Directing
BBC Four’s new documentary takes us on a journey through more than a century of animation. It examines the creative and technical inventiveness of some of the great animation pioneers who have worked in Britain – trailblazing talents such as Len Lye, John Halas and Joy Batchelor, Joanna Quinn, and Bristol’s world-conquering Aardman Animations.
A surreal party game of musical bumps with sinister undertones based on 'Lord of the Flies'.
Despite a gap of nearly two thousand years, Boudica remains at the forefront of the public imagination. Her story has been passed down the generations from the original writings of the Romans and she has been continually reinvented to serve as a woman of our age. Set against beautiful watercolours of Norfolk, Emma Calder's film looks at Boudica the woman, what motivated her to keep her freedom and what her story means to us now, that we know so much more about her and her people from recent archaeology. The film shows Boudica and the Iceni tribe and their rebellion against the Romans in first century Britain. The film contrasts the worlds of the indigenous people and their Roman Invaders. In Boudica A Norfolk Story, The film contains all the key ideas about this very interesting period in British history whilst being attractive, playful and engaging for all ages.
The story of married animators, John Halas and Joy Batchelor. A Jewish emigre from Hungary and a working class woman from Watford, England, John and Joy fell in love, created cartoons that helped the allies to win the war, and produced the first feature-length animation in British cinema history, Animal Farm (1954).
A film commissioned and conceived by the artist Eduardo Paolozzi using drawings and photocopies provided by him. A non-narrative film focusing on Paolozzi's themes about modern man.
The parody of the famous agent thriller is a production of The Japanese American Toy Theatre of London. The cast was recruited solely from a toy depot. 0017 James Bonk, for instance, is played by a small plastic Godzilla, his colleague 0016, who is murdered by being painted black, by a wind-up eggplant.
A pair of Siamese Twins live and work as part of a travelling fair. One dreams of being a rock and roll star, while the other dreams of scoring the winning goal for England in the 1966 World Cup final.
A woman with extreme anxiety is devoured by four major preoccupations - the man she met by chance on a train, her dying father, her daughter's safety, and the murder she dreams she has committed.
An animated theatre of dismembered people, beasts and ghosts, dance, tumble, make love and tear themselves apart, a nightmarish subconscious world, in black and white.
Animated paper cut-outs. An amusing interpretation of the traditional Yorkshire circular song. A man goes courting on Ilkla Moor without his hat, catches his death of cold, dies, is buried, gets eaten by worms, the worms are eaten by ducks, and the ducks are, finally, eaten by the man's friends.
A film about the pressure which society puts upon people to project different images, particularly the image of success. Through the medium of potato printing the film shows how Madame Potatoe struggles to cope within the world in which she is placed. She retreats into the earth leaving her image to continue along its own increasingly exploitative path. Madame Potatoe was first shown as part of Emma Calder's MA show at the RCA, which comprised a life-sized, motorised Madame Potatoe eating crisps and watching the film on telly. She was sat in a room papered with Madame Potatoe print wall paper. Shown at the Tate Gallery, animation festivals, CH4 TV and world wide TV. Madame Potatoe print bought by the V&A for the prints and drawings collection. Many press clippings and associated articles are available.
Love, sex, desire, trauma, fantasy, spiritual ideas and peace. The power of the brain, the subconscious. An end of life story, to give joy to herself and those she loves.
An itinerant drummer boy is visited in his sleep by a beautiful princess. She requests his help in escaping from an evil witch who has entrapped her on the glass mountain. He sets out to find the mountain and is helped on his way by a rather pathetic old giant and a magic butterfly who lends him a pair of wings. Finally, he arrives at his destination and the witch sets him to work on three impossible tasks... The Drummer was one of the winning entries in 'The Magic Mirror' competition to find new animators for children's stories. The main condition was that the stories had to be adapted from existing fairy or folk tales. The series was sponsored by Kelloggs and the series producer was Anne Wood of Ragdoll Productions. Shown on ITV, world wide TV, video and at international animation festivals.
Using powerful imagery, black humour, and a liberal helping of appalling bad taste, the directors set out to draw people's attention to the state of British beaches.
A range of drawing techniques are used to explore themes of domestic alienation and romantic fantasy about housewives, hoovering, bingo halls and a cat. The film's idiosyncratic humour increases the impact of a film 'ultimately... about coming to terms with obsession, desperation and personal fear'.
Inspired by Leos Janacek's Sinfonietta, The Queen's Monastery is about a woman whose lover, a former acrobat, has returned to her from war a changed man. Using a highly individual watercolour technique the narrative explores themes of love, escapist fantasy, obsession and guilt.
An experimental film made from the social media data of Richard Wright, an animator grappling with life threatening illness.
