Every year the LIAF curates a programme focusing on a specific animating technique. This year it’s cut-outs. The technique has been a mainstay of many Russian and Eastern European animators, such as Yuri Norstein, whose graceful little characters have enchanted audiences for decades. This programme mixes a collection of master works dating back to the 1940s with a selection of recent works.
‘The Girl and The Hunter’ (Jadwiga Kowalska, 2010)
The village is in big trouble. Outside it is raining a young girl’s tears and it’s up to the hunter to put things in order.
Switzerland, 5′ 23
‘Roots of the Hidden’ (Elizabeth Sevenoaks, 2011)
A surreal and poetic meditation on personal discovery and the acceptance of one’s identity.
UK, 4’00
‘The Collagist’ (Amy Lockhart & Marc Bell, 2009)
A collage artist endeavours to complete his work while interpreting and translating the beauty of toiling hands and the action of scissors.
Canada, 2’00
‘Phosphena’ (Maya Erdelyi, 2010)
Phosphena – also known as Phosphene – is an entoptic phenomenon characterised by the experience of seeing light without light actually entering the eye.
USA, 4’00
‘Peanuts’ (Tim Romanowsky, 2010)
A graphic revision of a 1929 Ub Iwerks short film. Famous figures and classic visual elements flow together in a new and devolved world without rules or boundaries.
Germany 5’05
‘The Rooster, The Crocodile And The Night Sky’ (P. Fagan, 2008)
A tale of passion, loss, surreal comedy and explosive violence, all animated to create a dreamy, hand-made aesthetic. A visual paradox.
Ireland 6’34
‘Petticoat’ (Jade de Paepe, 2010)
Curiosity gets the better of a small boy who wanders just a little close in his search to find out what’s underneath the petticoats of dancing women.
France, 3’30
‘Viliam’ (Veronika Obertova, 2010)
Viliam lives in his own animated life within the real world. Childish fun turns into a problem, the problem becomes a solution. No solution is perfect though…
Slovakia, 7’00
‘Jeannine M.’ (Gregoire Lemoine, 2010)
Lots of motivation, a gassed up rocket-ship and a good old fashioned telephone – all this crew of pensioners need to change the world.
France, 4’05
‘The Three Blind Mice’ (George Dunning, 1945)
The beloved nursery rhyme is put to use to illustrate why industrial safety rules must be observed.
Canada, 5’10
‘The Labyrinth’ (Jan Lenica, 1963)
A self-consciously Kafkaesque tale of a winged, lonely man literally devoured by totalitarian rule.
Poland, 14’00
‘The Blackbird’ (Norman McLaren, 1958)
The genius of simplicity. Here McLaren imparts unusual activity to an old French-Canadian nonsense song using little more than white cut-outs on pastel backgrounds.
Canada, 4’34
‘The Hedgehog in the Fog’ (Yuri Norstein, 1975)
One of the finest animated films ever made by the acknowledged master of classic Russian cut-out animation.
Russia, 10’25
