LIAF 2013 SATURDAY 26 OCT

Canadian Indie Showcase 1 (15)

7:00 pm: Tickets £10/£7 Concs. click here

Spirit Of Bluebird (Xstine Cook, 2010)

Canada holds an iconic and unique position in the world of indie, auteur animation. Beside her network of world class schools and the iconic institution known as the National Film Board of Canada is a vast, diverse and outrageously gifted community of fiercely independents that stretches from one coast to the other and makes do with whatever resources they can muster. Combined, their output is staggering in its scope and scale and this is the first of two programmes that have been put together to paint a picture of one of the biggest unconnected animating collectives there is – the modern Canadian indie animators.

Animated Self Portraits (Madi Piller, 2012) The perfect kickstart to this program. An amazing animated who’s-who gallery of some of the most iconic independent Canadian animators drawn by the animators themselves in their own individually unique styles. Canada, 8’40

Machine (Diane Obomsawin, 2010) Obom to her friends and fans, her films and illustration work spans decades. Her work is free spirited, takes risks and doesn’t seem to mind not quite making sense sometimes. It pushes the synapses to come to their own conclusions. Canada, 2’19

Traces Of Joy (Jeff Tran, 2011) Tran puts the crystal clarity of 3D CG animation to the task of depicting the gritty and ambiguous reality confornting kids seeking life’s simplest joys on the wrong side of the social dividing line. Canada, 7’41

It’s The Good Life (Sharon Katz, 2012) We’ll buy anything to appease our hunger for self-worth. And the world of retails that envelopes us all is only too delighted to feed that craving. Canada, 4’27

Spirit Of Bluebird (Xstine Cook, 2010) When the killer of indigenous woman Gloria Black Plume-Bird was acquitted on a legal technicality, her friends responded by gathering at the place of her slaying and crafting this simple, affecting animated tribute and biography to her. Canada, 5’45

Somnium (Noah Wohl & Nima Ehtemam, 2011) Latin for ‘dream’, Somnium reaches out to all people as a modern creation myth drawing on influences as diverse as African tribal masks, 60′s psychedelia and contemporary graphic design. Canada, 2’42

Gluttony (Family Visit) (Ann Marie Fleming, 2011) Gluttony: The sin of excess. Witness a family visit where food fills all the unspoken holes. Canada, 2’17

The Myth of Robo Wonder Kid (Joel Mackenzie, 2012) Crazy, eye-popping forces are unleashed when an experiment to create a Wonder Kid takes an explosively unexpected turn or two. Canada, 3’00

Frenching (JC Little, 2011) An innocent savant abroad in his own country takes up every opposite opportunity presented to get under the skin of his French speaking compatriots. Canada, 4’05

A Girl Named Elastika (Guillaume Blanchet, 2011) A way-cool, uber-clever little tale about a girl on the move proving that imagination is still the magic ingredient in a great film. Canada, 3’29

Drat (Farzin Farzaneh, 2010) The night has a thousand eyes, a million whispers and an infinity that stretches beyond the echoes of footsteps in the dark. Canada, 10’56

Gains And Losses (Leslie Supnet, 2011) We all make bad decisions some days. It’s hard to be rational when everything feels like fire. Canada, 2’31

Thunder River (Pierre Hebert, 2011) One of Canada’s truly iconic experimental animators focuses on the patterns of nature as he sees them in the cracks and crevices of the world around him. Canada, 7’54

The Empress (Lyle Pisio, 2009) A stop-motion film of outstanding intricacy and detail following the emotional shadow boxing that goes on when two lonely strangers meet in a seedy bar. Canada, 8’25

Canadian Indie Showcase 2 (15)

9:00 pm: Tickets £10/£7 Concs. click here

C’est La Vie The Chris J. Melnychuk Story (QAS Collective, 2011)

Dancing with Northern Lights (Jonathan Amitay, 2009) Dancing with Northern Lights, Jonathan Amitay, LIAF, London International Animation FestivalSeldom has coloured sand animation been put to better use in this joyously visual piece that seamlessly blends native dance movements with a spectacular depiction of the northern lights. Canada, 2’33

C’est La Vie The Chris J. Melnychuk Story (QAS Collective, 2011) A colourfully poignant, often funny, collective QAS tribute to animator Chris J. Melnychuk whose voice will not be silenced. Canada, 6’54

Zap Girl Makes Toast (Chris J. Melnychuk, 2007) A plug, a toaster, some bare wires and some fingers – they don’t call her Zap Girl for nothing. Canada, 1’35

Business As Usual (Carol Beecher & Kevin D.A. Kurytnik, 2010) An animated calaveras (or poem written for Mexico’s Day Of The Dead celebrations) taking a darkly comic look at life in the city circa 2110. Canada, 4’00

Hold (Kim Anderson, 2012) A reminder that we live in a world that can be viewed a hundred different ways. Canada, 3’18

Figment (Craig Marshall, 2011) A crazed look at a fractured world as seen through a porthole of a really cracked and broken mind. Canada, 4’16

The Equality Effect (Andrea Dorfman, 2010) A simple and compelling expose on the dehumanising inequality that threatens the lives of women in many societies. Canada, 2’42

Yellow Sticky Notes – Canadian Anijam (Jeff Chiba Stearns, 2013) Fifteen celebrated independent Canadian animators collaborate here to create a sometimes crazed, sometimes introspective meditation on what they see at the biggest and littlest things in life using the medium of yellow Post-It Notes. Canada, 7’40

The Perfect Detonator (Jay White, 2011) A lumbering, destructive machine lumbers through the forest piloted by a frightened slave crew who find escape in the wake of a small red bird. Canada, 10’09

Little Theatres – Homage To The Mineral Of Cabbage (Stephanie Dudley, 2010) A pathway to an intensely esoteric version of enlightenment using the humble cabbage as the hook on which to hang a the leading proclamations and exultations. Canada, 4’47

Car Cemetery (DJXLS, Francis Theberge & Daniel Faubert, 2011) A sublimely raucous visual poem celebrating the golden age of the motor car relayed from the vantage point of where many of them have wound up. Canada, 1’00

Agape (Alexandre Iliach, 2012) The Greek word for love, although Plato extended it to embrace a love of truth or humanity. Canada, 3’18

The Fox and Chickadee (Evan DeRushie, 2012) A fairly grown up sort of fairytale about a hungry fox and a wily little bird who needs to get away. Canada, 7’45

Crossing Victoria (Steven Woloshen, 2013) A journey spectucularly broken down to it’s most basic visual and aural elements by one of the modern masters of cameraless animation. Canada, 4’00

Labyrinth (Patrick Jenkins, 2008) A surrealist, film-noir paint-on-glass epic following a detective’s strange encounters with mysterious phenomena from the dark-side. Canada, 8’41