Directors Lounge Berlin 2006
Forming Motion: Animated Artistic Expertiments
curated by Kim Collmer with assistance by Microcinema International

February 12 & 13, Sunday and Monday

 

 

Night 1: Forming Motion: Myth and Magic

1. Kunstbar directed by Steve Whitehouse, Canada, 2002, Flash Animation, Color, Magnetic Stereo, 3:55 min., courtesy of Microcinema International.
A thirsty man attempts to answer the question: "What would happen if you drank an Yves Tanguy?"...

2. Stern, directed by Ho-Yeol Ryu, Germany, 2002, digital animation, 1 min.
Das grundsätzliche Hauptthema von meiner Arbeit ist Realität und Unrealität. Eine Situation oder ein Phänomen, die in der Realität unmöglich ist, werden mit dem Computer als eine Mittel verwirklichen(oder anderseits eine Realität wird unrealistisch), und eine neue Welt mit anderer Vision wird geboren. Es ist nicht nur eine wesenhafte Bedeutung als eine Realisierung von einer Unwirklichkeit, sondern es ist ein richtige Sinn von der allgemeine Vorstellung auskommen zu können.

3. Lake Qualm - December the 3rd, 2004 directed by Paul Fletcher, United States, 2004, digital animation, 3:50 min., courtesty of Microcinema International.
A visit to Lake Qualm a transient place and memory space. Recollections and provocations of both calm and unease. Metamorphosing abstract images and patterns are integrated with photographic records and digital landscapes...

4. Silver Seeds directed by Kim Collmer, Germany/USA, 2005, stop motion animation, 9:13 min.
Two friends, who live in a secret world of plastic plants, embark upon a magical journey. Traveling upon a giant flower, they fly up into the night sky to explore another world. This cosmic castle strangely mirrors elements found in their own environment. Sound assistance by Peter O'Malley and Chris Collmer.

5. Lovers Supplant directed by Norma V Toraya, United States, 2005, hand-paint and digital animation, 2:08 min., courtesy Microcinema International
Lovers Supplant is an animated short about a femme fatale who creeps along in the night with an objective (abduction of a blissful female) and a motive (to be with the man she loves and role she deserves).


6. Nancy directed by Alison Ruttan, USA, 2001, Digital Animation, 1 min.
Nancy refers to the comic book character, she is imagined as middle aged and without Sluggo. She is trying to shape an unformed want or desire.

7. Unearthed directed by Christina Spangler, United States, 2002, 16mm, 8:00 min., courtesy Microcinema International
After a blind struggle for life against a hungry ferret, an unearthed potato is given a wondrous glimpse into the visible world. Using its newfound sight, the curious tuber happens upon a discarded bag of potato chips...

8. In Situ directed by Janet Galore, USA, 2006, Flash collage, 3:12 min.
What happens in a chance encounter between a space baby and a lobster? The stage is set, clouds drift overhead, and Surrealist references abound. The cast of characters includes a Chinese propaganda poster baby, a lobster, a spacecraft, ants, a military tank, and other discordant elements that come together in this animation inspired by Rene Magritte, Jan Svankmajer, and Terry Gilliam.

9. The Guilt Trip, or The Vaticans Take a Holiday directed by Lisa Barcy, USA, 2004, stop motion animation, 14 min.
In a dilapidated church, icons of Catholicism run amok, Jesus and Mary
Magdalene steal away for an adventurous road trip, and the Pope tends
his restless herd with an iron fist. Told with stop-motion animated puppets and mixed media, The Guilt Trip examines the notion that you can always leave, but you never really escape.

10. PAO (bread) directed by Andrea Martha, Portugal, 2005, pixelation animation
PAO was Andrea's first film, made in her apartment in Lisbon. Imaginative, humorous, and low-tech, PAO brings everyday objects to life.

11.The Pinhole Sideshows, directed by Andrew Zimbelman, Germany/USA, 2005, digital/stop motion animation

"...an exciting and magical ride into the tools which construct our perception and sense of context..."

