LIAF 2012

7pm: New Japanese animation: The CALF collective (15)

‘Modern No.2′ (Mirai Mizue, 2011)

Tickets CLICK HERE (tickets valid for both sessions)

The CALF Collective is a small group of young Japanese indie animators that decided to pool resources and take their work to the world under a single banner. It’s worked extremely well with CALF screenings of one kind or another in a vast array of festivals around the world in the last 18 months. And now it’s our turn to check out this group of Japanese indie animation trendsetters.

‘A clerk in charge’ (Atsushi Wada, 2004) Japan, 6’15 A clerk tests the quality of elephants before small birds carry them off around the world.

‘Well, that’s glasses’ (Atsushi Wada, 2007) Japan, 5’40 What happens when work, sleep, chemistry, and the human, animal, and dream worlds collide.

‘Consultation Room’ (Kei Oyama, 2005) Japan, 8’45 A lonely moment in a consultation room – the indications are not good. But the news isn’t made any better by turning it all into a macabre stage play.

‘Playground’ (Mirai Mizue, 2011) Japan, 3’50 A graceful collection of intricately created abstract creatures comes out to play.

‘The Thaw’ (Kei Oyama, 2004) Japan, 6’50 The slow journey towards thawing is part natural phenomena, part frightening inner battle.

‘Beluga’ (Shin Hashimoto, 2011) Japan, 6’10 A magnificently macabre, deliciously dark vision of the inner demons that race around the mind of a little match-seller condemned to the cold and dark.

‘Hand Soap’ (Kei Oyama, 2008) Japan, 15’50 Some moments take a lot more cleaning up after than others. Just as some moments are harder to explain than others.

‘Steps’ (Tochka, 2010) Japan, 2’00 An ingeniously simple idea brilliantly executed. The most fun you can have in a room with a few flashlights and some fake steps!

‘Modern No.2′ (Mirai Mizue, 2011) Japan, 4’14 An elegant, art-deco piece of rolling geometrical imagery from the master of the form.

‘The Undertaker and the Dog’ (Shin Hashimoto, 2010) Japan, 5’00 One day, an undertaker encounters a lowly pack of dogs. Without explanation he hands them his most valuable creation.

‘Green Fairy’ (Tochka, 2010) Japan, 2’10 Exquisite drawing with light – created for absinthe.

‘ReBuild’ (Tochka, 2012) Japan, 5’30 A reflection on the Tohoku earthquake and the tsunami of March 2011 – drawn with sunlight.

‘In A Pigs Eye’ (Atsushi Wada, 2010) Japan, 10’10 A delicate, surreal connection is made between a house sheltering all of mankind and a giant pig.

9:30pm: International Programme 7: Into the Dark (15) Repeat Screening

‘How to raise the Moon’ (Anja Struck, 2011)

The best of recently released short animated films from all over the world, carefully chosen from 2000-plus entries. They come in from every corner and use every technique. The one thing these 7 films have in common is that they are some of the creepiest, darkest films made in the last 18 months. Be scared, be very scared!‘

Underlife’ (Jaroslaw Konopka, 2010) Poland, 8’32 The cyclical nature of existence combines with the past and the future to pursue the destructive influence that ancestors have on man. www.se-ma-for.com

‘Blanche Fraise’ (Frédérick Tremblay, 2011) Canada, 16’44 Two rabbits are starving to death in this sinister fairy tale in a dying forest.

‘How to raise the Moon’ (Anja Struck, 2011) Germany/Denmark, 8’27 In a place of condensed time, sleep (a fox) and death (a bunny) fight for a woman’s life in this homage to early surrealistic silent cinema.

‘Coming of Oracle / Prohveti sünd’ (Rao Heidmets, 2011) Estonia, 13’00 Human beings are slaves to their imagination. To be free of it is a long and complicated journey which requires, above all, a good memory. www.nukufilm.ee

‘Black Doll / Prita Noire’ (Sofia Carillo, 2011) Mexico, 8’10 Two sisters are bonded and bound by co-dependence, separation anxiety and routine in this creepy mix of time-lapse and puppetry.

‘Bydlo’ (Patrick Bouchard, 2012) Canada, 8’55 Inspired by Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition – earth is brought to life through clay sculptures, creating a tactile nightmare in which man is his own slave driver. www.nfb.ca

‘Plume’ (Barry Purves, 2011) France, 14’40 A thrilling screening of Purves’ latest masterpiece. A winged man, a fall, a hostile encounter, a life changed forever. www.darkprince.fr