Animation Unlimited: Innovative Short Films Since 1940
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- DirectorLen LyeAn experimental short using fabric stencils, set to blues music.
- DirectorAlexander AlexeieffClaire ParkerA study in pins of a man who loses his nose which becomes a personality in its own right.
- DirectorStan BrakhageA "found foliage" film composed of insects, leaves, and other detritus sandwiched between two strips of perforated tape.
- DirectorJules EngelIt's a painter's approach to filmmaking, to putting painting in motion.
- DirectorEd EmshwillerStarsStoney EmshwillerElectronic Arts Intermix describes Ed Emshwiller's pioneering experimental concept video as a digital sculpture: "Sunstone is a landmark tape. Symbolic and poetic, it is a pivotal work in the development of an electronic language to articulate three-dimensional space. The opening image is an iconic face, which appears to be electronically 'carved' from stone. A mystical third eye, brilliantly crafted from a digital palette, radiates with vibrant transformations of color and texture. Sculpting electronically, Emshwiller then transforms perspectival representation: the archetypal 'sunstone' is revealed to be one facet of an open, revolving cube, each side of which holds a simultaneously visible, moving video image. Created with complex technology over an eight-month period, this emblematic spinning cube metaphorically describes a three-dimensional, temporal space, both hyperreal and simulated. Emshwiller's humanistic approach to technology ushered in the 1980s with a new electronic vocabulary for conceptualizing and visualizing images in space and time. Reflecting an image-saturated world. SUNSTONE marked a new stage in electronic art."
- DirectorKarl Sims
- DirectorYoichiro Kawaguchi
- DirectorErica RussellStarsCindy CreekmoreTension rises when a second woman joins a dancing couple.
- DirectorJames PattersonAmit Pitaru
- DirectorPaul Glabicki
- DirectorMary Ellen ButeNorman McLarenTed NemethIt's midnight in a graveyard. The principal characters are spooks, ghosts, bats, bells, and, at the end, the sun. As midnight strikes, 12 spooks appear, then two ghosts. They move to the music's rhythm. Against the black night, they are blue and yellow. Bats appear as does a xylophone of bones. Mist rises, spooks swirl. A bell tolls. The sky turns light blue, the ghosts' dance slows. Then black night returns bringing intimations of frenzy. Bones play snare drums; spooks peek out of square graves. Scary faces appear. Frenetic movement takes over. A rooster crows and all return to earth as the sun's light appears.
- DirectorOskar Fischinger
- DirectorStan VanderbeekStarsBuster KeatonAn apocalyptic vision using cartoons and other imagery
- DirectorNorman McLarenThe film's soundtrack is an original musical composition produced with synthetic sound - through photographing unusual geometric shapes and running them through an optical sound head. The images are an artistic rendering of this soundtrack.
- DirectorDylan Kendle
- DirectorSatoshi Tomioka
- DirectorTim HopeStarsWaen ShepherdIn the middle of woods inhabited by wolves, an astrologist imagines what it would be like to be a werewolf, running and howling through the woods in a schizophrenic blur instead of sitting in his home watching videos. Then the moon calls to him.
- DirectorStephen QuayTimothy QuayStarsMarlene KaminskyA woman sits alone on a chair at a table in a room on one of the top floors of an asylum. Bright spot lights dot the night, sometimes shining on her window. She sharpens pencils and writes on a page in a copy book. The pencil point often breaks under her fingers' force. She places broken points outside the window on the sill. A satanic figure is somewhere nearby, animated but of straw or clay, not flesh. She finishes her writing, tears the paper from the pad, folds it, places it in an envelope, and slips it through a slot. Is she writing to her husband? "Sweetheart, come."
- DirectorAlex Rutterford
- DirectorHan Hoogerbrugge
- DirectorJean-Luc Chansay
- DirectorJan SvankmajerLewis Carroll's poem is read and followed by a free-form animated depiction of images and toys from childhood, repeatedly overturned by a live cat.
- DirectorGeorge GriffinStarsGeorge GriffinExperimental artist George Griffin presents his self-portrait through a series of pictures, animation and effects, using of an enormous variety of techniques and editing skills to deliver a unique perspective of his art and facial expressions.
- DirectorCaroline LeafStarsMort RansenSarah DwightJohn HoodThis film deals with a Jewish family in Montreal, Canada as they care for a dying grandmother and the young boy who is impatient to get the room he was promised as soon as she kicks the bucket.
- DirectorYuri NorsteinStarsAleksandr KalyaginDistant, well-worn memories of childhood are inhabited by a little gray wolf. Through astonishing imagery, the memory of all of Russia is depicted.
- DirectorChristine Panushka
- DirectorFrédéric BackStarsPhilippe NoiretChristopher PlummerThe story of a shepherd's single handed quest to re-forest a barren valley.
- DirectorStuart HiltonA mixed media experimental animated film that generates a fragmented view of the world through the partial disclosure of a fantastic event.
- DirectorPhilip HuntStarsWilliam S. BurroughsA disturbingly organic-looking figure speaks to us of life, politics and death as the symbol of the common man toils away.
- DirectorPaul DriessenAnimator Paul Driessen sets eight interlocking tales to the music of Vivaldi's Four Seasons in this animated short.
- DirectorPaul Bush
- DirectorJonathan HodgsonStarsPeter BlegvadLouis SchendlerSome children are fascinated by a lonely house in the neighbourhood they have been told to stay away from.
- DirectorLev Yilmaz
- DirectorJohnny Hardstaff
- DirectorHarry SmithAn experimental film from artist Harry Smith and part of his Number series of various animated scenes.
- DirectorFyodor KhitrukStarsZinoviy GerdtThe man decides to kill the neighbors because they prevent him from sleeping.
- DirectorJirí TrnkaA delicate and secluded ceramist sees his orderly life turn upside down, when a gigantic hand in a white glove invades his space, demanding that a sculpture of itself is made. When will the hand's obstinate demands stop?
- DirectorAndrey KhrzhanovskiyStarsAleksandr GraveKozyavin is ordered by his boss one day to find a man named Sidorov, and is pointed in a particular direction. The employee follows the indicated direction unswervingly to find him, encountering various obstacles along the way.
- DirectorRenzo Kinoshita
- DirectorNina ShorinaStarsAnatoliy BarantsevBoris NovikovMuza KrepkogorskayaThe residents of a building have found novel ways to enter and exit as their front door is broken. However, once the door is repaired they continue to avoid the door.
- DirectorJohn LasseterA one-man-band tin toy tries to escape a destructive baby.
- DirectorMark BakerA country couple and their shepherd endure drought, flood, a monstrous bear, hunters and tourists during a somewhat odd few days in their normally quiet life.
- DirectorBorivoj Dovnikovic-BordoA man visits the panels of a comic page-like world in search for his loved Gloria.
- DirectorRichard KenworthyStarsKurt Wagner
- DirectorMichael Dudok de WitStarsJames LauferA father says goodbye to his young daughter. Time passes and the daughter moves through life age by age, but within her there is always a deep longing for her father.
- DirectorSuzie TempletonStarsTony FishJoshua O'KeefeBill HomewoodA young boy and his father live in a dull, lonely house with the shadow of mourning hanging over them both. The boy misses his mother but gets no comfort from his father's ascertains that she went peacefully. This tragedy is added to by the family dog which is looking increasingly unhealthy.
- DirectorRun Wrake