Merry Apocalypse

Animated story of a sad magician

Roads is a story about the choices of woman who is searching for her future.

This is a classing Jordan animation, primarily in B/W, with touches of color. Actually, the engraved art work was film on color negative, so that subtle variations in tone are recorded. The mood--enhanced by John Davis' original music--is dream-like. It is both lyric and crackling, producing a kind of anticipatory tension. The scenes, in the usual Jordan manner, follow the surreal principle of placing objects and people where the ought not to be, and making movements that in the waking world are impossible. Each scene is a kind of drama from another world.

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.

Edge of Alchemy is the third film in a trilogy examining the psychological terrain of women's inner worlds. In this handmade film, assembled from over 6,000 collages, the actors Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor are lifted from their early silent features and cast into a surreal epic with an unending of the Frankenstein story and contemporary undercurrents of hive collapse.

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

A little frog jumps out of the pond and wants to see the world. He is excited about new discoveries, not yet knowing about the danger of the stork. He almost gets eaten by the stork, but the frog saves himself at the last minute.

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.

The scissors cut out a little man with huge boxing gloves from black paper. The boy comes to life and is immediately convinced of his punching power. So he grabs the scissors himself and cuts out a huge opponent to demonstrate his strength. He makes a complete fool of himself in the process. It doesn't help that he cuts his opponent smaller and smaller and finally even sticks him down with glue. Although he adorns himself with the laurels of victory at the end, it is clear that he is just a ridiculous paper hero.

A winter dread gnaws at the anxieties of a young couple.

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.

One person makes the long and difficult journey towards finding their own beauty. In trying to mimic the beauty of others around them, they repeatedly fail at their attempts to be something they're not. Only when they muster the courage to look inward, do they find what they were looking for all along.

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.

Colour cut-out animation inspired by the shape of snowflakes and touched with the airy magic of these fragile designs. While music tinkles invitingly, snowflakes roll and whirl, pulse and glitter, shining with the many hues of twinkling lights. Made without words, this is a joyous film to please the fancy and captivate eye and ear.

In this animated environmental parable, we find a people living in harmony with nature, until carelessness leads to the ravens' revenge. We follow a boy's courageous journey to the spirit world to find the only one who can save his village from the resulting darkness--the Lord of the sky. An artistic unity of form and content, Lord of the Sky is a dazzling combination of 3-D models, puppets, special effects and cut-out paper animation. Its intricate, beautifully rendered drawings reflect the natural environment and cultural heritage of the Pacific Northwest. The film speaks strongly of the need for ecological balance in the world.

A fly is treated to a portion of criticism.

Tempo Trem

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 film made from approximately 1700 laser printed photo(collage)s, manipulated by hand.

An ancient was looking for the plum blossom in the snow storm during the trip.