10. The Gates of Heaven, directed by Lucy Lee, England, 2004, Digibeta, 2 min.
Can we become more than we are? We are compelled to try. Based on a Chinese tale called the Dragon Gate.

11. Ikuma Siku directed by Glen Gear, Canada, 5:48, DV, 2004
Ikuma Siku (literally, fire & ice) is a poetic narrative that traces the immigration of a settler to the coast of Labrador and his initial encounter and relationship to that land and to its indigenous people. It is a story of the growing friendship between an Inuk and a new immigrant set in and around the rugged coastline of northern Labrador in 1849; an imaginary tale whose roots stem from actual family history in a land suffused with magical realism.

Projections:

1. Side Show directed by Edie Faig, United States, 2001, 35mm, 9:00 min. courtesy Microcinema International
It's all fun and games until somebody loses an arm.....

2. Catastrophe Theory, Earthquake Girl & other stories, by Jemina Wyman Australia, 2005, digital video/animation, 6 min.

My Visual Arts practice investigates issues relating to mechanisms of fiction and reality, through the mediums of performance, video, painting, installation and photography. My current work focuses on the physicality of the body and the particular relationships the body has with designated spaces and objects, emphasizing various performative characters and 'screen sets’.

3. Home and Away, by Wendy Mason, United States, 2005, digital video"Home and Away" investigates and manipulates the intricate dynamics between a host and a guest by reversing and abstracting their
respective roles. Everyday spaces can become absurd when they serve as venues in which familiar and unfamiliar gestures simultaneously clash
and become linked.

Night 2: Forming Motion: Dis/connect

1. Vision Point directed by Stephen Arthur, Canada, 1999, Still Photos, 1:27 min., courtesy Microcinema International
Landscape pixilation" is used to express and abstract our direct relationship to the land of Western Canada in a powerfully surreal and visionary way...


2. Destrukt, Aline Helmcke, Germany, 2005, Hand-drawn animation, 2:20 min.
The animation film "Destrukt" operates with single frame drawings taken from political report photos envolve a non narrative structure which is based on transformative and decompositive movemants from one key-picture into the next. The black and white drawings blur the identity of the pictures that everybody knows from the daily news. Instead of showing the background stories of the conflicts that these pictures implicate, the film wants to investigate their main structure, surrealistic and worrying between nearness and absence.

3. Text Field directed by Chirstinn & Jake Whyte & Messenger, United Kingdom, 2002, 1:00 min., courtesy Microcinema International
A single continuous take of improvised movement, translated into an ascii-based animation, with a soundtrack generated by a computer read-out of the sequence's final frame....

4. HOAM, directed by Elizabeth Stohl, Germany, 2005, digital animation, 5 min.
The globalization process and the resulting cultural homongenization are presented with the underlying question of regional identity.


5. Algorithmen directed by Bärbel Neubauer, Germany, 1994, 35mm, 3:17 min., courtesy Microcinema International
Metamorphoses of colour and form which are painted , drawn and stamped on blank film directly and which are corresponding to rhythm and music.
6. Aurora directed by Michael Betancourt
United States, 2001, Color, Magnetic Stereo, 1:00 min.
When the solar wind crosses the Earth's magnetic field, streaks, waves and curtains of faint light appear in the night sky. Ancient people who saw these patterns thought that they were spirits, demons, or gods....

7. Ampel directed by Ho-Yeol Ryu, Germany, 2002, 1:30 min.
Das grundsätzliche Hauptthema von meiner Arbeit ist Realität und Unrealität. Eine Situation oder ein Phänomen, die in der Realität unmöglich ist, werden mit dem Computer als eine Mittel verwirklichen(oder anderseits eine Realität wird unrealistisch), und eine neue Welt mit anderer Vision wird geboren. Es ist nicht nur eine wesenhafte Bedeutung als eine Realisierung von einer Unwirklichkeit, sondern es ist ein richtige Sinn von der allgemeine Vorstellung auskommen zu können.

