“Though constructed as a “ye olde fairytale” through gothic-looking puppetry, animation, and child narration, Tiffany Kimmel’s Everybody Goes to the Hospital has no happily ever afters in sight... But it’s also a wonder how Kimmel was able to pack the ideals of familial trauma, loss of innocence, and female bodily autonomy in such a short time frame.”

— Destiny Jackson, The Black Cape

“Everybody Goes to the Hospital (2021): This is an absolutely terrifying movie, the stop motion animated story of 4-year-old Little Mata (writer/director Tiffany Kimmel’s mother, as this is based on a true story) as she gets so sick that she has to go to the hospital in late 1963 with appendicitis and things get worse from there.

I don’t even know how you can recover from getting every single one of your organs taken out of your body and cleaned, but somehow this brave little child did. I was completely not prepared to be repeatedly emotionally barraged by this well-crafted short.

I just spent some time with my dad at an appointment in a hospital after watching this and man, I kept remembering the details of this movie. It stays with you.”

—B&S About Movies

Everybody Goes to the Hospital (2022, USA)

Written and directed by Tiffany Kimmel, this stop-motion animated short is based on a real-life medical emergency experienced by the filmmaker’s mother in 1963. It tells the story of Mata (voiced by Lucia Hadley Wheeler), a 4-year-old girl stricken with appendicitis. Identified as the “weak one” in her family, Mata’s symptoms are dismissed as the remnants of the flu until, one week later, her appendix bursts and she is rushed to the hospital. Over a series of 7 chapters, the short explores Mata’s experiences dealing with a long hospitalization, unsatisfactory parenting, and unexpected medical side effects.

Animators Eric Oxford and Rich Zim create a sparse, dimly lit, but vibrant world, one judiciously peppered with some great special effects by Greg Doble. Perfectly scored by McKenzie Stubbert and skilfully edited by Kimmel and Stubbert, Everybody Goes to the Hospital won Best Animated Short at both the Alameda International Film Festival and Boston Underground—as well it should.

— Valeska Hexpot, Anatomy of a Scream

“Filmmaker Tiffany Kimmel does things that maybe other directors wouldn't. She never makes this hospital seem overly large and out of proportion to Little Mata; the world seems out of scale to kids anyway and this is not a special property of this time. Indeed, there's a sort of quiet acceptance and even trust in Lucia Hadley Wheeler's narration as the title character, like she's trembling but has been raised to listen and keep out of the adults' way.”

—Jason Seaver, Jay’s Movie Blog

“Parfois, l'horreur corporelle n'est vraiment que le corps humain. Partager quelque chose d'aussi personnel et intime de manière sérieuse est rare et audacieux. Cela s'est vraiment ressenti lors de la projection. C'est magnifiquement fait.”

—Eric Thirteen

“The appendicitis is just the first thing to go wrong in a mundane but no less awful horror story based on a real incident. What really makes it distressing, however, it not so much the pain or the strangeness of it all but the behaviour of the adults. The refusals to explain directly, meaning that the situation has to be figured out from snippets of overheard conversation. The personal revelations likewise overheard as adults bicker. The resentment that they show where there ought to be love. Only a teddy bear provides affection, and it is as vulnerable as the child.

Narrated by a child, the film unfurls in plasticine form. Michael J Bishop and Mukhtar Kaissi’s charismatic model work adds oodles of expression. Vomit sprays out of the child’s mouth like green worms. Intestines, red and wiggly, are lifted from the body to be washed and replaced. The hospital exists alone in space, against a backdrop of stars, remote and alien; it is approached along a rubbery road which bounces and shifts in the way of things which adults get used to and ignore but which worry children.”

— Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

“The short was surprisingly personal for me. When I was 20, doctors at Saint Luke’s Roosevelt subjected me to a battery of invasive tests, unconvinced that I was a virgin. What I knew was appendicitis was treated as an STD. After 12 hrs and an emergency surgery later, my medical gaslighting experience still haunts me. Fantastic 2022 audiences will watch in awe of the artistry and storytelling style. Everybody Goes To The Hospital will make your blood run cold.”

— Liz Whittemore, Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Based on her mother’s experience of getting an emergency appendectomy in 1963, Tiffany Kimmel’s EVERYBODY GOES TO THE HOSPITAL is a haunting stop-motion animated incision into childhood trauma, interpreted with a poet’s eye. Winner of the Phil Tippett Animation Award at this year’s Alameda International Film Festival.

– Mitch Davis, Artistic Director of Fantasia

— Liz Whittemore, Reel Daily News

— Sam Meech, Video Smithery

“This film won the animated short prize at the festival, and for good reason! The audience was audibly unsettled by the story of a girl undergoing a difficult operation. Ends with a quote from The Body Keeps the Score. Dark!”

—Kyle Amato, Boston Hassle

“Another of the highlights was Tiffany Kimmel’s EVERYBODY GOES TO THE HOSPITAL, a stop-motion chronicle of a little girl whose illness leads to traumatic treatment by both a hospital and her own family. Inspired by her own mother’s experiences, Kimmel uses the vivid animation and equally expressive narration by Lucia Hadley Wheeler to elicit a heartbreaking sense of disquieting tragedy.”

—Michael Gingold, Rue Morgue

“…the film really illustrates the helpless, frightening aspects of being a small child, especially where it emphasizes the vast chasm between adults and children. It’s a thought-provoking, and rather sad story which I hope was cathartic in some way.”

— Keri O’Shea, Warped Perspective

“Tiffany Kimmel BA ‘09 (Electronic Media Production) took the story of a family trauma and turned it into an award winning stop-motion short film. She grew up in a tight-knit Christian homeschool community in rural Oregon before making her way to the UO.”

— Hosted by Michelle Joyce-Fyffe

Programmer Bekah Murphy introduces movie goers to some of the filmmakers from BUFF 22's animation shorts block.

Interview by Marc Ciafardini with Fest Friends: Natalie Metzger, Joe Badon, Tiffany Kimmel, Dawn Luebbe and Margaret Miller.

“…everyday things can be horrifying in a relatable way.” Micah Vanderhoof on “Everybody Goes to the Hospital” and its relationship to the horror genre.