Pixillation was one of the first collaborations between Lillian Schwartz and Ken Knowlton during their stint at Bell Labs using Knowlton’s self written computer animation language EXPLOR. Made in 1970 this 4 minute film crams in a spectacular amount of visual information, cutting from geometric sequences reminiscent of Cellular Automata to analogue sequences of organic forms – immersions of liquids and oils so favoured by the West Coast light show fanatacists around the same time.
Category: Short
Canadian poet Leonard Cohen who now resides on the island of Hydra in Greece, is shown in his native city of Montreal. The program explores Cohens childhood and his subsequent development as one of Canadas leading new writers. The film takes viewers to the house Cohen was brought up in as well as to the places of Montreal he enjoys frequenting his favorite bistro, a three dollar-a-day hotel, the public park, the exclusive section called Westmount, and a Greek grocery store. Cohen himself is shown at a recording session, at public readings of his poetry, displaying home movies of his childhood, and commenting on university life. He also reflects on his visit to Cuba, his girlfriend in Greece, his obsession with danger and his friends and their personalities.
On the sea beach, a tourist inflates and creates an entire campsite out of plastic. In this colorful inflated environment, there is a plastic substitute for everything, even for feelings. On the beach, a ravishing love, jealousy and revenge, and in the end tragedy, are born.
A little bumblebee is tired of her daily routine and the other boring bumblebees. She needs an adventure! She flies to the place of her dreams and meets a frog who is also seeking something new. Despite their differences, the two animals become friends and start their adventure together.
The inhabitants of a Spanish village gather for the visit of a death defying tightrope walker. He comes with his own attractive aura of danger and drama, and the crowd are not disappointed. Animated in a sketchy style on paper, this film powerfully uses the graphic freedom of this technique to select and embellish, to swoop and wander around the village. Austere sound effects and an Albeniz guitar piece are used to heighten this charmingly modest drama in which ordinary things – a hammer driving a nail, a flock of birds wheeling in the sky – are given their due.
Trip tells the story of a young boy from the province who eagerly rides a jeepney to Manila yet ends up disillusioned of what city life is really all about just by meeting all the passengers.
This film of constructivist composition, shot in Moscow in 1987 depicts a series of maps of tramway electrical wire networks framed by the sky, shot from below. Sometimes the top of a tram slides along the frame. The distances between the electrical cables across from the video camera introduce subtle contrasting variations between the black lines that streak the neutral field, reducing the city to a geometric and dynamic construction.
Uncle Moustache’s tale shows a developement of an emotional relationship between an old man who has rested heartsick in his solitude for years, and the children who are joyous by nature. The old man lives in a room beside an abandoned site, where children have transformed it into a soccer lot. He is disturbed by children’s commotion. Till one day, children’s ball hits the old man’s window pane and breaks it…