London International Animation Festival 2010
FRIDAY 27 AUGUST 7pm
Friday tickets HERE
ANIMATED DOCUMENTARIES – WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE REAL MEETS THE UNREAL?
A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION WITH THE FILMMAKERS OF “RELATIONSHIPS” THE DOCUMENTARY.
Relationships
When you think about it, animation is a great tool for creating documentaries. Perhaps the camera couldn’t be present during the action; perhaps the action is invisible to a live action camera or maybe the documentary ‘story’ just needs some extra special style to make it compelling or easier to understand.
Relationships - a hybrid, animated-documentary is a broadcast first: a fully animated 50 minute documentary film commissioned for prime time BBC 2. It’s about people undergoing relationship counselling. There’s both love and hate, heartache and laughter. All the voices you hear belong to real people who agreed to be recorded whilst attending counselling. Everything you see is animation, devised partly to offer a degree of anonymity to those having counselling, but also to enrich and expand the telling of these true and intimate stories.
The team includes multi-award-winning animation director Jonathan Hodgson and animation producer, Jonathan Bairstow from Sherbet studios. The film was conceived, produced and directed by documentary-maker and BAFTA winner Zac Beattie. Executive producer is Nick Mirsky (BBC).
Tonight’s session will include pre-release clips from this stunning and intimate film (due for broadcast in early 2011) and will involve a discussion with the filmmakers explaining the production process from initial idea through to conception.
Thanks to BAFTA for generously sponsoring this session.
FRIDAY 27 AUGUST 9pm
Friday tickets HERE
SIGGRAPH WRAP-UP
SIGGRAPH is without doubt one of the most important gathering points for the international digerati. Whether it is short films, ads, software demo reels, trailers or music videos, SIGGRAPH exists to bring the finest digital animators and their work into the spotlight. For more information about the Siggraph festival head over to the Siggraph website at www.siggraph.org/s2009/
La Main Des Maitres ADRIAN TOUPET, "CAYUS", LOOKY, CLEMENT DELATRE // France, 2009, 4'00 Channelling Steampunk, this film captures the glorious chaos of an urban battlefield.
Daydreamer ROLAND WOMACK // USA, 2009, 2'00 Just about every boy has had to contend with a scary monster at some stage – but this takes it to a whole new level.
Taming The Cat JEONGHEE KIM // South Korea, 2009, 1'30 Mega, hi-tech, fighting transformer joins forces with squishy toy mouse on a string to take the battle to the cat.
Roll'n Rock NICO CASSAVECCHIA // Spain, 2009, 1'45 101 different ways to take a serious bruising on the way to a gig.
As One MAKOTO YABUKI // Japan, 2009, 2'45 An ambient collection of connections; an elaborate dance of the lines that link everything to everything else.
LRO Scouts For Safe Landing Sites HELEN-NICOLE KOSTIS // USA, 2009, 3'00 A digital creation of the work done by NASA’s “Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter” as it searches the surface of the moon looking for safe landing sites for the next manned mission.
Lilium Urbanus ANCA RISCA, JOJI TSURUGA // USA, 2009, 1'45 A startling digital visualisation of a giant urban space emerging from the ground as a giant lily.
Tezcatlipoca ROBIN GEORGE // USA, 2009, 3'15 Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’ provides the inspiration for recreating the journey of a mythical Aztec god, who arrives on an ancient sun-drenched, molten earth in the form of a graceful jaguar.
Alma RODRIGO BLAAS // USA, 2009, 5'15 Things are a VERY long way from OK in this doll shop, which has a way of absorbing little girls who linger too long at the window.
Friends? SVEINBJORN TRYGGVASON // Iceland, 2009, 1'45 Don’t make the legless, red box angry – he might be looking for a friend but he eats cities!
Cherries CISMA // Spain, 2009, 1'00 A million and one cherries all working in perfect harmony.
Unplan The Moment TONI COSTA, KAL KARMAN // Spain, 2009, 1'00 An uber-elegant, fluid dance par excellence! Freixenet anyone?
Gorilla LUCAS ELLIOT // Spain, 2009, 1'00 A colony of flying cursors create a 600lb gorilla to drive home the message about pandas.
Noble Centre DENG BOHONG // China, 2009, 5'15 Going where only digital animation can go – the beyond-intricate DNA of a vast new edifice appears, grows and builds itself ever skyward before our very eyes.
Second Souffle MAXIME CAUSERET // France, 2009, 2'00 A thought-provoking pastiche of visual ideas of what might become of us when our time here has ebbed and then ended for all time.
