Picture Particles

Between Science and Garbage(en)

A whirlwind of improvisation combines the images of animator Pierre Hébert with the avant-garde sound of techno whiz Bob Ostertag in this singular multimedia experience, a hybrid of live animation and performance art.

Nocturna Artificialia(en)

Enigmatic, stop-motion, animated story of a man's day.

The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer(en)

In Prague, a professorial puppet, with metal pincers for hands and an open book for a hat, takes a boy as a pupil. First, the professor empties fluff and toys from the child's head, leaving him without the top of his head for most of the film. The professor then teaches the lad about illusions and perspectives, the pursuit of an object through exploring a bank of drawers, divining an object, and the migration of forms. The child then brings out a box with a tarantula in it: the professor puts his "hands" into the box and describes what he feels. The boy receives a final lesson about animation and film making; then the professor gives him a brain and his own open-book hat.

This Unnameable Little Broom(en)

Stop-motion animated short film in which a puppet on a trike captures a puppet bird-man.

Street of Crocodiles(en)

A puppet, newly released from his strings, explores the sinister room in which he finds himself.

Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies(en)

Stop-motion animated short film in which, among other things, a man made of wire looks malevolent.

The Comb(en)

A porcelain doll’s explorations of a dreamer’s imagination.

Anamorphosis(en)

The Quays' interest in esoteric illusions finds its perfect realization in this fascinating animated lecture on the art of anamorphosis. This artistic technique, often used in the 16th- and 17th centuries, utilizes a method of visual distortion with which paintings, when viewed from different angles, mischievously revealed hidden symbols.

Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?(en)

Stop-motion animated short film with a white ball, a rabbit, and a girl, and a voice singing "Are We Still Married".

Trash Talking(en)

A showcase of Paper Rad's individual and group creations in the form of Trash Talking, a show for kids with bizarre characters trying to find their place in the world.

Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods(en)

Near an extraordinary chair with many legs, a hand is visible gripping an edge. The hand is weathered, the fingers cracked and scarred. The end of a rifle appears and a shot fires. The bullet is visible whirling through space; it caroms and then goes through a pine cone. A long spoon emerges from a drawer in the chair and stretches toward the hand. The bullet is on the spoon. Later, the hand holds the bullet between two fingers; another shot is fired.

Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You(en)

Short animated film featuring the song "Can't Go Wrong Without You" by His Name Is Alive.

In Absentia(en)

A woman sits alone on a chair at a table in a room on one of the top floors of an asylum. Bright spot lights dot the night, sometimes shining on her window. She sharpens pencils and writes on a page in a copy book. The pencil point often breaks under her fingers' force. She places broken points outside the window on the sill. A satanic figure is somewhere nearby, animated but of straw or clay, not flesh. She finishes her writing, tears the paper from the pad, folds it, places it in an envelope, and slips it through a slot. Is she writing to her husband? "Sweetheart, come." Written by

The Calligrapher(en)

With harpsichord music in the background, a dandy, seated at a table, plucks a quill pen from a ceiling full of them above him, dips it in ink, thinks, then draws a straight line down the page in front of him, out of which sprout six more quill pens, each held by a hand. The calligrapher moves all the hands and pens in unison, drawing an elaborate feathered wing, which comes to live, peeling off the page, and, now a quill pen, slips in to his hand. He tucks it behind his left ear.

The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection(en)

A display at the strange and wonderful artifacts in a collection of medical curiosities.

The Summit(en)

Two men seek to negotiate an agreement of international significance.

1 Seconde(en)

“When he shot Une seconde (4 min., 20 sec.), a video animation without computer graphics, Richard Angers tried to adapt Norman McLaren’s animation techniques to video shooting and editing. A long-term solitary task, in which images are moved by hand, centimetre by centimetre, in which one plays with the number of images per second, and in which the ± pure quest for effects is more important than the message”. BLANCHARD, Louise. “Les vidéastes sont au ‘rendez-vous’”, Le Journal de Montréal, Montreal (9 February 1992), p. 38.

Strokkur(pt)

In the beginning the idea was to make something from nothing, in a neutral and unknown place. Collect images and sounds instead of producing them. The camera, the microphone and the mini-amplifier: tools that take away and then give back. We defined a rule: the sound shouldn't illustrate the image and the image shouldn't absorb the sound. Less than a hundred kilometres from Reykjavik we found Strokkur. For three days we saw and heard the internal dynamics of the crevice: the boiling water that spat out every seven minutes and the thermal shock, given the eighteen degrees below zero of the atmosphere.

Aggression(de)

Aggression, Schroeter’s first 16mm film, is the fictive portrait of a woman who is oppressed by her (unseen) boyfriend.

Sylvia Kristel – Paris(en)

Sylvia Kristel – Paris is a portrait of Sylvia Kristel , best known for her role in the 1970’s erotic cult classic Emmanuelle, as well as a film about the impossibility of memory in relation to biography. Between November 2000 and June 2002 Manon de Boer recorded the stories and memories of Kristel. At each recording session she asked her to speak about a city where Kristel has lived: Paris, Los Angeles, Brussels or Amsterdam; over the two years she spoke on several occasions about the same city. At first glance the collection of stories appears to make up a sort of biography, but over time it shows the impossibility of biography: the impossibility of ‘plotting’ somebody’s life as a coherent narrative.

Sasquatch Mountain(en)

A lonely tow-truck driver gets caught in a deadly struggle between a pair of bank robbers with a beautiful hostage, local cops, and a monster that has come down from the Arizona mountains to eat human flesh.

