The Old Fools

Spectacle is proud to present HEAD SPACE, a showcase of animated works exploring dimensions both interior and outlying. Featuring an extremely talented and creative group working in a diverse array of styles, the shorts wander through strange and sometimes sketchy landscapes, including alternate-universe appliance stores, the ramblings of Charles Manson, environmental catastrophes in the Dutch style of painting, and a houseplant’s musings. Some, like Sally Cruikshank’s Make Me Psychic, are established classics; others feature newer animators working in looping GIF format, presented away from the small screen’s momentary pleasures to fully appreciate the art that it is. Occasionally gross, often beautiful, and always interesting, HEAD SPACE is a sampler of the thoughts happening inside and out of each frame.

Apples and Oranges is designed to raise children's awareness of the harmful effects of homophobia and gender-related name calling, intolerance, stereotyping and bullying. In the course of a lively in-class discussion among elementary students and an equity educator, children's paintings magically dissolve into two short animated stories. In Anta's Revenge, Anta finds out that creativity--not revenge--is the best way to deal with a school bully who makes fun of her for having two moms. Defying Gravity tells the story of Habib and Jeroux, two skateboarding friends whose relationship comes to a screeching halt when one of them finds out the other is gay.

Inside a room full of plants, a woman finds shelter from the outside world. Submerged in delirium, Alba experiences her withering.

För fjärde gången så är det nu spökdags igen på slottet Gomorronsol där vi får följa Lilla spöket Laban, världens snällaste spöke som är rädd för mörker. Tillsammans med Lillprins Bus och Labolina så väntas nu många superläskiga äventyr för Laban.

The ancient Greeks divided the night into four sections; the last watch before morning was called the fourth watch. In the hours before dawn, an endless succession of rooms is inhabited by silent film figures occupying the flickering space in a midcentury house made of printed tin. Their presence is at once inevitable and uncanny. A boy turns his head in dread, a woman’s eyes look askance, a sleepwalker reaches into a cabinet that dissolves with her touch, and hands write letters behind ephemeral windows. The rooms reveal themselves and fill with impossible, shadowed light. It is not clear who is watching and who is trespassing in this nocturnal drama of lost souls.

A woman ponders over the strange coincidences that made her forefathers and -mothers meet and create the premises for her becoming the person that she is.

Whilst leading an expedition to Africa, anthropologist Leonard Orlov discovers a feral child living a brutal and primitive existence. Horrified, he brings the creature back to Victorian London, intent on civilizing the child.

Monsters once lived in hiding—even from each other—because they were afraid they would be in danger if humans knew they existed. But Draculaura, the daughter of Dracula, along with her best ghoulfriends, dreamt of a school where everyone was welcome and accepted for who they are. Determined to make their dream come true, the ghouls travel the world on an epic adventure to recruit new students. But even in this amazing place, there's drama: a villainess zombie is spreading trouble rather than friendship, and every student must live with the fear that their secret will be revealed. Now the ghouls must save their school so that every monster has a place where they belong and their uniqueness is celebrated!

The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.

A musical film about the adventures of the wandering musicians from Bremen such as Troubadour, Donkey, Dog, Cat and Rooster. In one of the towns Troubadour falls in love with a Princess and makes up a plan how to get the King's confidence.

Animation feature ostensibly about the adventures and romance of two Interpol agents, called upon to investigate a sensational art theft. At the same time, the film pokes fun at the contemporary art world - in particular Joseph Beuys's statement that 'everybody is an artist'.

The aristocratic White Mice and the rustic Creatures Who Dwell Under the Oak battle over the doll of their heart's desire.

The horrors of a shipwreck, the bells of aforgotten lighthouse and the coming and going of the tides surround a tale about the sea. 'Sailor’s Grave' is the result of a workshop based on a work method taking its inspiration from the exquisite corpse game, a mechanism of collective creation where the participants manipulate and transform one another's drawings to construct an intuitive, improvised narration.

Naked, on the back of a sheep, soft office worker Willie rides trough the forest. His body is still in the office, but his mind wanders between dangerous flowers, li-los and an imaginary friendship for a soft sheep.

Animators were asked to submit ideas based on the theme, "Do the Right Thing". This story is based on the director's experience of losing her chair while working in the National Film Board's animation studio. This film also explores the many uses for a carrot.

Animated clay paintings tell the true story of the last house on a sinking island in the Chesapeake Bay, a large and important estuary and waterway in Maryland, on the East Coast of the United States. In an Old-Time Music ballad, the house sings of its life and the creatures it has sheltered during its lifetime journey from tree, to timber, to home, to an ultimate return to nature. It contemplates time, environmental change, and the rise of the seas.

Animated interpretation of the Bizet opera, second in a trilogy.

Animated interpretation of the Bizet opera, first in a trilogy

An anthology of various tales told in various styles with robots being the one common element among them.

A symbolic reflection on issues of female sexuality, art and identity constructs.