Cinetique MAXIME CAUSERET // France, 2009, 2'00 A lavish, visual dissertation exploring the infinite complexities of simple movement through multiple planes of space and imagination.
Silhouettes Of Jazz MARTIN-SEBASTIEN SENN // Switzerland, 2009, 3'45 A jazz-history lesson using a plethora of inanimate digital sculptures.
Pigeon: Impossible LUCAS MARTELL // USA, 2009, 6'15 No pigeon should be given this kind of firepower. Only a half-eaten bagel can save the world now.
Steel Life MATHIEU GERARD // France, 2009, 5'45 Meta-digitale. A supremely graceful ballet using the visual language of special effects as its theme.
Barclaycard "Waterslide" PETER THWAITES // UK, 2009, 1'30 Believe it! Glide home – the ultimate commute.
Future Psychoanalysis MARIBEL MARTINEZ GALINDO // Mexico, 2009, 1'30 Transmitting images mind to mind. The ultimate mind meld? A future cure for blindness?
House Of Numbers: Anatomy Of An Epidemic – HIV Replication Sequence BRENT LEUNG // USA, 2009, 1'30 Scientific medical documentary footage depicting cell replication of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Hydrodynamic Butterflies YOICHIRO KAWAGUCHI // Japan, 2009, 1'45 A million million crystals swarm together to form butterfly robots, which will be sent out to explore the farthest reaches of Mars.
Project: Alpha SALVADOR SIMO BUSOM // Denmark, 2009, 6'45 Even space-monkeys can only withstand so much temptation. One monkey’s story of reaching for the stars and crashing to earth.
Twisted Murder PAULO DE ALMADA // USA, 2009, 5'00 A film noir, man-changed-into-a-monkey, gay-doctor, knife-in-the-back, detective story with a happy ending…it turns out you can do ALOT with a monkey in the state of California.
SATURDAY 28 AUGUST 6:30pm
Saturday tickets HERE
ANIMATETV RESTROSPECTIVE
Rabbit
This programme is a small selection from the 100 films commissioned through the AnimateTV scheme. Established in 1990, AnimateTV is a unique collaboration between Channel 4 and Arts Council England, selecting projects from an annual, national open call for innovative and risk-taking experiments in animation. AnimateTV has commissioned work by many of the key figures in British animation from the last twenty years including the Quay Brothers, Kayla Parker, Paul Bush, Andrew Kötting, Tim Macmillan, Petra Freeman, and many more.
The screening marks the publication of AnimateTV: 20 Years of Experimental Animation from the UK, a limited edition retrospective collection of 23 films, and an illustrated booklet with an essay by Adam Pugh. Available from animateprojects.org/shop
There will be a short panel discussion after the screening, chaired by Gareth Evans.
Films screening:
Cowboys: That’s Nothin’ Phil Mulloy, 3’00, 1991 One of six films that comment on contemporary values through a reinterpretation of the myths of the old Wild West. Drawn in brush and ink. Music by Alex Balanescu & Keith Tippett
What She Wants Ruth Lingford, 5’00, 1994 A film about sex, shopping, and capitalism in detumsence. Created on an Amiga 1500 home computer.
15th February Tim Webb, 6’35”, 1995 Love gone wrong in 294 cuts. Poem written and narrated by Peter Reading. Winner of the 1995 ICA Dick Award as 'the most provocative, innovative and subversive short film of the year'.
3 Ways to Go Sarah Cox, 4’16”, 1997 Hand-exposed film, drawing on film, conventional animation and live action are employed to extend the filmic experience of imagined last moments. British Animation Award winner.
Feeling My Way Jonathan Hodgson, 5’32”, 1997 A two-mile journey from home to work on foot. Video footage combined with drawings, text and paint. Winner ZKM Media Art Prize.
Who I Am and What I Want David Shrigley & Chris Shepherd, 7’23”, 2005 What happens to Pete when he doesn't take his medication. Based on David Shrigley’s book of the same name. Prizes include Tiger Short Film Award at Rotterdam, Public Choice Best Film Award at the British Animation Awards, Best Comedy Film at Stuttgart International Animation Film Festival
Rabbit Run Wrake, 8’30”, 2005 A modern mystery film of lost innocence, greed and nature told with 1950s educational stickers, discovered in a junkshop, mixed with hand-drawn abstract animation. Prizes include Tiger Award at Rotterdam, two British Animation Awards, McLaren Award at Edinburgh Film Festival, Special Jury Prize at Hiroshima.
