Animation

| | | | |

South Pole

Sep 2011

2009 | Directed by Alex Cormack

Alex Cormack presents the Christmas tale of Kris Kringle’s brother Kyle, who hates the holiday after one year misunderstanding his present, an art set, as his parents giving him coal. Now many later he decides to put an end to the festivities once and for all.

He hires PR Penguin to start a smear campaign through the 24-hour news media to ruin his brother Santa. Kris Kringle, up in the North Pole, begins to feel the results, as his sponsors begin to pull the plug on their contracts. Even after friends such as the Easter Bunny come by to help cheer him up it looks like Christmas will actually be canceled.
Now that the smear campaign is in full swing Kyle decides to begin phase two of his dastardly plan! Will Kyle succeed? Will Christmas be canceled?

| | | | |

Insurgency of Ambition

Sep 2010

2009 | Directed by Anya Belkina

Insurgency of Ambition was conceived in the wake of short-lived US military successes in Iraq. Using the classic icon of victory—a Triumphal Arch—as a visual metaphor, the film questions the relevance of “victory” memes at the time of globalization. Operating on a more intimate level, it ponders the cost of unrestrained personal ambition.

The short opens with Zeus’s allegorical transformation into a Triumphal Arch, during which Athena violently erupts from his head. Athena’s association with both wisdom and war is oxymoronic, for what kind of wisdom is armed with weapons? She is Zeus’s mind disease, a chimera of conquest, all too eagerly revered and induced by the mortals. Infected by the idea of outward success, the main character is lured toward the Triumphal Arch, only to face its true, frightening nature as he gets within reach.

| | | | | |

Jelly Fishers

Sep 2010

2009 | Directed by Steven Subotnick

A family of hungry mole-creatures is saved by the generosity of jellyfish.

| | | | |

Larry and Roz

Sep 2009

2009 | Directed by Kristen Palana

Larry, a 93 year-old widower confined to a nursing home, remembers a time when he had more spring in his step. Based on real audio recordings from 2002, animator Kristen Palana uses individually painted digital images to imagine and recreate her grandfather’s first attempts to woo his beloved Roz. Set in both 1943 and 2007, Larry and Roz is a three and a half minute glimpse into one couple’s six decade relationship.

| | | | |

The Five:Fifteen

Sep 2009

2009 | Directed by Chris Chiusano

Inspired by director Chris Chiusano’s countless hours commuting on the train, this film began as a series of opposite-hand drawings. The animation created is a compilation of individual hand-drawn images that have been brought to life through the computer.

| | | | |

The Other Way Out

Sep 2009

2008 | Directed by Tristan Dyer

The Other Way Out is the story of how one woman escaped a 15-year addiction to opiates. Narrated by herself, she recalls the experience of her addiction and the use of a controversial method of recovery called Ibogaine, which is illegal in the United States. Her tale is illustrated through stop-motion animation and time-lapse photography.

| | | | |

The Wing

Sep 2009

The Wing
2009 | Directed by Seon Young Kil

When your dreams come true, what happens next? In this film an average circus performer realizes his dream of growing wings — what happens next?