MIAF Day 2 – International Program #1; Focus on Belgium #1

REMINDER: The Australian Showcase is Saturday the 23^rd at 4.00pm. Tickets will most likely sell out so make sure you get your ticket secured.

International Program #1

The first twelve assorted films in the running for Best of the Festival. Mostly consisting of European and Asian films, the first international program gave us viewers a good taste of what is to be expected from the films up for the grand prize. What is that expectation? Complete and utter randomness. CGI, scratch, cel, cut-out, stop-motion; it was all there!

Here are my top picks for this screening:

About Killing the Pig/ Dell’ammazare Il Maiale (Simone Massi, 2011) – Very dark charcoal-looking animation with little colour but plenty of style.

My… My (Lei Lei, 2011) Heavily inspired by video games, a man chases a moose-man through a glitch-ridden world.

Auntie Nettle (Svetlana Zueva, 2011) Russian cut-out animation with almost an expressionist look about it. A haunting little film; like the nightmare of The Secret Garden, complete with piercing string music and grotesque visuals. Arguably the best film of the session.

How to Eat Your Apple (Erick Oh, 2011) – Exactly as it sounds, but with a bizarre, humorous twist.

Focus on Belgium #1

Before this session I didn’t even know Belgian animation existed. I’m sure glad I gave it a go. The session consisted of a fine mixture of historic and contemporary Belgian animation. From this collection of films there seems to be a pattern or theme with Belgian animation – as cheerful as a film may seem, it will inevitably have a negative conclusion.

Un Voyage Imprevu (Albert Fromenteau, 1944) – Proof that Disney set the blueprints of animation to the entire world, this film from the 40s resembles the forest setting and singing animals of the American animation powerhouse. The key difference is this film is a little crazier than Disney and didn’t have much of a story to go with it.

Goldframe (Raoul Servais, 1969) – Hilarious tongue-in-cheek film about a filmmaker, Mr. Golframe, who must be the first to produce a film in 270mm. He attempts this by dancing off against his silhouette.

To Speak Or Not To Speak  (Raoul Servais, 1970) – What begins as a humorous piece of social commentary mohps into a straight-faced and blatantly political piece of propaganda.

Compartments Or “I Am Not A Monster” (Hannah Letaif, 2011) – Totally insane animation that grotesquely exaggerates everyday tasks. Will be repeated at the Late Night Bizarre session.

MIAF Day 3 – Supinfocom; Careers Forum; RCA 25th Anniversary

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By Michael De Martino

Supinfocom: Le Lab d’Images Project

Supinfocom is a French 3D animation school. This was a special one-off opportunity for students to be teamed up with professional French graphic novel artists and designers. I’m not normally a big fan of 3D CGI animation; I much prefer the traditional styles, but I was not anticipating how much I would enjoy this session. Of the six sessions I have been to so far this could be the best one. All of these films are creative, imaginative, fun, and full of colour and expression. Most amazingly though is the fact that these films all took roughly 2-3 months to put together, which is an epic achievement considering how refined each film is.

Here are my top picks for this screening:

Cosmic Jungle (2010) Exaggerated colour fills this angular urban jungle where two dogs chase after a runaway fire hydrant.

Muzorama (2009) A head inside a mouth. Another head used as a soccer ball. A man whose eyes sit on top of his upside-down nose. A man riding a bicycle which has snails for wheels. If you can figure out what this film is about I would love to know…

Puppet Mansion (2010) The ghost train from hell featuring two cuddly critters and their battle with the ticket collector.

Rubika (2010) The world is a giant Rubik’s cube where gravity changes from vertical to horizontal for some unfortunate people.

Careers in Animation Forum

Fun and informative, this free forum gave the general public the chance to get an insight into the animation industry from four Australian professionals from different fields. Katrina Mathers, Jack Parry, Huni Bolliger, and Darren Bell spoke of how they entered the industry and how they have made a living through animation. The rest of the forum consisted of Q&A where anyone from the audience was given the chance to ask questions about the industry, how to make yourself known, and anything else they desired. The panel of animators stuck around afterwards to answer any further questions people wanted to ask. I spoke to Katrina Mathers who was extremely approachable and genuinely respects those who wish to seek her advice. A very valuable session for anyone with hopes of entering the animation industry.

RCA 25th Anniversary Retrospective

Just when I thought the Polish were dark… Wow! This collection of fourteen films, celebrating 25 years of the Royal College of the Arts, are among the creepiest I have ever seen. Who would have guessed the British had such an evil side to them?  A fascinating array of styles, this session featured multiple approaches to hand-made films. Pencil, ink, paint, models, stamps, and so on, were used to animate these painstakingly detailed films.

Here are my top picks for this screening:

Hello Dad (Christoph Simon, 1987) This film lead the session and boy did it go out with a bang. Some (including myself) bellowed in laughter, some stared in utter bemusement, and “WTF?” was echoed throughout the cinema. It must be seen to be believed.

Prophet And Lo$$ (Jonathan Bairstow, 1988) Creepy, energetic industrial workplace consisting of robots and clowns. Black and white, but full of excitement.

This Is Harrow (Monika Forsberg, 2001) A very simple looking animation of pencil on paper full of spirit and subtle comedy.

