Excellence

A duo of street performers learns how sound and picture work together to create amazing cinema experiences.

Hey Beautiful Jerk had the great pleasure in the creation of Mastodon’s “Crack the Skye” 10th Anniversary Tour Film. Working closely with drummer Brann Dailor, HBJ re-imagined the narrative from the legendary concept album as an animated film that takes viewers on a journey across the cosmos with a telepathic, paraplegic boy as he astral projects across time, space and the spirit world. Working from the original concept album artwork by Paul Romano, HBJ and its team of illustrators and animators developed an animated sci-fi film that features fantastic worlds for every song of the album. Illustrator Skinner collaborated once again with HBJ providing a series of mind altering concept designs of Rasputin, Satan and a slew of creatures and demons that populated the “Crack the Skye” film. Creative Directors Gina Niespodziani and Mark Szumski led the team but also handled all editing, CGI and composting.

Based on a poem by Samuil Marshak about an incredibly absent-minded man from Leningrad.

A deep and introspective analysis of my relationship to the Catholic God I grew up worshipping. Guilt, shame, and repressed desires are the themes explored, specifically in relation to being gay and dealing with the internal conflicts that it caused me.

A peculiar pigeon navigates the city in search for validation and sheds his unique identity to fit in with different city groups. After losing his prized possession, he discovers the value of his own identity.

Far beneath the beautiful sea, a unique whale sings a song that is all his own. Based on the award winning picture book, "52 - A Tale of Loneliness"

Strange things are happening in Arendelle! Elsa and Anna team up to solve the mystery of the missing magical animals. Follow the clues, explore enchanted lands, and help uncover the truth behind this frosty mystery!

Born into a family of farmers in the mid-19th century, Karoline Augusta Antonsen moves to a nearby industrial city in her late teens, driven by the dream of building a large family and owning a big house. This short film follows her journey of hope, and her struggle to survive in a tough economy. Will she achieve her lifelong ambition or will her story end in tragedy?

In the aftermath of a zombie outbreak, zombies are cured and exiled to secluded camps. There has been talk about rehabilitating post-zombies back into society. Steve, the journalist reporting on the case, thinks the zombies still pose a threat to society. He ventures into one of these camps to prove to the world that rehabilitation is out the question.

An early, heavily Disney-inspired cartoon, written and directed by Kon Ichikawa. A bandit kidnaps a member of a concert audience as an act of revenge, and the concert's conductor, the Momotaro-esque Dangonosuke, goes to her rescue.

Strawberry Shortcake: Adventures on Ice Cream Island (2004)

Roger Rabbit is given the task of babysitting Baby Herman by Mrs. Herman, or risk "going back to the science lab". From his crib Baby Herman spots a cookie jar on top of the refrigerator, and promptly escapes his crib into the kitchen. Roger tries to stop him as he wanders into danger, but fails. Herman eventually makes it to the top of the refrigerator while Roger has various mishaps, and eventually Roger ends up with the refrigerator landing on his head. Then the director Raoul J. Raoul cuts, and scolds Roger for having birds circle his head instead of stars. Mother leaves Roger in charge of watching Herman. Herman wants a cookie, and nothing Roger does can prevent Herman from getting the cookie. Note: This short film appears at the start of the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It appears on the DVD as a separate viewable short film similar to the other Roger Rabbit shorts.

An Aesop’s Film Fables cartoon.

Johnny Racković - Belgrade writer and artist, faced with the fact that he lost his mother, and then almost his own life, transforms into an animated hero from hell who is searching for his own sanity. The moment he begins to see the rules of transformation, the perspective of the whole story changes. And that new perspective will reveal to him that the whole world is threatened by the outbreak of a general plague and that he has become... KING OF NOTHING.

A gray world filled with black animals, gray everyday life, and damp weather, where suddenly a yellow cat with blue eyes climbs out of its shabby cathouse.

Young Hobbit Frodo Baggins is thrown into an amazing adventure when he's tasked with destroying the One Ring, created by the dark lord Sauron. Frodo must travel in a small fellowship of nine warriors and accomplices. But it won't be an easy journey for the Fellowship of the Ring, on the ultimate quest to rid Middle-earth of evil.

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.

Years after immigrating to the United States, Matt (Gabriel Berm) grapples with the notion of family. A call from his sister, Callie (Callie Morken), becomes the catalyst for a realization: he learns that family transcends borders and manifests in varied forms. The deepest connections endure physical separation, teaching Matt that what truly matters is the unbreakable bond they share, echoing louder than any distance.

Autobots, Decepticons, Predaking and Predacons form an unlikely alliance to battle a resurrected Unicron.

Silent cartoon.