Loskutik i oblako

Walking down the street or sitting on a commuter train, few of us can resist the siren song of that small, illuminated device in our pockets. Through a carefully choreographed collision of hand-made sculptural collages and ink and paint animation, In the Shallows, by first-time NFB filmmaker Arash Akhgari, takes us on a deep dive into the shallow and fragmented world of news, entertainment and ads, where we can easily drown in the dangerous allure of mass media intoxication.

Imagine that you are a renowned chemist, who invents a legal psychoactive drug. Imagine that you push it as a start-up and become the most notorious drug baron of the 21st century. Imagine that all of this is true. How to make a documentary out of this unbelievable story? Let’s animate it, give it rhythm and take the audience on a journey where the high-tech world and academia meet the fauna of the Haifa underworld.

Wasteland is a five-part anthology film that deals with isolation, mental illness, and the subjectivity of reality. Each of the five parts can be watched individually, but when viewed in sequence, each story brings out a more interesting and distinct context to its respective pieces.

Terra Incognita is a multi-plane cut out animation made from photocopies of 19th century illustrations made during the race to the poles and drawings by Eric Leiser. For the puppet performance it was flat-rod puppets on a proscenium stage with a screen behind them, onto which the animation Terra Incognita is projected. Many of the sea monster puppets and ships performed in sync with the animated ones, along with splashes of water and powdered chalk to mimic snowfall. These techniques came from my time studying puppet theater in Prague, in 2002, and learning from Svankmajer and Svankmajerova. It was a lot of fun to both animate and to perform live with Jeffrey's wonder score. At the same time the film comments on the colonial race to claim the Arctic by various countries—a race that, in a sense, is still going on today, but this time again for oil—and the murders of the Inuit people who had inhabited the land for millennia.

A nostalgia trip in the enigmatic labyrinth of the passed childhood.

Documentary on industrial lubrification.

Pinocchio e il grillo

In the middle of the forest, a bonfire will define the fate of Fayna, a young, colorless girl.

In this episodic animated fantasy from France, an art teacher interprets a series of six fairy tales (each involving a prince or princess) with the help of two precocious students. Princes and Princesses was created using a special style of cutout animation, with black silhouetted characters performing the action against backlit backdrops in striking colors.

An animated adaptation of Poe's famous short story.

This short animation by artist and animator Evelyn Lambart offers a wordless plea for the right of all living creatures to a clean, unpolluted environment. With rich colour and intricate animated motion, the film features birds, butterflies and other woodland creatures succumbing to air pollution caused by human inventions.

We aren't only created with free will, but also with responsibility. The responsibility to listen to our gut feelings, follow our intuition, the wise part of us. According to the old definition, a magician is a wise person. So we can all be magicians if we are brave enough.

Suicidal poet Archy tries to end his life by jumping off a bridge, but awakens to find he has assumed the life of a cockroach and has become a part of a community of creatures living in a newspaper office. He also discovers that he can still write poetry, using a typewriter, and begins to enjoy his new life. Archy develops deep feelings for the lovely but self-destructive cat Mehitabel, but will have to fight to win her from bad-boy tomcat Bill.

ALEXANDER THE GRAPE, an unfinished cut-paper animated short from Jim Henson from 1965, relates the fable of a young grape with big ambitions who learns that it is better to accept yourself than to try to be something you are not. The short was reconstructed from film and audio elements; images from Jim’s storyboard fill in missing segments of the animation.

Two duelling birds get the urge to change their plumage. A blue jay wants to be decked out in the green of cedar, and a loon dons the burnished red of oak leaves, but neither bird foresees the consequences of vanity.

Emerging from the sea onto land an axolotl swims through complex terrain parallel to a man searching for an encounter with God.

An experimental animation by Kazimierz Urbański about transportation. Combines various techniques: traditional cartoon film, cut-out, documentary photos, animation of objects, and effects caused directly on the tape.

Film shows the story of Papageno (the one from Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute"), who wants a mate, yet has difficulties getting one.

In a white lace universe, three inventors create machines which are both pretty and useful. Unfortunately people do not understand them...

The way bureaucracy works is told by men in the frames.