Jacob Two Two Meets The Hooded Fang is about a young boy who strives to be heard. He is nicknamed "Two-Two" for having to say things twice to be heard. One day, he decided to buy the groceries for his parents. There is a misunderstanding by the clerk, so Jacob finds himself in court. He is sentenced Two Years, Two months, two weeks, two minutes and five seconds in the Children's Prison hundreds of miles away from civilization. It is a dark, dirty dungeon-like place where the children work and are kept in cells. There are the three head characters, Master Fish, a fish/human, Mistress Fowl, a bird like woman and the Hooded Fang himself. They also have green henchmen who spray "slime resistors" at the children to prevent them escaping. Two child agents try to help him out, as the children also come up with a plan for escape.
Yoso is truly a lost classic, set in the Nara Era (710-794), from Kinugasa Teinosuke the same writer/director who gave us the recognized classic Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1952) & the milestone silent surrealist masterpiece A Page of Madness (Kurutta Ippeji, 1926).
Dazzling and raucous, Ryan Trecartin's first feature-length video takes cues from chat rooms, social networking web sites, YouTube, John Waters, and Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and then turns them upside down and inside out to create an entirely singular video genre. In I-BE AREA, Trecartin intertwines the stories of an incredible ensemble cast to follow a day in the life of I-BE II, the rebellious clone of I-BE.
A mischievous witch uses her dark magic on an innocent cyclist until he is all confused. He is forced to pedal backwards and at the same time, his bike changes shape anytime the witch wants it to. (stumfilm.dk)
Animated film featuring the hand of Walter R. Booth drawing a coster and his donah who come to life and dance. The hand then crumples up the paper and dispenses it in the form of confetti. (BFI)
Gaston Velle's 'Les Fleurs Animées' was screened by the Australian-based Corrick Family Entertainers as part of their variety act. In their advertising the Corricks described the detailed, hand-coloured production as 'The finest "Color" Film of the Twentieth Century'. Simple camera tricks create a magic fairy story in this tale of angry flowers exacting revenge on a man who has wantonly destroyed their garden.
In a tyrannical kingdom there is an evil ruler and a queen who lusts after Hercules who is attracted to a handmaiden. A rebellion overthrows the ruler.
Sailor Marat carries a great burden. His whole village condemns him since his wife and many fishermen were washed off his boat in a mysterious sea storm. Ever since then the sea has vanished. One day, Marat returns to his village, obsessed by the idea of making the sea return and so the dead. He begins rebuilding his shipwreck in the middle of the desert, dragging it towards the endless horizon. Only his last close friend Balthasar, and Tamara, the sister of Marat's deceased wife, believe in him. Tamara, deeply in love with Marat, who repulses her, knows from a fortune teller that maybe not her dream but his might come true. One morning Marat wakes up by the sound of water - the sea has returned, ready to take what belongs to her...
The story of Galax, a robotic 'man-doll', artificially created out of wood and computer circuitry, Appearing to come to life, it becomes a rival for the affections of Marie, a young student and an issue for university authorities.
This early silent era film was released in France circa 1908 by Segundo de Chomón. It is partially hand coloured and shows several Japanese characters and eventually a worm change into a butterfly which while flapping it's wings changes colours as it flies.
Five years in the making, Lawrence Jordan's feature-length "alchemical autobiography" Sophie's Place takes as its inspiration the story of the Greek goddess of wisdom, Sophia. Writes Jordan, "I must emphasize that I do not know the exact significance of any of the symbols in the film any more than I know the meaning of my dreams... I hope that the symbols and the episodes set off poetic associations in the viewer. I mean them to be entirely open to the viewer's own interpretation."
A compelling and unsettling documentary, Ghost Train introduces us to an elderly man whose wife is hospitalised with dementia. Struggling to cope, he visits Dracula's theatre restaurant, where he forms a bond with one of the performers.
Aidai the baksy, or witch doctor, lives in the mountains and helps people. She uses mysterious actions to cure the sick and to give infertile couples children. As capitalist forces begin to encroach on tradition, the first casualty is any culture's most fundamental inheritance - land. The healer has to leave her land because the mob thinks the location is suitable for a filling station. A harsh battle between supernatural good and earthly evil ensues.
Leah is eager to visit her uncle's ranch in Ireland, until her attempt to ride her cold cousin Shannon's horse results in Silky being injured and she is ordered not to ride again. When she meets Lucky, a leprechaun who only communicates with her, she learns that the beautiful white beast she's glimpsed from afar is in fact a bewitched fairy Sorica, who needs help retrieving a magical horn to return to her true form and her own world. Now Leah must juggle secretly helping Lucky, whose reasons for helping might not just be out of kindness; putting up with Shannon; and trying to win Uncle Jaques' trust by entering her newfound "horse" in the local race.