
When immersed in the contours swelling and waning in the forest of needles, the mundane world drifts away, and we only live to breathe.
5.9An animated film based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material – the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animators. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names in animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn's, though, is nearly two minutes long).
6.7In this non-narrative animated film inspired by composer François Couperin's harpsichord composition "Barricades mystérieuses," Jacques Drouin explores a whole new way of using the pinscreen to create animated images. He pivots the screen and uses low-angled light to capture images in high relief. The result is like a sculpture whose expertly modelled forms are revealed through film. A film without words.
6.4In this short, an artist creates a painting of the landscape he sees, then finds he can literally climb into the picture to see the fantastic world inside.
6.2When a man becomes blind, his life is all turned around. He can only use his touch to get around in his house. The objects become enemies. But an angel is looking over him.
7.0The forest can be full of scary creatures, Eliot’s parents caution, but the mystery might be too tempting for a kid who doesn’t want to go to bed.
6.0The story of a young boy and his father, both of whom are enlisted to fight in the war. The boy's pride soon turns to fear as the bullets whistle overhead. His father takes his place and is immediately shot and killed. Horrified, the boy understands that war is not a game.
0.0This documentary is a portrait of the animator of Le Paysagiste, from his childhood in Eastern Quebec to his career at the NFB. Trained at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Drouin became in some ways the heir to Alexandre Alexeïeff when he began working with the Alexeïeff-Parker pinhole screen in 1974. Recounting his relationship with the filmmaker and inventor, coming back with lucidity and precision on the whole of his own filmography, Jacques Drouin delivers here a precious testimony on creation. Enriched with numerous excerpts and unpublished images from the filmmaker's personal archives, Jacques Drouin en relief is both the adventure of a lifetime and a valuable lesson in cinema.
5.0This short animated film follows Antoine, a young boy fascinated by his mysterious neighbour, a man rumoured to have once been a big game hunter. Antoine is eager to learn about hunting, but the lesson he learns from the wise older man is not at all what he had expected: Antoine is left with a profound reverence for life.
0.0Animated short film made in three parts on the pin screen by Alexeieff-Parker. With these three exercises, director Jacques Drouin experiments with the play of light and shadow alone. Original, this experience presents us with a reality that is not truncated although it may appear as follows: the faculty of wonder will be able to create the necessary link between everyday life and the way it was rendered.
5.0A man's repeated attempts to retrieve an apple off a high tree branch all prove fruitless. What does he want the apple for? That would be telling.
A pre-internet mash-up that mixes “Peanuts” and David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.”
An impressive parable where the artist’s creativity is paralyzed by the dull crowd can be seen as a metaphor for a totalitarian system. Cleverly designed animation shows the artist as a tied man whose creativity is hindered by the crowd. A visually attractive film with very interesting editing won an award at the Annecy festival in 1983.
Plasticine animation about resurrection and fall of despotism by Ferenc Cakó.
5.5Whispered to by an ancient tree, a young shepherd dreams of more than his simple existence among grass and sheep. The journey he embarks on brings him into contact with golden birds, a dragon and a fair damsel.
6.5Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.
0.0Calling themselves "The Three Fishketeers," a trio of adventuresome fish set out across the ocean floor to seek fame and fortune. Toby, bright-eyed and spunky, Finner, aristocratic and thoughtful, and Gillis, a big "galumphing" guppy who calmly takes everything in stride. Meeting a "damsel" clearly not in distress, the would-be heroes comically try to help her recover a large pearl. But it isn't long before all four of them are swimming for their lives, and The Three Fishketeers finally learn what heroism really is.
7.1A beautiful girl, Snow White, takes refuge in the forest in the house of seven dwarfs to hide from her stepmother, the wicked Queen. The Queen is jealous because she wants to be known as "the fairest in the land," and Snow White's beauty surpasses her own.