This Montrealer makes movies in her tiny hand-made sets

Marina Totino creates intricate miniature film sets, blending whimsy and realism in her detailed, handcrafted scenes.

A Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist is making a big name for herself with tiny film sets. Marina Totino, a “miniaturist,” creates small scenes that blur the lines of reality.

The sets look like little lived-in worlds, like one featuring an alien blown off-course and into a blustery bit of Newfoundland.

“It’s a good place to shove a drive-in movie theater. I built it as if it took place in the wintertime and it was closed down for the season and a little alien gets blown in,” explained Totino.

She builds the tiny sets by hand and makes mini movies in them. It started in 2017 when she studied cinema at Concordia University and was offered a job on a professional film set.

“I got called for X-Men and hopped on it. Then I just jumped straight into the film industry,” Totino said.

Since then, she’s been contributing to feature films, television shows, and commercials despite the growth of computer generated images. She brings a particular charm to her scenes.

“They’re a bit more surreal, more whimsical,” said Totino.

Her independent work is full of imagination, like a spooky laundromat called Brainwash, which she created for Halloween, and a tiny retro kitchen your grandmother may have had.

Each spindly chair in that kitchen took a whole day to make.

“It’s very time consuming. It’s very frustrating. It requires so much patience, the pieces are very tiny,” Totino said.

They’re tiny enough for Totino to keep them in drawers sized for a coin collection or fishing lures.

Each fine detail is lovingly created to catch your eye and your curiosity. Totino’s mini worlds are available to visit online, each one looking lived in and cozy, even if its an alien stuck in a snow-storm.