Yours Truly Osbert Parker, 8’, 2006 Celluloid characters are ripped from archive footage and reassembled in a surreal city of last century's detritus. BAFTA nominated, Best Animated Short at Melbourne and Chicago.
Magnetic Movie Semiconductor, 4’56”, 2007 Natural magnetic fields, described by NASA scientists, are imagined as chaotic, ever-changing geometries. Sound-controlled CGI and 3D compositing. British Animation Award winner.
The Black Dog’s Progress Stephen Irwin, 3’14”, 2008 Over fifty flipbook animations, assembled within a single shot, each representing a different scene, and continuing to play on a loop as the narrative develops. British Animation Awards for Best Short Film and Best Sound (by Sorenious Bonk)
SATURDAY 28 AUGUST 8:15pm
Saturday tickets HERE
MUSIC VIDEO SHOWCASE
Gorillaz
Animation is an integral element in many of the best music videos. Producing them also provides a credible, often commercially viable way for animators to earn a living from their skills and still produce work they can be proud of.
Here are 20 of the world’s best and most innovative music videos produced in the last 12 months in a special 85-minute programme providing a visual mash-up of styles, techniques and genres.
Gorillaz Stylo DIRECTORS: Jamie Hewlett, Pete Candeland
Gravenhurst Nightwatchman's Blues DIRECTOR: Thomas Hicks
Fleet Foxes Mykonos DIRECTOR: Sean Pecknold
Arjan M Black Hole DIRECTOR: Arjan M
U2 I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight DIRECTOR: David OReilly
Cornershop Soul School DIRECTOR: Abi Williams
Paolo Nutini Pencil Full of Lead DIRECTOR: Corin Hardy
NASA Feat Kool Keith And Tom Waits Spacious Thoughts DIRECTOR: Fluorescent Hill
Grizzly Bear While You Wait For Others DIRECTOR: Sean Pecknold
Lali Puna That Day DIRECTOR: Yu Sato
Quantic Death of the Revolution DIRECTOR:Tom Jobbins
The New Pornographers Myriad Harbour DIRECTOR: Fluorescent Hill
Flogging Molly Float DIRECTOR: Karni and Saul
Massive Attack Splitting the Atom DIRECTOR: Edouard Salier
Joshua Radin Rock My Hologram DIRECTOR: Ben Lister
Fleet Foxes White Winter Hymnal DIRECTOR: Sean Pecknold
Cornelius Rolling Stone DIRECTOR: Koichiro Tsujikawa
Graffiti 6 Stare Into The Sun DIRECTOR: Ian Stevenson
Cornershop Free Love DIRECTOR: Chris Hemming
Coldplay Strawberry Swing DIRECTOR: Shynola
SATURDAY 28 AUGUST 10pm
Saturday tickets HERE
LATE NIGHT BIZARRE
When your mailbox fills up with more than 2,000 animated films, some of them are going to push the boundaries of reason and taste. And a few of them are gonna break right through those wobbly barriers. And this programme is their natural home…
I'm Happy SAM POP SITT // Canada, 2009, 2'30 Really? Truly? You don't sound very happy! It's just an observation though – anything could be going on beneath the surface.
Meatwaffle LEAH SHORE // USA, 2009, 8'45 Saladface is upset that Bebe The Hampster is dead. The guy trying to electrocute his fish looks pretty upset too!
Skinlines MONKEYMEN // Germany, 2009, 3'45 Most of our DNA has no profound biological function. A supercharged voyage through the gaps in this DNA where we encounter a lot of mushrooms, disco-mirror skulls and a few of our inner monkeys.
The Head DANTE ZABALLA AND MATIAS VIGLIANO // Argentina, 2010, 2'30 Think, Noddy does acid and takes the happy-happy, never-ending low road looking for a good time. But there are eyes in the sky!
View NAYOON RHEE // South Korea, 2009, 5'30 Cats can be murderous buggers sometimes! Just like some babies – turn ya back on them for a second and … BAM! All over!
Bloody Hands TOMI MALAKKI // Finland, 2008, 6'45 This is the kind of splattered mayhem that is giving the church a bad name.
CuteCuteCute CLEMENS KOGLER // Austria, 2008, 2'00 Sage advice from demented teddy bears, dancing penises, 300 sheep and bananas mixed with frog genes.
How To Lose Weight In 60 Seconds DAVE CARTER // Australia, 2010, 1'30 A warped compendium of twisted tips on how to lose weight.
