Our annual survey of abstract and experimental animation. Animators working in this field employ every technique from hand-drawn ‘musical scores’ all the way across the scale to high definition, computer assisted image making. These films share a pure love of animated movement and an artist’s eye for filling the screen, harnessing colour and creating non-narrative imagery.
At barbican book tickets
Jazzimation 2 (Oerd van Cuijlenborg, France/Netherlands)
Watch with your ears and listen with your eyes.
5min, 2017
Buzzing (uncut) (Jorge Mario Zuleta, Costa Rica)
Buzzing basses and electronic squelches. A visual language made from colours, shapes and dynamism.
2min, 2016
Spank Shot (Gina Kamentsky, USA)
While waiting for a spanking I watched hockey.
1min, 2017
4JM (Alexander Dupuis, USA)
A crossing of the borders of the filmframe to create alternative cinematic continuities of spacetime.
3min, 2016
Casino (Steven Woloshen, Canada)
A film for Steven’s father who gambled with love.
4min, 2016
Honeymoon (Maya Erdelyi & Daniel Rowe, USA)
A train journey from Tokyo into the mountains of Tsuruoka, to the cities of Osaka and Kyoto.
4min, 2017
A Narrative Film (Michael Edwards, USA)
A three-act assault on the conceit of the traditional narrative, alongside a futile attempt to escape the narrative impulse of cinema.
8min, 2016
Magoo Opening (Deep Dawda, India)
A homage to the wonderfully stylish world of 50s’ cartoons with suitably wacky soundtrack by Cornelius.
1min, 2017
Into the Light: The Film Resistance (Madi Piller, Canada)
The persistence of vision, frame flickering and illusions. Mushroom spore prints directly printed on to 35mm film and hand coloured.
4min, 2016
Seed (Jan Kokolia, Czech Republic)
Everything comes from a seed. Sprout without any doubt. Immensely cosmic and internally infinitesimal.
4min, 2016
Re-vue (Dirk de Bruyn, Australia)
A flicker-fest lamenting a lost relationship with narrative cinema, by which it is forever marked.
6min, 2017
Fugue (Oerd van Cuijlenborg, France/Netherlands)
A sublimely subtle interweaving of melody, composition and image.
6min, 2016
Strange Fish (Steven Subotnick, USA)
A meditation on blind evolution.
4min, 2017
Sans Chlorophyll (Phillip Davis, USA)
The beauty of Autumn leaves. A riot of colour and explosion of sound.
3min, 2017
Attraction (Emily Scaife, UK)
Urges in the undergrowth, erupting fungal fantasies, bursting botanicals. The dust and desires of a tiny alternative universe.
4min, 2017
Infinitude (Scott Portingale, Canada)
A meditation on the cosmic evolution of matter and energy over time.
5min, 2016
Crux (Alexandre Roy, Canada/Switzerland)
What do you think of when you see the cross?
4min, 2017
Cupcake (Gina Kamentsky, USA)
Jiro and his Friends are attending a birthday party but The Cupcake has other plans.
2min, 2017