Life of a Mutt(sr)

Through seven scenes, the film follows the life and destinies of stray dogs from the margins of our society, leading us to reconsider our attitude towards them. Through the seven “wandering” characters that we follow at different ages, from birth to old age, we witness their dignified struggle for survival. At the cemetery, in an abandoned factory, in an asylum, in a landfill, in places full of sorrow, our heroes search for love and togetherness. By combining documentary material, animation and acting interpretation of the thoughts of our heroes, we get to know lives between disappointment and hope, quite similar to ours.

Scooby-Doo: Agence toutou risques, vol. 1 : Le voleur de vélo(fr)

Six Hours: Surviving Typhoon Yolanda(en)

In the middle of a broadcast about Typhoon Yolanda's initial impact, reporter Jiggy Manicad was faced with the reality that he no longer had communication with his station. They were, for all intents and purposes, stranded in Tacloban. With little option, and his crew started the six hour walk to Alto, where the closest broadcast antenna was to be found. Letting the world know what was happening to was a priority, but they were driven by the need to let their families and friends know they were all still alive. Along the way, they encountered residents and victims of the massive typhoon, and with each step it became increasingly clear just how devastating this storm was. This was a storm that was going to change lives.

Six Children and One Grandfather(en)

David McDoll is a selfish and wealthy man living an enviable lifestyle in his large villa and collecting fancy cars. However, his life is about to be changed forever when he inherits his six grandchildren. His glamorous lifestyle quickly becomes complete chaos. But he will learn a valuable lesson that teaches him about placing family first and discovering a newfound appreciation for life.

Azari(ur)

Punk in Africa(en)

Three chords, three countries, one revolution...PUNK IN AFRICA is the story of the multiracial punk movement within the recent political and social upheavals experienced in three Southern African countries: South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Uncanny Stories(fr)

“Uncanny Stories” is a horror anthology of short stories from famous writers adapted in animation by directors who are mad about genre films. The works of Laura Kasischke, H.P. Lovecraft and Jean Ray alongside the Brothers Grimm, William Tenn and Edgar Allan Poe all haunt the screen in a world of horror, fear and angst. You’ll encounter a young girl who hates her stepmother so much she wants her dead, two young hikers who cross paths with a strange old woman, an explorer trapped by terrifying forces from a distant past, a man driving down a country lane on a rainy night, an endless nightmare, a lighthouse in a storm. Transgressive and poignant stories that tap into your innermost fears.

Sitio Diablo(tl)

A story about a gangster couple who returns to Sitio Diablo, a gangland in Manila, and form a new gang, Illustrados. A bloodbath is set to happen when they face their old gang, Los Hijos Diablos who rules Sitio Diablo.

Return to... Return to Nuke 'Em High aka Vol. 2(en)

Following the events of Volume 1, the mutated glee club continue their violent rampage in Tromaville. Chrissy and Lauren, two innocent lesbian lovers, must fight not only the Cretins, mutants, and monsters but also the evil Tromorganic Foodstuffs Conglomerate. Can they, and Kevin the Wonder Duck, save Tromaville High School and the world?

The Insomniac on the Bridge(fr)

This quickly-filmed avant-garde farce by prolific director Raul Ruiz features an insomniac (Michel Lonsdale) whose main preoccupation is surreptitiously watching private matters -- he is a voyeur. He and an equally disreputable acquaintance rape a woman alongside the Seine, a crime made all the worse because she is pregnant. The rest of this slow-paced film deals with the consequences of that action.

Dear President Obama(en)

During President Obama's terms extreme energy extraction grew faster than anyone could have predicted, putting the 17 million people in America who live within one mile of a new gas or oil rig in harm's way.

Emilio Guzman: Alle Mensen Verzamelen(nl)

JFK Unsolved: The Real Conspiracies(en)

Produced by ABC 7 Bay Area. A world renowned JFK assassination researcher comes to a shocking conclusion: Lee Harvey Oswald did not fire the fatal shot that killed President Kennedy.

The Message(nb)

Kamen Rider Wizard in Magic Land(ja)

A rainbow-colored tornado takes Haruto and Koyomi to an alternate reality called "Magic Land". There, its residents never developed science. Instead they put extensive research on magic. As a result, anyone has an ability to use magic, and some of them can even transform into a Kamen Rider Mage. When Haruto arrives, he meets a young orphan called Shiina. As Haruto explores Magic Land, he finds the Emerald Palace and meets Emperor Maya. He also meets Prime Minister Orma, who is known as Kamen Rider Sorcerer, who does not appear what he may seem to be...

Moon Street(pt)

On the streets, people wander loose, almost free from any attachment like astronauts in space. From that analogy comes 'Moon Street'. While to the spaceships the moon works as reference, in Porto Alegre some cosmonauts find their north on Garibaldi street. Taking over professor's Edward Nkoloso dream and his Zambian space program, this documentary tries to bring the moon and the street together, claiming for a democratic space (urban and cosmic), away from the domain of powerful countries and avenues. How do the urban cosmonauts perceive the stars? The dispute? The dream? Neither USA, or Soviet Union, we searched for space through the free eyes of the forgotten, and many times invisible , street astronauts.

1789(fr)

Recording of the play 1789, a collective creation by Théâtre du Soleil at La Cartoucherie de Vincennes in 1970, edited from several shows.

Me Contro Te - Il concerto(it)

Come to the exciting concert of Luì and Sofì and enjoy a world of music and magic. Dance and sing hits like "Princesa", "Insieme", "Missione Giungla" and many more.

Man, Chicks Are Just Different(pl)

Two middle-aged male friends are travelling together by car and expressing their thoughts and emotions connected with women.