Imprints

Winter Days(ja)

An 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).

Mindscape(fr)

In 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.

Ex-Child(en)

The 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.

A Hunting Lesson(fr)

This 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.

Nightangel(en)

When 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.

Trois exercices sur l'écran d'épingles d'Alexeieff(fr)

Animated 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.

The Night Boots(fr)

The 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.

Jacques Drouin: In Relief(en)

This 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.

The Painting(en)

Utilising the Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen technique, this visually poetic non-narrative film revisits Diego Vélasquez’s 1652 portrait of Queen Mariana of Austria with genuine feeling.

Here and the Great Elsewhere(fr)

This abstract yet compelling philosophical tale uses the Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen as a metaphor for the particles that make up the universe. Through 4 tableaux that explore her character’s thoughts, filmmaker Michèle Lemieux takes a look at the profound reflections of this everyman, whose questions are part of humanity’s eternal quest for meaning.

REST(ja)

When immersed in the contours swelling and waning in the forest of needles, the mundane world drifts away, and we only live to breathe.

Día de los muertos(en)

Dia de los Muertos is a film that captures the beauty, mystery and sacredness of the ancient Meso-American holiday that honors and remembers those who have died. Combining stop-motion animation and sets with computer generated characters, backgrounds and effects creates a richly layered world that blurs the boundaries separating the living from the dead. Dynamic camera angles and lively music enhance the subtle, stylized performances of the living characters and the frenzied action of the spirits.

Felix Tries for Treasure(en)

Felix and his friend little Sammy Johnson are playing baseball when they discover a map that leads to the undersea treasure of Lizzie the Pirate Queen. Building their own submarine, they slip beneath the waves in search of the treasure, and meet up with a variety of undersea creatures, including the most dangerous of all--the loan shark.

Felix Strikes It Rich(en)

Felix organizes a dance contest for hens, but runs afoul of the chicken farmer because the hens aren't meeting their egg quotas. The farmer captures Felix and makes him dig his own grave.

Joe and the Sleeping Beauty(fr)

The Queen Bee, Honeyflower is placed under a spell by One Sting Maude, a witch from the tsetse family, jealous of the Queen Bee’s beauty. Bzz, the Bee-guide enlists the help of Joe to help save the Queen. He is given an injection to shrink him to the size of an insect and enters the parlor of the sleeping beauty, Honeyflower.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - Mickey Saves Santa(en)

Farm Hands(en)

An Aesop's Film Fables cartoon.

Farmer Al Falfa Invents a New Kite(en)

A Paramount-Bray Cartoon.

Koko's Field Daze(en)

Ko-Ko is up to his usual mischief as Max prepares to run a track race.

Destino(en)

Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.

Gandahar(fr)

On the planet Gandahar where peace reigns and poverty is unknown, this utopian lifestyle is upset by reports of people at the outlying frontiers being turned to stone. Sylvain is sent to investigate this mysterious threat.

The Pied Piper(en)

The people of Hamelin, overrun with rats, offer a bag of gold to anyone who can get rid of the rats. A piper offers to do the job, and successfully lures the rats into a mirage of cheese, which disappears. The citizens, disappointed that all he did was play a tune, offer only pocket change. The piper, angered, plays a new tune that has all the children of the city follow him, even the new twins the stork is preparing to deliver.

The House(en)

Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house in this animated dark comedy.

Matriculated(en)

The human resistance works to convert a sentinel to their side. Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts set in the Matrix universe.

SpongeBob SquarePants Presents The Tidal Zone(en)

GrandPat travels through alternate dimensions and timelines to get home.

Beyond(en)

While looking for her cat, a young woman and some kids find an abandoned building where strange things happen and the rules of physics don't always apply. Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts set in the Matrix universe.

Heavy Traffic(en)

A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.

Program(en)

Cis and Duo discuss leaving the real world while during a samurai sword fight. Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts set in the Matrix universe.

Far from the Tree(en)

On an idyllic beach in the Pacific Northwest, curiosity gets the better of a young raccoon whose frustrated parent attempts to keep them both safe.

Strings(en)

The story of Prince Hal who sets out to avenge his dead father against the city's rivals, the Zeriths, little knowing it was his wicked uncle Nezo who is the real killer, with his own designs on the throne.

The Spine of Night(en)

When ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind, a group of heroes from different eras and cultures must band together in order to defeat it at all costs.

The Second Renaissance Part II(en)

The battle for Earth turns against the humans, despite their infamous desperate act of blackening the skies.

Fantasmagorie(fr)

An animated film by French auteur Émile Cohl, one of the earliest examples of hand-drawn film animation. Drawing inspiration from J. Stuart Blackton and the Incoherents of club Hydropathes, the film, with all its wild transformations, sees our protagonist materialize a movie theatre, meet an elephant and escape from jail; A morphing, stream-of-consciousness delight.

The Little Guy(en)

Groot discovers a miniature civilization that believes the seemingly enormous tree toddler is the hero they’ve been waiting for.

The Boxtrolls(en)

An orphaned boy raised by underground creatures called Boxtrolls comes up from the sewers and out of his box to save his family and the town from the evil exterminator, Archibald Snatcher.

Groot's Pursuit(en)

Groot investigates a spooky noise that’s been haunting the Quadrant, which leads to an intense dance off.

Stopmotion(en)

Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother, embarks upon the creation of a film that becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her project take on a life of their own.

Thru the Mirror(en)

Mickey has been reading Alice in Wonderland, and falls asleep. He finds himself on the other side of the mirror, where the furniture is alive.

Mr. Incredible and Pals(en)

An animated short film produced by Pixar included as a bonus on the DVD edition of the 2004 feature film "The Incredibles."