I wanted to help him with a senior thesis that was a feature — a stop-motion Lego piece with dialogue.”

Terrell — also a contributor to ArtsATL — is credited as an executive producer on Spanish Moss. Soler received a grant from Kennesaw State to support the film. Additionally, Terrell worked to ensure that Soler had contracts and intellectual property agreements in place with everyone. Soler said that he is allowed to present the Lego pieces without copyright violations, so long as Spanish Moss is not commercially distributed.

“He and I worked a full year on this project,” Terrell said. “It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with him. When people see how complex this film is, they’re just going to be astounded by it. I’ve never seen such raw talent in a singular young person. He’s a hard worker, incredibly creative. He can carry through with a vision. And he does not stop until it’s perfect.”

Where & When

Spanish Moss screens at the Tara Theatre at 2:30 p.m. August 29. Tickets are $12.51, including booking fee, at Eventbrite.

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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant.