Programme

Bloody Mess
Director: Megan Wennberg
Duration: 09:20
Canada
When my period went nuts, I thought my Uterus was out to get me because I haven’t given it a baby. It turns out I had fibroids. Bloody Mess is a short, personal, animated documentary about my journey through the medical system to try and stop the bleeding.

Dear Leo Sokolski
Director: Weronika Szyma
Duration: 08:00
Poland
This poetic dialogue unfolds between a young girl and her deceased great-grandfather, intertwining images from a German town where he was sent to a work camp during World War II with a delicate narrative as the girl pens a letter. The past seamlessly blends with the present, and flashes of memory mix with moments of oblivion. Leo Sokolosky, the letter’s intended recipient, is the ghost of her great-grandfather’s friend from the camp, serving as a mystical link between her world and his. The film explores questions about ideals in today’s world and expresses the longing for someone close who is no longer around.

Here, there was a park
Directors: Flavia Matei, Mirela Raicu, Aniela Ariton, Lavinia Petrache, Vadim Ciocazan, Adina Constantin, Marta Crețu, Simina Băcila, Miriam Arvunescu, Ana-Maria Gărdescu, Bogdan Crivoi, Adela Holdon, Iris Rotărescu, Andrei Pasca, Maria Bălășoiu, Răzvan Petre, Ștefania Bodescu
Duration: 06:34
Romania
The IOR Park in Bucharest, one of the city’s biggest green spaces, is threatened with destruction under the authorities’ watch. The documentary presents the impact of the illegal logging through the stories of locals and activists alike, told from the perspective of 17 animators.

Unlearning Motherhood
Director: Juliana Erazo Gómez
Duration: 10:45
Colombia, Netherlands
Unlearning Motherhood is an animated documentary that tells the stories of 6 cis and transgender women, and their experiences with what could be considered an unconventional motherhood. The film makes use of the fictional story of Dolores, the main character, as a read thread to connect the testimonials together.

Argelia, Luba, Sarah, Marcia, Guendalina and Vicky tell their experiences on postpartum depression, being child free, adoption, abortion, and transgender motherhood. Their real-life stories illustrate how diverse motherhood really is, and ultimately invite the audience to come together and re-think its standards.

In this film, fiction and documentary complement each other, the testimonials will be heard and visualized by Dolores, therefor giving them a reason to exist together in this animated world.

Renderfamily
Director: Tyler Longmire
Duration: 07:35
Canada
Returning to his “taxidermy museum” childhood home, Tyler sorts through his grandmother’s belongings as memories of her dementia resurface. Blending 2D, 3D, and rotoscoped animation, this autobiographical short explores grief, memory, and living among the artifacts of the dead.

Eating Disorders, Ethnicity and Culture
Director: Isolde Godfrey
Duration: 03:36
United Kingdom
Eating disorders can affect anybody, from any age, sex, gender, and background. Yet limiting stereotypes still exist about who can be affected by eating disorders. This film highlights the experiences of young people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, who share their perspectives on how their ethnicity and culture impacted their experience of developing, living with, and seeking help for an eating disorder. Their words remind us of the importance of different perspectives and new voices in broadening our understanding of eating disorders.

Immigrant
Director: Nilram Ranjbar
Duration: 01:40
Iran
“This film is an animation about a woman who is forced to be an immigrant due to her love for her country and family.”

Collective Memory
Director: Cristina Colmenares
Duration: 14:59
Colombia, Peru
In 1983, during the darkest days of Peru’s Armed Conflict with the Shining Path, masked soldiers entered Adelina’s home and took her husband away. She would never see him again. After facing silence and contempt from the Police and Army, Adelina joins forces with the many other women who have lost their husbands and children to soldiers who were supposed to protect them. Together, they will unite to demand justice.

A Black Rail’s Tale
Director: Lynn Tomlinson
Duration: 05:10
USA
“A tiny Black Rail guides us through South Carolina’s former rice plantations, revealing how landscapes engineered by enslaved people have become a refuge for one of North America’s rarest birds.
Seldom heard and even more rarely seen, a Black Rail is a small and secretive bird who makes its home in the vast landscape of wild and abandoned rice fields of South Carolina, originally built through the stolen expertise and forced labor of enslaved Africans. The film weaves together art, history, landscape and ecology, and was created by award-winning animator Lynn Tomlinson, and poet and cultural ornithogist J. Drew Lanham, with music composed by acclaimed guitarist Yasmin Williams. This unique animated documentary was executive produced by BirdStory and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.”

Christine Sinclair: Kind of a Big Deal
Eoin Duffy
Duration: 08:00
Canada
“An intimate animated documentary about the most prolific goal scorer in international soccer history, and the power of quiet leadership.
Christine Sinclair scored more international goals than any player in soccer history, men’s or women’s. Moving between the roar of the world stage and the quiet moments behind it, the film reveals a leader whose power lived in restraint, yet she carried Team Canada from underdogs to Olympic gold. A story of how quiet leadership can leave the loudest legacy.”

Making a Mother
Director: Emily Downe
Duration: 04:05
United Kingdom
A short animation exploring matrescence, the often unseen and deeply personal metamorphosis of becoming a mother. The film poetically calls on nature and ancient wisdom to give voice to this drastic yet invisible transformation.

Spoon
Director: Markus Kempken
Duration: 03:52
Germany
Not all childhood memories are nice. Some of them reach out to the present, no matter how much time has passed.

Making It Fit
Director: Mariana Leal
Duration: 04:30
United Kingdom
A short documentary film about how the LGBTQIA+ community has been reinventing funerary and remembrance rituals to better support and reflect the way people live in community.

Gullermo
Donnacha Clarke
Duration: 03:37
Ireland
A handmade autobiographical love letter to the seagull who kept me company over the lonely years of chronic illness. A mixed media solo project involving claymation, sticky notes, oil pastels, collage, photocopied video animation and animation of found materials (dried leaves, flowers, plants, texts) all shot under a multiplane camera setup.