»I want to bridge the gap between the internal and external, I want to communicate what it really feels like to be alive, to go to a dentist, or have sex, or be depressed. I do often address difficult, uncomfortable subjects in my films because I believe in confronting the things that bother me head-on. The very idea of making a film on depression happened one November day in 2010 when I was struggling through another bout of obsessive thoughts about self-elimination. I started to write down the different scenarios of how I would not commit suicide (I am very finicky and controlling about those matters). Written down, those thoughts became absurd, funny and harmless. It occurred to me that other people might relate to this thought process and might find it amusing and disarming to hear them aloud.«
– Signe Baumane

The young artist Signe tries to find out more about her grandmother from her father. He is evasive, just like his seven siblings. Nobody wants to talk about their mother, Signe’s grandmother. Signe suspects she took her own life; she’s heard vague allusions to the effect in family conversations.
Signe suffers from depression herself and three of her cousins also battle with the illness. Could there be a connection between the grandmother and her four granddaughters?
Despite the stigma attached to the illness that few people like to talk about, Signe embarks on a journey into her own depression in the hope that she will find out more about the family demons.
Rocks in My Pockets is a complex, highly personal story that looks at the lives of five women in Baumane’s family who battle with mental illness. Exploring the possible hereditary nature of the illness, the exceptionally gifted illustrator punctuates the earnestness of the subject with visual metaphors and liberating doses of humour.

Film programme Life’s a Bitch