Pellet Gunn TIM BECKHARDT // USA, 2008, 2'45 A dog and a cyclops kill some time with the help of wormholes and hobbyist self-modification kits.
Cow Town ISAAH POWERS // USA, 2009, 2'45 Cows, cows, cows. More cows. Over there – a cow!
Barbee Butcher SOPHIE LAGUES // Czech Republic, 2008, 1'00 A little bit of Barbee Doll surgery yields some unexpected results.
Mak The Horny Mac Daddy IAN MILLER // USA, 2009, 3'75 Mak is da man. Mak has a goal and everybody needs one of those. An exercise in pencil-sketch, bar-room Cro-Magnonism
Muzorama LA STATION ANIMATION // France, 2009, 3'00 A world of the most beautiful surreal surprises piled one upon another until the mind is forced to expand.
Delicious Friend PIERRE ADRIEN // France, 2009, 3'45 A deliciously scabrous journey into the innards of a fantastical, intestinal living room, all in gory, glory technicolour.
Haunted Heart WINONA REGAN // USA, 2009, 4'15 A tale of peg-leg sex, demented twins and foot-humping toads. A film with a lot of tongue made by a filmmaker with a Kovalyov touch.
Mr. Iiuu And The Nasty Bird TILL PENZEK, JON FRICKEY // Germany, 2009, 4'30 Mr Iiuu has a bird – a nasty bird. Yes! And who is that parachuting into this platoon of over-happy minions? Could it be the star of…
Infeccion VIKTORIYA GRUZDYN // USA, 2009, 3'30 A happy little story of fatal infections for all the family
Liminal Introspect MIRCEA PURDEA // Romania, 2009, 3'00 "I am late for the world and much too early for myself." A seering voyage to a frightening, insane interior.
Dukes Of Broxstonia – Ear Ache SUREN PERERA // Australia, 2010, 1'00 Beauty is in the ear of the beholder. This film surely represents the ultimate and last word in the 'ear-wax love' genre.
I Know You GUDRUN KREBITZ // Germany, 2009, 4'00 An unanswered telephone, an attempt to dance, a knife in a drawer. I know you. Do you know who you are dealing with?
SUNDAY 29 AUGUST 7pm/8:15pm/9:30pm
Sunday tickets HERE
INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA PROGRAMMES
The Panoramas are a great chance for us to show films that didn’t make it into competition for one reason or another – maybe they arrived late, maybe they just couldn’t pull off a consensus with the jury or maybe whoever has their hands on the levers around here just thought they should screen regardless of what the jury said.
PANORAMA 1 7pm
The Substance Of Earth
The Wobble Incident Claire Blanchet, Sam Vipond // Canada, 2009, 4'15
The Animator's Way Of Surviving The Crisis Markus Wende // Germany, 2009, 5'00
Draw Poker Emil Sellstrom // Denmark, 2009, 5'00
Mecanismo Olvidador Juan Camilo Gonzalez // USA, 2009, 2’15
The Terrible Thing Of Alpha-9! Jake Armstrong // USA, 2009, 5'45
Game Trilogy Wong Ching Han // China, 2008, 10'00
The Substance Of Earth Jin-man Kim // South Korea, 2007, 10'15
PANORAMA 2 8:15pm
Tropical Cake Boutique
Pear Alien Lei Lei // China, 2009, 4’00
Ru Florentine Grelier // France, 2009, 9’00
Smolik Cristiano Mourato // Portugal, 2009, 8’00
Price 2,70 Fts Roland Ballai Toth // Hungary, 2009, 6’30
I was crying out at life, or for it Vergine Keaton // France, 2010, 9’25
Last First Time Dawn Tufferym // New Zealand, 2009, 2’00
Lightforms Malcolm Sutherland // Canada, 2010, 4’00
The Great Grey Shrike Chintis Lundgren // Estonia, 2010, 6’20
Koan/The Other Side Zoltan Szilagyi Varga //Hungary, 2009, 3’15
Tropical Cake Boutique Ben Wheele // UK, 2010, 4’35
PANORAMA 3 9:30pm
Ariadne’s Thread
Mei Ling Stephanie Lansaque/Francois Leroy // France, 2009, 15’30
The Way through Mischicbatlaban Nemenkov, Alexander // Russia, 2009, 5’00
Verne on Vacation Marc, Sylvain/Cartoon Network Europe // UK, 2010, 3’00
Ariadne’s Thread Atilla Bertoti // Hungary, 2009, 9’15
You Are My Hero Tobias Bilgeri // Germany, 2009, 8’00
Prayers For Peace Dustin Grella // USA, 2009, 8’40
Hululu Honglonglong Hualala Lei Lei // China, 2010, 5’40
THURSDAY 2 SEPT 9pm
Thursday tickets HERE
AUTOUR DE MINUIT SHOWCASE
Dix
Session to be introduced by the 3 person animation collective BIF who’s film ‘Dix’, one of the most astonishing digital creations in the last few years, will be screening. BIF will be around to answer questions after the session.