Toxic (Andrew McEwan, 1990) Haunting stop-motion film consisting of preserved dead animals. A platypus leads an army of animals to defeat an evil insect.

MIAF Day 2 – Focus on Poland 2, Abstract Showcase

By Michael De Martino

Focus on Poland 2

A continuation of Tuesday night’s session; this collection of nine films continued the morbid stories and dark aesthetics of the Polish. Even the comedic films had an undeniable layer of darkness to them. These films mainly consist of black and white with minimal use of colour. Even then, the colour mostly consisted of muted browns and greys. Darkness was also communicated through most of the films’ themes. Millhaven for example, one of the sessions top films, was inspired by a song from our home grown Nick Cave titled “The Curse of Millhaven”, which begins relatively normal but progressively gets more and more disturbing until we learn the young female singing the lyrics to the song is a psychotic killer who leaves us with the comforting words “All God’s children, they gotta die.” Regardless of the consistent eerie atmosphere presented by these films they all share a common attribute of being amazing.

Here are my top picks for this screening:

Exit (Grzegorz Koncewicz, 2006) This black and white film follows a man’s fantasy to win the girl from the apartment building across the street.

The Ritual (Zbigniew Czapla, 2010) Similar aesthetic to Exit, this beautiful stylised film consists entirely of black paint on white paper.

The Razor (Grzegorz Koncewicz, 2009) Arguably the best film of the session. It involves numerous animation techniques to communicate a man’s fear of the razor used to shave his facial hair. Surreal, fantastical, macabre, but most importantly: effective.

 

Abstract Showcase

Presenter and festival director, Malcolm Turner, opened this session by expressing his thoughts on abstract animation, “Trying to define what abstract animation is is about as much fun as being sodomised with your pants on.” This may well be due to the fact that pretty much all animation is abstract in its own way. This collection of films however delivered films even more abstract than regular abstract animation. These films can be described as experiments with colour, shapes, and film stock, accompanied but avant-garde auditory compositions. The seventeen films making up this session are experimental yet strangely beautiful head trips. They are too extreme to be indifferent about, but love or hate them, they will leave and impression on you.

Here are my top picks for this screening:

An Abstract Day (Oerd van Cuijlenborg, 2010) Arguably the top film of the session. A day-in-the-life story of a couple told through regular sound with abstract visuals to represent the sound.

Fiesta Brava (Steven Woloshen, 2011) The effort put into this film is mind boggling. A 3 minute, 26 second film consisting of scratching and painting the actual film stock to create the finished result. The erratic use of colour intertwined with the upbeat samba music complete the experience.

Metropolis (Mirai Mizue, 2009) Geometric assortment of buildings and lines accompanied by an industrial soundtrack.

MIAF Day 1 – Focus on Poland 1, SIGGRAPH Highlights

By Michael De Martino

Last night I attended two equally amazing sessions, one focusing on a national cinema (Poland), and one focusing of a particular animation technique (CGI).

Session 1 – Focus on Poland 1

Ten films made up the first of three sessions of the Polish showcase. I was unfamiliar with polish animation before this session, but now I can happily call myself a fan. These films share a dark aesthetic quality though still managed to illustrate a variety of styles ranging from ink, to pencil, to paint, to CGI, to scratch, to stop-motion animation. Only two films contained dialogue (which is most common in animated short films) forcing us to focus on the visuals. These films defy genre; they are simply meant to be enjoyed as the animated national cinema of Poland.

There were several standout films:

Robert Proch’s Galeria (2010) wowed audiences with its calligraphic movement of ink and paint.

Danny Boy (Marek Skrobecki, 2010) is a darkly humorous stop-motion film about a city of headless citizens which made audiences laugh and cringe simultaneously while adding genuine dramatic emotion. A varied mesh of moods executed perfectly.

The session concluded with the astounding CGI film, Paths of Hate (2010), about two pilots set to destroy each other.

My top pick of this session is another film by Proch titled Wirus [Virus] (2009) which can fortunately be seen here.

The next two Polish sessions are tonight at 6:15pm and Saturday night at 9pm.

Session 2 – SIGGRAPH Highlights

Fourteen films made up this collection of CGI wonders. These films illustrate just how far computer graphics have come. Some of these films are indescribably amazing to watch. Perhaps this best describes the feeling:

Here are my top picks from this screening:

Animation History of Poland (Tomasz Baginski, 2009) is exactly what the title suggests, the history of Poland communicated through CGI animation. This was the highlight of the session.

Loom (Ilja Brunck, Jan Bitzer, Csaba Letay, 2010) is an utterly amazing film about a moth being trapped and venomed by a spider. Simple premise, incredible execution.

Mobile (Verena Fels, 2010) was definitely the film the audience had the most fun with. It consists of cute farmyard animals hanging from a mobile. All the lonely cow wants is a friend and damn she’s gonna get one, even if it means throwing the mobile out of control.

White Drawing (2009) by Kurt Adams is an atmospheric post-apocalyptic head trip. You get sucked into the film and cannot get out. Even if it doesn’t make sense it is visually appealing to say the least.

Some of the films from this session will be screened at other sessions, so keep an eye out for them.