The latest survey of under-the-radar animated shorts currently traveling the festival circuit or new to online viewing.
In this month's Binocular Briefs, we take a peek at new online arrivals, previewing five upcoming shorts that address themes of gender, sexuality, mental health, society and environment in striking and unique ways.
Flatastic, Alice Saey, France/Belgium
In this neon-tinged surrealist environmental sci-fi horror-ish work by Alice Saey (Careful, Happy), we meet a faceless, wasteful robotic society and encounter plastic bags and manta rays doing deadly underwater dances. When the manta rays discover a lifeless companion and the cause of its death (plastic), they’re pissed and plot revenge on the twits who mindlessly tossed those deadly bags down below.
The film’s roots date back to 2016, when Saey began working out ideas with co-writer Léa Perret. “At the time,” says Saey, “I was developing a choreographic style of animation based on disruptive patterns and group behavior and wanted to explore these themes in a narrative context. The topics of Flatastic reflect a general feeling of anxiety specific to our generation. We were discussing our position as humans, our responsibilities, our guilt, and our biases. We began imagining a fable in which we could mock our anthropocentric lifestyles and comment on larger patterns of domination that we unconsciously perpetrate.”
Flower Show, Elli Vuorinen, Finland/France
Backed by beautiful impressionistic-inspired backgrounds and rich expressionistic character designs, Flower Show is set, you guessed it, at a flower show at what appears to be a country estate. As the older women flirt with the gentlemen, the younger ladies are moulded into walking dolls. Both generations are enveloped by rituals. Soon, the story twists and turns into a surrealist, sensual horror show filled with horndog glances, creepy gestures, and pervy caresses.
“During these uncertain and volatile times, people tend to seek comfort from nostalgia,” says Vuorinen. “I find this somewhat problematic. The old structures of societies, gardens, and raising children need a more holistic understanding of nature and human behavior. I want to question the way we see nature, feel nostalgia, and admire the youth.”
Wander to Wonder, Nina Gantz, France/Netherlands/Belgium
It might be argued that parodying VHS era (i.e., 1980s) television shows feels a bit done and done, but Nina Gantz (Edmund) has created a touching and unnerving take on isolation, grief, dependency, and maybe a dash of mental illness with her latest work, Wander to Wonder.
Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton are three miniature human actors who perform in an 80s kids TV series called Wander to Wonder. When the creator bites the dust, the trio are left to their own devices in the abandoned studio. Hungry and increasingly losing their minds, the paranoid, anxious trio starts to churn out bizarro episodes that mirror their unhinged conditions.
“I was very inspired by the innocent and colorful English Kids TV shows of the 70s and 80s, such as Sooty and Sweep, The Flumps, and The Wombles,” says Gantz. “It made for a great juxtaposition with the bleak reality of the studio. The idea of three tiny humans on their own in a huge studio trying to survive excited me. Figuring out how they get their food, being only 20 cm tall, How would they open jars and cans? Where do they shower, poo, and sleep? And what dangers lay ahead of them when there’s no one to take care of them?”
There Will Be No Other End, Piotr Milczarek, Poland
Piotr Milczarek makes his return five years after his acclaimed film Rain (2019) toured the world festival circuit to much laughter, applause, and a few shiny trophies.
With a dash of Phil Mulloy cynicism and a pinch of Monty Python silliness, There Will Be No Other End is a minimalist piece of truth-telling absurdity that takes us through the stages of life of a person. In this case: birth, playtime, work, revolution, authority. It’s a bitingly funny and slapstick-inspired take on a pretty spot-on truth about our predictable life patterns in any society.
“It started with a childbirth scene,” says Milczarek about the origins of the project. “I saw a certain universality in this act - a group of guys going to celebrate the birth of a child, completely unconcerned about the woman giving birth. Then I realized that there are many more such idiotic human behaviours that can be portrayed. The history of the world shows that as a society, we keep making the same mistakes.”
Three Birds, Zarja Menart, Slovenia/Croatia
Set in a rural landscape and backed by beautifully ominous muddy earthy tones (using transparent paper and cells, oil paints, and light from below), an elderly birdwoman examines a depressed and dishevelled young woman before sending her out into the dark web of the woods accompanied by three birds.
A subtle and sophisticated coming-of-age/magic realist-inspired tale about a woman struggling to overcome inner torments to discover the mini-miracles of life and nature.
“Three Birds flew to me from an old folk tune,” says Menart. “I find it fascinating how those songs and stories carry profound insights into the workings of the human inner world. Technically, it’s very mixed. Sometimes I painted as I filmed; other times I prepared frame-by-frame cutouts; other times I scratched away the paint.”
A well-known figure in the world of independent animation, writer, author & curator Chris Robinson is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
