Reclaiming the Monster: Anna Ginsburg on HAG, Feminine Rage, and the Fear of Independent Women

At SXSW, Anna Ginsburg did not arrive with a safe film.

She arrived with snakes.

https://youtu.be/55shy6vLnSI

Her 17 minute hand drawn animated short HAG is a dark comedy about femininity, shame, fertility, and transformation. The film world premiered at SXSW and immediately stands out for its raw honesty and surreal visual language.

The story follows a woman who ends a relationship and suddenly transforms. Her hair becomes snakes. Her body becomes monstrous. Society sees her as something grotesque.

But what if that transformation is not a curse?

A Breakdown That Sparked a Film

The origin of HAG is deeply personal.

Coming out of the pandemic, Ginsburg found herself questioning a long term relationship while watching friends begin families. At a baby shower the day before she planned to end her relationship, she experienced what she describes as a full emotional breakdown.

The shame that followed.The fear of being left behind.The pressure of ticking clocks.

That moment became the emotional seed for HAG.

The word itself carried weight. It felt accusatory. Dismissive. Ageist.

Ginsburg decided to reclaim it.

Medusa Reframed

The image of snakes for hair draws directly from Medusa, but not the simplified monster of popular myth.

Ginsburg revisited the original story. Medusa was not born a monster. She was a victim. In many retellings, she was punished after being assaulted. Through a contemporary feminist lens, the snakes can be viewed as protection. Power. A way to return the male gaze.

In HAG, when the protagonist leaves her relationship, her snakes appear.

At first, they feel like punishment.

Eventually, they reveal themselves as liberation.

The snakes become a visual manifestation of her instinct, her rage, her inner truth. Animation allows that interiority to become literal.

Dating Apps and Modern Shame

The film also explores the chaos of modern dating culture. Dating apps become a surreal landscape filled with archetypes and absurdity. The humor is dark and observational. Ginsburg and her team drew from real screenshots, shared experiences, and the uncomfortable theater of digital courtship.

The comedy in HAG does not mock its heroine. It exposes the systems surrounding her.

The biological clock hums in the background. Society’s expectations press in. The fear of choosing one path and sacrificing another becomes overwhelming.

But the film refuses to offer simple answers.

Hand Drawn Defiance

HAG is fully hand drawn 2D animation. More than one hundred collaborators worked on the project. The process took years. Animation, as Ginsburg notes, is painfully slow. Every second requires dozens of drawings.

That labor mirrors the themes of time slipping away.

Ironically, while making a film that questions fertility and motherhood, Ginsburg became pregnant. The film evolved alongside her life. It became both mirror and companion.

Fear of Female Power

At its core, HAG asks a dangerous question:

If society labels independent women as monstrous, what does that say about society?

Ginsburg’s answer is clear. It reveals fear. Fear of autonomy. Fear of women who refuse to conform. Fear of power that does not center male approval.

But instead of bitterness, the film offers something more radical.

Authenticity.

The monster becomes the most honest version of the self.

And in reclaiming the hag, the film transforms shame into strength.