London’s fifth annual Factual Animation Film Festival was hosted at the Cinema Museum on 8th December 2019. 21 short animated documentaries were screened across two programmes. Between the screenings there was a discussion panel featuring Rory Waubly-Tolley, director of There’s Something In The Water, Diana Gradinaru, director of What Is Consciousness?, Simon Ball, director of Do I See What You See?, and Haemin Ko, director of No Body.
Programme 1
There’s Something In The Water
Director: Rory Waudby-Tolley
UK, 2019
No Body
Director: Haemin Ko
UK, 2019
A traditional charcoal animation with an autobiographical experimental animated poem.
Based on directors journals which is about her immigration experience in London, Nobody explores relationship between city and me through three emotional chapter. Excitement, frustration and hope.
Passage
Director: Asavari Kumar
Duration: 5:15
India, USA, 2019
Finding herself in a state of limbo, an Indian woman revisits her immigration journey and voyages through a tempestuous emotional landscape of memory, identity, belonging and the illusion of the American Dream.
A Letter To Myself At 16
Director: Claire Tankersley
Duration: 3:05
USA, 2019
I was sexually assaulted by a close friend at a party in high school. Five years later, there is so much that I wish I’d known when I woke up the next morning.
Embraces & The Touch of Skin
Director: Sara Koppel
Duration: 2:42
Denmark, 2019
“EMBRACES & the touch of skin”
is an animated poem about the vital need for embraces and contact with other beings.
My Dad’s Name Was Huw
Director: Freddie Griffiths
Duration: 7:44
UK
An intimate and insightful documentary short unravelling the state of mind of my late alcoholic father through the poems he left behind.
Dinosaur Blues
Director: Oleon Lin
Duration: 2:03
China
A man making dolls with plasticine always shows up in the nights, among all the dolls he made, most were based on the popular cartoon icons, only the blue dinosaur is his original work… it’s a story on a man making dolls in China, which try to put up with a new understanding of the pirated products with the background of the globalized entertainment.
What is Consciousness?
Director: Diana Gradinaru
Duration: 5:02
UK, Romania, 2019
‘What is Consciousness?’ is a nightmarish walk through the mind. Animated and directed by RCA graduate Diana Gradinaru, the film tells the story of memories past and future by manipulating classic beloved cartoon tropes to create a perplexing and disorienting view of reality.
Programme 2
Bloomers
Director: Sam Moore
Duration: 9:35
UK, 2019
Animated fabric brings the story of a lingerie factory in Manchester to life. Silk, cotton and lace go under the camera, as the workers recount the history of Headen & Quarmby, the UK garment manufacturing industry, and British family traditions of making. A specially composed soundtrack by Swedish composer Malin Bång, inspired by sounds of sewing machinery, evokes the ups and downs of the factory.
Sent Away
Director: Rosa Fisher
Duration: 5:37
UK, 2019
Boarding schools can rip children out of their secure, loving homes and deposit them into a cold, unloving institution. ‘Sent Away’ looks at the psychological implications that this can have on children and in particular the effect it had on my father, Tom.
Fifteen-Two
Director: John Summerson
Duration: 4:53
UK, 2019
My mother recalls her parents’ uniquely long relationship — one made strong, in part, by their daily habit of making time to play Cribbage together.
O Hunter Heart
Director: Carla MacKinnon
Duration: 7:07
UK, 2019
Nature and domesticity collide in a dark take of love and loss.
The Drip
Director: Leonie Ketteler
Duration: 2:55
Germany, 2019
»The Drip« explores the boundaries of aesthetics, information and education, by visualizing the infection process of Chlamydia with 3D animation. Showing genitals and thematizing STIs provokes discussion and breaks with taboos imposed by society and social media. The viewer is granted a painfully close look at the ulterior parts of our body with visually enchanting imagery that is unique to the medium of animation.
Gambler
Director: Michaela Režová, Ivan Studený
Duration: 3:28
Czechia, 2018
This audiodocumentary made by duo of authors Michaela Režová and Ivan Studený, with the help of colourful images, tells the personal story of a man who fell for into gambling. First came the sound, then the image. They support each other and together they present the furious flashing past of someone who was addicted.
The Elephant’s Song
Director: Lynn Tomlinson
Duration: 7:38
USA, 2019
The sad but true story of Old Bet, the first circus elephant in America, set to a tune sung by her friend, an old farm dog. Their story is portrayed in colorful, handcrafted animation, created frame by frame with clay-on-glass and oil pastel animation.
The Children of Concrete
Director: PHANHSAY-CHAMSON Jonathan
Duration: 6:42
France, 2017
Am I French or Chinese ? I wander in my identity
questions. I face words from media people with words from thoses children of the « second generation », trying to see more clearly. I recall France, my France.
Eadem Cutis: The Same Skin
Director: Nina Hopf
Duration: 5:34
Germany, 2019
„I just want to be seen as the one I am today“ – In this experimental animated documentary John takes the viewer with him into the world of body and identity.
1 Minute History Of Image Distortion
Director: Betina Kuntzsch
Duration: 1:00
Germany, 2017
Material resistance in film history.
Awards
The AnimatedDocumentary.com team are delighted to announce that the FAFF best animated documentary of 2019 has been awarded to Rosa Fisher director of Sent Away.
Sent Away explores the psychological impact that attending boarding school had on Rosa’s father, Tom. The film addresses the atmosphere of punishment, obedience and isolation that led each pupil to develop a hardened exterior. The film concludes by speculating how this emotionally traumatic cultural practice, common among Britain’s political elite, has shaped the UK. Sent Away, despite focusing on the childhood of a middle-aged man, is prescient in the lead up to the UK’s general election. One of the candidates for prime minister forged his identity in the competitive toxicity of Eton, the UK’s most elite boarding school. The other did not.
Read about the FAFF 2019 on Animatedcoumentary.com
FAFF was organised by festival director, Holly Murtha, with help from Marina Belikova, project leader for FAFF Berlin, and Alex Widdowson, panel host.
