Production
Two little men float into the deep blue sky, tied to balloons. But then each decides the sky belongs to him. This film was made as part of the fourth edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
In this short animation, a young boy takes a flying leap away from normal, waves goodbye to his classmates, and disappears into the cityscape and beyond. At the same time, a young girl is inspired to reinvent her space with art.
In attempting to secure his domicile against perceived external threats, our hero manages to create a more dangerous internal environment. The film uses humor to illustrate that problems can arise when freedom is sacrificed for safety.
A marvellous example of extreme animation. Jacob Bauming shows us a whirling dervish of sensory overload, with a tenuous connection to snazzy “aquatics,” using them as a trigger for his wild and manic imagination. This film was made as part of the first edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
Blending fantasy and reality, this animated short is a bold inquiry into an as yet unresolved problem - the nature of human identity. When a scientist creates a machine that can make copies of physical objects, including humans, a number of ethical questions arise. Is the technique moral? What of its safety? A film by Oscar-winning filmmaker John Weldon (who also wrote the catchy banjo tune that punctuates the story's changing moods).
Emile is an unhappy little vampire, doing a job he detests, in a world plunged into perpetual gloom. He serves a despotic mistress who loathes wrinkles, in the most extreme way.
Hopeful job candidate Buck Boom is dynamic, forceful, confident and creative. But can he convince Mr. Mudgin, the personnel manager, to hire him? You see, Boom is an animated character in a live-action world and Mudgin is not used to dealing with someone who is different.
A pithy critique of society's commercialization of water, abetted by an utter disregard for the future. The film is a mixed media whirlwind of hyperactive animated collage. This film was made as part of the first edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
A figure floats in landscapes and spaces without a ground plane. There is only water. The reflected skies are endless and mirrored interiors are doubled in height. This film explores experiences within environments that are recognizable but surreal. This film was made as part of the third edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
This animated short from Malcolm Sutherland is an engaging dance of shapes and sounds. The "game" is played by opening the box, unfolding the board and placing shapes on it that you manipulate with your hands. There are no winners or losers in this game; the fun is in the creative way the forms unfold. Features a score by Luigi Alleman and music by Ravi Shankar.
A little creature watches the transformation of a feather and follows a whale to where icebergs melt, leaving birds with nowhere to land. The materials used include old gloves, costume jewellery and Plasticine. Technique: puppet and object animation with drawn animation. This film was made as part of the third edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
Madame Tutli-Putli boards the Night Train, weighed down with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past. She travels alone, facing both the kindness and menace of strangers. As day descends into dark, she finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure.
This short animation is a visual fantasy, a gripping tale that is "larger-than-life" in its themes: life, death and rebirth; creation and destruction; permanence and impermanence, spontaneity and control. Bold swoops of liquid colour surge with variations on Mozart's Requiem to a startling denouement. Alchemists will provoke reflection on creativity, relationships and the environment. Without words.
In this animated short, filmmaker Chris Hinton and composer Michael Oesterle leap back and forth between picture and sound. The dynamic movement of Hinton's visual art dances in syncopation with the bold musical strokes of an original modern classical composition. Without words.
Roch Carrier recounts the most mortifying moment of his childhood. At a time when all his friends worshipped Maurice "Rocket" Richard and wore his number 9 Canadiens hockey jersey, the boy was mistakenly sent a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey from Eaton's. Unable to convince his mother to send it back, he must face his friends wearing the colours of the opposing team. This animated short, based on the book The Hockey Sweater, is an NFB classic that appeals to hockey lovers of all ages.
“Psychoanalysis is, in it’s entire spectre, an eminently POP discipline: anybody can relate to it without having studied and/or understood it. Cinema, an art for the age of self-reflection par excellence, is nothing less.” Fernando de Felipe departs from this premise to tell us the story of Duffy, a seven year-old boy who decides to settle accounts with his parents one dinner time. A black comedy retelling of the myth that became a complex without becoming complicated.
In this zany tale, three storybook characters experience the dangers and temptations of life while trying to maintain physical and moral integrity. Three well-known animators collaborated to create this potpourri, and though each section was animated independently of the others, recurring threads of story and theme weave the whole into a unified moral fable. Film without words.
In sixty seconds, animated images representing historical, sports, dramatic, documentary and animation films are woven together to illustrate the National Film Board's journey through fifty years of innovative filmmaking.
Marielle Guyot uses her computer skills with great artistic sensibility to bring the sea to life, death, and hopefully, life again. This film was made as part of the second edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
This experimental animation film examines society's deification of architecture and urbanization in the modern world and the impact on our relationship to nature. This film was made with the NFB Hothouse program for emerging filmmakers.
