The retrospective on the work of Santiago Alvarez kicked off with LBJ, an acerbic look at the career of US President Lindon B. Johnson. Santiago basically made newsreels, like the Pathe News reels we had here. But with the Cuban embargo ensuring a dearth of equipment and, well, everything needed to make a film, Santiago…
A energetic and amusing animated short film, about a boy finding his identity in a tug of war between his parents. Told without dialogue, the boy is shown growing up between his mother’s place, a greenhouse full of plants, where she grew him in a pot, and his father’s place, a car garage, where he…
A breathtakingly beautiful short film about a brother and sister dealing differently with wrapping up their lives before moving to the big city. The brother is facing the future, he is eager to get on with living his life in the city, and all the opportunities it might afford. The sister wants to go one…
Oskar Salomonowitz was a 12-year-old boy who drew 206 pages on a flip book to make his first animation, when he was suddenly killed in an accident. His father finishes the story. The animation itself is a delightfully childlike cartoon of two stickmen fighting with swords while flying with jetpacks on their feet. The joyful…
It’s Sasha’s last day in the orphanage. He’s about to be adopted by a nice woman and taken to America. He’s meant to be acting like he’s won the jackpot but he’s not. The care workers are harassed with him, he hasn’t packed, he’s left his bed a mess, he hasn’t rehearsed the speech thanking…
Noir-soleil is animated short about an unforeseen family reunion. Everything in the film is about incongruous contrasts. The beautiful artwork, at times so gentle and soft, provides an unlikely medium for a story with such dark subjects. The volcano rumblings around Pompeii set off a minor earthquake, which causes it to release one of its…
As night descends on Rio de Janiero, the fireflies come out. Equally beautiful are the nocturnal inhabitants of Flamingo Park. There they pray, bathe, and make love beneath the moonlight. The nightlife of a city always represents its unseen self, the truth we deny in ourselves in the bright light of day, beneath the righteous…
One of my favourites of the festival. Breathtakingly honest to the point of being painfully vulnerable, Diana Nguyen confronts the heartbreak at the centre of her and her father’s relationship. She rediscovers a cache of letters her father sent her when she was a child. He was in prison when she was young, but they…
I . . . I have no idea. Basically visual ASMR around the theme of squish.
A depressed insomniac is driving in the rain at night when a tall, buxom woman in a glittering evening dress calls out, “Beware of the slippery road – it’s dangerous!” He comes off his moped, and so begins the start of tentative but nurturing friendship. Diana is the woman. Despite her flashy dress and her…