8. Party Party Chisai-san directed by Janet Galore, United States, 2006, Hand-drawn cells with Flash assist, 1:30 min.
Chisai-san (Mr. Small) morphs, bends, and pulls himself to pieces while dancing to bouncy techno music. Mindless happiness in a minimal setting.


9. The Fold, directed by Kim Collmer, Croatia/ Germany, 2005, 4:11 min.
Shot underwater in the Adriatic and a giant wooden water bucket, the Fold explores water as a reflective surface, creating mirrored images and abstract cellular animations. Assistance from Eike Mählman, Miles Chalcraft and music by Jeff McGrory. Filmed at Subart, Croatia.

10. Amazilia directed by Brian Evans, United States, 2004, Computer Animation, 2:15 min., courtesy of Microcinema International
Everything reduces to data mapping and information design. The only hard question is why we do either. I never got past a fascination with numbers, a desire to write songs, a desire to make pictures.

11. Broadway Boogie Woogie, directed by Kelley Bell, United States, 2004, Digital Animation, 1:30 min.
An animated short hanging two Dutch painters in the same frame. The ghost of Hieronymous Bosch haunts the colorful grids of Piet Mondrian... Where can he go?

12. Brand New Triathalon directed by Rick Raxlen, United States, 2003, 16mm, 8:30 min., courtesy Microcinema International
An animation made with bits of book illustrations from how-to books on bowling and cricket and a photo-study of taichi positions, some cheap stencils of frogs, and hearts and a bit of text relating to the sports...

13. Childhood directed by Shizuko Tabata, Japan, 2001, 16mm, 2:30 min., courtesy Microcinema International
Is the memory of your childhood a happy or sad one? Everything has gone to the past, but we can only look forward....

14. blind / sehend, directed by Simone Mayer, Germany, 2006, digital animation, 4:25 min.

"blind/sehend" is all about the perception of the blind
and their visual idea of the environment. Someone who
is able to see might wonder how a blind person can orient themselves and live in permanent darkness - in a society based on visual perception. The movie is shown from the perspective of a main character who lost his eyesight as a child but still imagines his environment visually, combining images of his memory with visualized sensory stimuli as colors, textures, light and shapes.

15. How we Learned to Stop Panicking directed by Andrew Zimbelman, United States, 2005, digital animation, 1:37 min.
An experimental piece that explores notions of scale and place in our media driven contemporary society

16. 5 a.m. directed by Michiel van Bakel, Netherlands, 2002, recorded using 32 digital video cameras, 1:15 min., courtesy of Microcinema International
A video that plays a refined game with slices of time in the city of Rotterdam. The matter-of-fact presence of a police-horsewoman on the large square that is the historic center, changes into a surrealist and heroic mo(nu)ment.

17. A Vue, directed by Joshua Mosley , USA, 2004, Mixed Media Animation, High-Definition Video, 7.5 min., special one time licensing agreement by the artist! Soon to be sent back to the USA.
A park ranger who maintains a 150-foot monument to George Washington Carver falls for a P.R. rep. at National Fiber Optics. The two discuss the relationship between their lives and their work. The animation combines digitally photographed stop-motion puppets, a 24" bronze monument and ink-wash painted environments. The sets were designed using 3D rendering tools. A Vue includes an original score composed by Abby Schneider.

Projections:

1. In-Transit directed by Lee Arnold
England/USA, 2005, digital animation, 7:11 min.
In-Transit is an animation that represents the experience of traveling but never arriving. The piece isolates the original video footage into
two separate forms: line and color. The color is then divided into a 3
x 3 matrix in which each section represents an averaging of the light
of the scene. At the same time the drawing is isolated as a single bit
image so that there is only black or white and nothing in between. The
two forms are then layered together, creating a series of moving images
that are both literal and abstract.

2. Disintegrated Memory Lapse directed by Carl Nolting
United States, 2004, DV, 4:22 min., courtesy of Microcinema International
Disintegrated Memory Lapse is a short experimental film exploring the visual memory of emotions and feelings associated with an individual through a time based medium. Each frame was rotoscoped and then composited on top of each other.