A Fly in the Restaurant

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.

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.

Hare enlists four brave friends to help him reclaim his home from the wily Fox.

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.

The Winter Feast is Po's favorite holiday. Every year he and his father hang decorations, cook together, and serve noodle soup to the villagers. But this year Shifu informs Po that as Dragon Warrior, it is his duty to host the formal Winter Feast at the Jade Palace. Po is caught between his obligations as the Dragon Warrior and his family traditions: between Shifu and Mr. Ping.

Three artists struggling against the grid of society find spiritual renewal.

A surrealistic fantasy based on the 15th century woodcuts of the dance of the dead. A film experiment that deals with the photoreality and the surrealism of life. A collage-animation that cuts up photos and newsreel film and reassembles them, producing an image that is a mixture of unexplainable fact (Why is Harpo Marx playing a harp in the middle of a battlefield?) with inexplicable act (Why is there a battlefield?). It is a black comedy, a fantasy that mocks death ... a parabolic parable.

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.

When Charley asks a young woman whom he is in love with to marry him, she tells him that he needs to get her father's consent. But when Charley then goes to see her father, who owns a restaurant, he ends up getting hired as a dishwasher instead. The rest of the kitchen staff soon find out that Charley is not a member of their union, and they go on strike. Charley is left by himself, leading to a series of upheavals in the restaurant, and a great invention.

A restaurant opens for the night. The diners include: A man dining alone, who orders a plate of spaghetti that becomes his dining companion. A couple; the woman talks endlessly (and unintelligibly), as her head mutates into a variety of shapes. Her ravenous companion refuses to pay, and the restaurant reclaims its food. A family with two children; they play, rather elaborately, with their food.

An experimental short film by Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica.

Animation using cutout animation to craft a bizarre science fiction experiment. Moving spheres, such as balloons and bubbles, are superimposed on static backgrounds to suggest travel and discovery.

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

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

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

Pinocchio e il grillo

A short surreal animation created with fashion magazine clippings and sound collages.

In order to win the hand of a princess, a man must defeat an evil dragon and claim its treasured magic stone. Upon his return, Baghdad has been invaded and he must use the stone to defeat his new enemy.

A frenetic and poetic flight on the wings of classic Greek mythology.