The programme consists of curated screenings and a series of interviews with animation directors conducted by Marina Belikova, Berlin festival producer.
Programme 1
All Those Sensations in My Belly
Director: Marko Djeska
Duration: 13:19
Croatia
While transitioning from male to female gender, Matia struggles with finding a genuine intimate relationship with a heterosexual man.
The Unfair Sex
Director: Serafima Serafimova
Duration: 01:09
United Kingdom
Women live with outdated, binary societal pressures, dictating the way we look, where we go and even how we procreate. In the meantime our rights are fast eroding, and girls and women continue to disappear, get raped and murdered. I made The Unfair Sex to channel my frustration,
Another Presence
Director: Simon Ball
Duration: 12:00
United Kingdom
Another Presence recounts the unique and often curious experiences of people living with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), the third most common form of dementia. A multi-sensory condition that can cause dream-like symptoms, it’s a condition like no other. Told through the testimonies of those living with DLB, the film explores the surreal and lesser known effects of dementia, compelling us to question how our brains function and to what extent we can trust our senses.
The Chimney Swift
Director: Frédéric Schuld
Duration: 5:00
Germany
19th century in Europe. A child climbs up a chimney while a bird sails down into it to build a nest. An encounter with no way back.
A British chimney sweeper describes his everyday routine of forcing young kids to become workers. While we observe a kid cleaning a chimney, the master’s statement gets more personal with every sentence until we understand, that he is speaking about his own past.
Cherry Bone
Director: Evgenia Gostrer
Duration: 17:35
Germany
Cherry Bone is a documentary animation and tells the story of a Russian-jewish family that immigrates to Germany in the mid-90s. The director of the film starts a conversation with her parents who made the move in their forties and recalls her own version of the past events.
Us
Director: Nelson Fernandes
Duration: 05:00
Portugal
“Us” is a short film of animation which mixes several Stop Motion techniques, proposing a journey through the conflicted human condition. War, loneliness, nature, crossings, fallen dreams are some of the recurring aspects in this animated poem on paper.
Sitting on Recycling
Directors: Studio Desk Animation, Emily and Kathrin
Duration: 01:00
United Kingdom
Watch how chairs in the V&A collections have been made from recycled materials. A project in collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum for their project V&A innovate.
V&A Innovate is an annual National Schools Challenge, asking students in years 7, 8 and 9 to work in teams of 4 – 6 to design a solution to a real-world problem.
Borscht with Pretzel
Director: Anna Ring
Duration: 08:13
Germany
The film “Borscht with Preztel” deals with post-Soviet Jewish migration to Germany. The immigration group of the former Soviet Union is the largest in Germany, but in the majority society hardly anything is known about them, instead stereotypes and prejudices are attributed to them, which leaves little space for the real stories of the Soviet immigrants and they remain invisible. The film is based on an interview with my mother through which the audience gets an intimate insight into her story, her personal view of migration and how she experienced it. Among other things, it explores the questions of why she emigrated, what her first impressions were, what problems arose with the migration and what conclusion she can now draw after so many years in Germany.
Programme 2
Litter Buggin’
Director: John Rowley
Duration: 02:45
United Kingdom
Short animated film about Litter.
Maalbeek
Director: Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis
Duration: 15:51
France
“Maalbeek is a journey into amnesic territory, in the immemorial memory of the attacks of the 22 March 2016 in Brussels.
The visual concept is based on a hybrid montage of archive images and 3D animation that work in tandem on the motif of fragmentation.
The animation of the film, made from real shots and then transformed by various technical processes, shows an inner landscape composed of exploded views of the metro station, as if the image of these memories had also been subjected to the physical shock of the explosion. These clouds of dots reflect the mental instability that runs through the main character’s representation, sizzling, even uncertain. These layers of reality that persist throughout the animation help to immerse the spectator in the emotional experience of amnesia.”
TIMELINE
Director: Osbert Parker
Duration: 04:43
United Kingdom
Timeline is an artist commissioned film loop created for The Migration Museum exhibition, Departures. The film uses experimental animation techniques to explore migration that triggered 400 years of emigration from Britain between 1620-2020 and beyond.
A single footprint rapidly escalates into patterns of human travel in the form of ‘abstract lines’ within the natural world to evoke meaning; suggesting epic voyages and connected narratives over long histories.
Evolving as unexpected pathways through time. Successive patterns of lines change form through the use of mixed media animation, investigating personal narratives behind life-changing events.
Using metaphors to emphasize fragility and human endeavour, the multi-layered result suggests a range of migration experiences through historic events across continents, that triggered 400 years of migration from Britain around the world.
My thoughts on autism… and orangutans
Director: Alfie Minchin
Duration: 01:02
United Kingdom
I, an autistic individual talk through some of my thoughts in an open and unscripted format.
Uncle Thomas, accounting for the days
Director: Regina Pessoa
Duration: 13:00
Portugal
From Regina’s personal and visual memories, a tribute to her uncle Thomas, a humble man with a simple and anonymous life. This is my acknowledgment how one does not have to be « somebody” to become exceptional in our life.
Kandittundu (Seen it)
Director: Adithi Krishnadas
Duration: 11:49
India
The ever-vibrant Mr. P. N. K Panicker has several shockers up his sleeve. He takes the viewer along a moonlit stroll and paints a quirky picture of the supernatural encounters he has had.
Jeremy, my Father
Director: Miranda Peyton Jones
Duration: 07:40
United Kingdom
‘Jeremy, my Father,’ is a poignant film which attempts to navigate bereavement following suicide. Through animation, archival footage, and sound, director Miranda Peyton Jones guides us to the heart of her grief, love and loss. The voices of her family and her father’s music underscore this deeply personal, powerful, and poignant film.
The Harbourmaster
Directors: Mia Ludvigsen Henriksen, Konrad Hjemli
Duration: 07:17
Norway
“The Harbourmaster” tells the story of its titular swan, and of how he went from a beloved small town icon to a wanted criminal.
Only A Child
Director: Simone Giampaolo
Duration: 06:47
Switzerland
Only a Child is a visual poem created by over 20 animation directors under the artistic supervision of Simone Giampaolo, which gives shape and colour to the original words spoken by Severn Cullis-Suzuki at the UN Summit in Rio in 1992, a child’s desperate call to action for the future of our planet. An omnibus film celebrating the environmental youth movement 30 years in the making.
