Who hasn't felt apprehensive at the thought of starting high school? This is the central theme of this short animated film. Playing on imagination and humour, the director offers viewers a thought provoking piece dealing with the transition that young people between the ages of 10 and 13 experience. Inspired by the work of Escher and Magritte, Catherine Arcand has created a graphically rich film through optical illusions and trompe-l'oeil effects. Her style aptly illustra tes the theme of perceptions and is perfectly suited to conveying the dream world into which the film takes us.
Two fuzzy creatures can't agree on who is small and who is big, until a couple of surprise guests show up, settling it once and for all! An original and very funny story about size - it all depends on who's standing next to you.
King Bedwyr suspects something is amiss in his Wee Kingdom. It turns out Ruff the troll and his goofy pal Scruff the bear have been enlisted by the mighty and mean Wee wizard Emrick to take over the Wee Kingdom. By joining forces with Emrick, Ruff has bitten off more than he can chew. Will Scruff be able troll the Wees? Or will Emrick troll the trolls? Join us and find out. Trolling is the name of the game.
Parabola is a celebration of film’s ability to create new ways of seeing the forms around us. Creating juxtapositions between light/shadow, stasis/motion, and form/music, this black-and-white short invites us to see the parabolic curve, or “nature’s poetry,” as both invigorating and beguiling.
Young space explorers Nick, Taffy, and their talking spaceship, Clank, are called away from their relaxing intergalactic recon mission, to find and apprehend a dangerous criminal fugitive. Nick, Taffy, and Clank navigate and investigate the entire star system, in relentless pursuit of the elusive Jabba and his shining ship of thieves.
The bedroom is an empty place while the garden is full of huge and weird familiar entities. In these spaces, the astonished character begins a disturbing self-analysis.
The digital age has given birth to a new reality: infinite screen time. Rather than experiencing the natural world around us, our intake of communication, ideas, visuals, and sounds is packaged via a series of zeros and ones, waiting neatly for us to consume. This screen-dependent existence is even more prevalent and maddening for the modern-day creative. Beyond entertainment, so many artists rely on screens for work — using digital tools to create more digital experiences that are designed to be digested through yet another screen. It creates a loop that at times feels paralyzing and inescapable.
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.
Day in, day out, Mr. Grimm is busy with his job as the Reaper, harvesting people's lives. One day, his monotonous existence is interrupted by the door bell. It's a little girl. She wants her cat back. Little does she know that she's the next life on Mr. Grimm's list.
This story takes place in Lisbon at the time of the great maritime discoveries. Explorers, looking like pigs, arrive in the harbor after a long voyage across the oceans. Everywhere in the city small groups gather and congratulate each other. They organize spontaneous round dances and celebrate their return. Meanwhile, a young pig has the strange feeling of being completely isolated from the others in his own native city...
Juan Quezada, one of Mexico's most famous potters, used his creative gifts to transform his impoverished village of laborers into a thriving artists community. Learn about his life and work through glowing artwork and poetic language.