AUTOUR DE MINUIT is one of the most dynamic animation and production houses in Europe. Founded in 2001 by Nicolas Schmerkin, their modest Parisian office has become home to an eclectic stable of animators, including Edouard Salier, Nieto, H5 – the crew who put together Logorama – and others.
In 2004, Autour de Minuit began acting as a distribution hub for a stunning roster of European and international animators. From this incredible treasure trove, LIAF has sourced a collection of some of the most interesting and uncompromisingly indie animation made in Europe in recent times. In 2006, the prestigious French short-film festival Clermont Ferrand gave Nicolas the Procirep Award for best French producer. Earlier this year he received an Academy Award for his work producing Logorama.
Going forward, its ‘in production’ schedule looks hectic and incredibly promising. There are two features – a hilarious meta-cinema spoof using monkeys to send up the worst pretensions of cinema culture, Animal H by Nieto, and Edouard Salier’s first feature, C.U.B.A. With almost 100 films produced or on the distribution list, Autour de Minuit is an incredibly important and innovative centre of gravity for creative, auteur animation in Europe.
Great thanks to the French Institute for helping to bring the work of Autour de Minuit to London audiences.
"Works In Progress" Clips VARIOUS // France, 2010, 5'00
Face HENDRICK DUSOLLIER // France, 2007, 5'45 A twisted, spectacular piece of grotesquery focusing on a face trapped in a dangerous prison of the mind.
Plasticat SIMON BOGOJEVIC NARATH // Croatia, 2003, 9'45 Night time in the Metropolis. A pocket full of money. A beggar in a busy avenue. Life is about to be turned upside down.
Tyger GUILHERME MARCONDES // Brazil, 2006, 4'30 Based on a William Blake poem. A giant tiger reveals the hidden reality in an otherwise ordinary night when it mysteriously appears above the city.
Obras HENDRICK DUSOLLIER // France, 2004, 12'00 A single-take, technical tour-de-force. A poetic journey through crumbling ruins of Barcelona’s irreversible destruction.
4 EDOUARD SALIER // France, 2009, 16’40 Four letters. 400,000 possibilities. Only one is real.
Dix BIF // France, 2007, 5'00 In searching out some inner truths, Marc must navigate some real life, razor sharp killer paving stones that stretch out before him.
Logorama H5 // France, 2009, 16'00 Academy Award-winner Animated Short 2010. An over-marketed world built of logotypes. A dramatic taking of hostages by a corporate symbol gone rogue. A giant Californian earthquake. A shakey world built on simple symbols with complex connotations.
SUNDAY 5 SEPT 2pm
Sunday tickets HERE
FELIX THE CAT
In its time, Felix The Cat was easily the world’s most famous animated cartoon. The best Felix cartoons depicted a world in which nothing was ever quite as it seemed. Everything had an edge and Felix straddled the excesses of the swinging jazz era and the innocence of cinematic cartoons with consummate ease. Loved for more than 75 years, Felix The Cat is a classic in the truest sense of the word and for every episode that contains an eye-popping narrative audacity there is another that depicts the equally startling simplistic innocence of the age in which Felix ruled.
In bringing this program to the screen, LIAF has to make special mention of the incredible hospitality and generosity of Colin Cowes: enthusiast, collector, living encyclopedia – and walking, talking reminder of why we do what we do.
STOP PRESS! COLIN COWES WILL BE PRESENT AT THIS SESSION TO EXPLAIN WHY HE DOES WHAT HE DOES AND TALK ABOUT ALL THINGS FELIX.
Felix Crosses The Crooks (1924)
Felix Gets Broadcasted (1923)
Felix The Globetrotter (1923)
Felix In Hollywood (1923)
Felix Strikes It Rich (1923)
Felix Finds Out (1924)
Felix Gets The Can (1924)
Felix The Cat In The Cold Rush (1925)
Felix The Cat In Eats Are West (1925)
Felix The Cat In Flim Flam Films (1927)
Felix The Cat In Oceantics (1930) (aka Felix Puts To Sea)
All films by Otto Messmer (Pat Sullivan, Producer), USA