Ferdy on Films, etc.

2008 Chicago International Film Festival

Shorts 2: Animation Nations

By Marilyn Ferdinand

Is it an exercise in futility to review short films, either animated or live action? Outside of film festivals, the chances of seeing any short films is slim to none—that is, if you’re thinking about standard film venues.

Of course, the fortunes of short films have never been better. We may never get those cartoons before the feature films anymore, but I’d argue that short films are more numerous and internationally available than any other type of film. The Internet has made distribution a reality for both fledgling filmmakers who want to go on to full-length films and veterans of the short form who have been producing high-quality work for decades. Animation specifically has exploded with the advent of affordable desktop technology and multitudes of media schools like Flashpoint, “The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences,” which is a sponsor of the CIFF and where I viewed screeners for the festival on wide screens using the best set of headphones I’m ever likely to clamp over my ears.

It’s important for cinephiles to support short films as the proving ground for the great filmmakers and innovators of tomorrow. I’ve enjoyed watching our very own Jonathan Lapper of Cinema Styles master the short form and get the interest and opinions of cinephiles around the globe. I don’t know if the traditional movie industry will ever truly embrace short films as they once did, but through virtual film festivals, websites, and various social networking venues, film fans will once again be able to experience the unique pleasure of the short stories of cinema.

Ferdy on Films, etc. is considering making short-film reviews part of our regular fare. We’d like your opinions on this possible new direction. Email us or comment here.

And now, reviews of the 11 short animated films that comprise Shorts 2: Animation Nations.

Hot Dog (2008)
Director: Bill Plympton

The latest in Plympton’s “Dog” series—Guard Dog and Guide Dog being his previous efforts—has our erstwhile hound deciding to join the fire department. After a brush-off from the fire chief, Dog chases (as dogs do) a fire truck, manages literally to hop aboard, somehow ends up driving the truck to the site of a burning building, and saves a damsel in distress. Of course, Dog fouls it up in the end, but not before Plympton creates classic cartoon animation that stretches the limits of the physical world and takes us inside Dog’s mind with visual balloons of great hilarity. I’m not always fond of Plympton’s animations, but his Dog series is a real winner and the type of cartoon short I’d love to see at the front of a feature film if that practice ever returns to the cinema.

Hot Dog trailer

The Black Cabinet (2007)
Director: Christine Rebet

Using a flickering, mainly static-image style, Christine Rebet very obliquely comments on complacency in a dangerous world. The aristocratic roulette players in the bottom half of the frame applaud with amusement at a puppet made to dance for their amusement, a scene that replays again and again. I was reminded of Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler, as disaster of the aristocrats’ making seems inevitable. I thought the illustrations were quite interesting, but there was little to suggest to viewers a “story,” and I found myself unpleasantly puzzled until the last frames of the film.

Kizi Mizi (2007)
Director: Mariusz Wilczyński

This crudely drawn animation by a well-known Polish animator, framed to suit the proportions of each scene and shot with intentional blurs, depicts a noirish love triangle between two cats who love the same mouse. The mouse loves only one of the cats, but the cat travels frequently; in her loneliness, the mouse repeatedly plays a tape of Fleetwood Mac’s "Need Your Love So Bad". She eventually succumbs to the seductions of another. If you can picture a cat and a mouse French-kissing, you’ll understand how distastefully weird this film can be. But it is important to keep in mind that the story is introduced in the credits as a bedtime story. When we return to the world outside the story, a delightful surprise awaits us. If you have the patience to wait out the repetitiveness of this overlong short, you might end up with a laugh at the end.

Procrastination (2007)
Director: John Kelly

This short discusses what the director/illustrator is feeling as he tries to get to work. Perhaps the favorite of the audience, the narration provides examples with which we all can identify, and the animation style is, in a word, cool. I managed to find the entire film on YouTube. See for yourself.

Procrastination in full (4:16 minutes)

Trepan Hole (2008)
Director: Andy Cahill

An inventive stop-motion animation that doesn’t have a narrative, Cahill’s short film plays with form as two ropey creatures move in and out of holes and tweak each other in a style the reminded me of some of Plympton’s transforming heads. Since the word “trepan” usually refers to holes drilled into skulls as an primitive treatment for mental illness, the creatures suggest “The Hearse Song” (“The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, The worms play pinochle on your snout…”). Trepan Hole doesn’t mean anything—it’s just fun to watch.

Trepan Hole clip

Stand Up (2008)
Director: Joseph Pierce

An angry film, Stand Up shows a stand-up comedian introduced as John J. Jones, everyone’s favorite everyman, bomb in front of an audience when he starts to insult them and dwell on serious topics. Pierce does a wonderful job of taking an initially warm audience and slowly turning them sour. He shows the bitterness behind every clown, eventually having Jones strip naked before storming off the stage. The black-and-white illustrations are grotesque and fluid. This is a short drama that goes for the jugular.

Stand Up clip

Stand Up

John and Karen (2007)
Director: Matthew Walker

This trifle has a polar bear apologize to his angry penguin girlfriend for criticizing her swimming speed and the size of the fish she catches. There’s not much to this short film, though I liked the line, “So you don’t catch whales. Nor do you need to!” The illustration style is clean, sweet, children’s book material.

Keith Reynolds Can’t Make It Tonight (2007)
Director: Felix Massie

The opening dialogue by voiceover narrator Scott Johnson is, “This is Keith Reynolds, and today is promotion day. Having worked at the company eight years, he is the most senior Junior Business Analyst in the building. He's been waiting for this day for a very long time.” My favorite short of this series, the idea for Keith Reynolds came from the years Massie spent in the corporate world. The insanity of the passed-over middle manager has been filmed before, but the animation makes it simultaneously more funny and more serious as the figures have a crash-test dummy quality to them. I’d love to have this film in my private collection.

Keith Reynolds Can’t Make It Tonight clip

Lavatory – Lovestory (2007)
Director: Konstantin Bronzit

This touching short film from Russia tells the story of a lavatory attendant with a secret admirer. The woman who watches over and cleans the men’s lavatory collects the coins the men drop in an empty mayonnaise jar at a turnstile she guards. As she reads a newspaper called “Happy Women,” she looks longingly at pictures of women who have a loving man encircling them. When she puts down the newspaper, she finds a bunch of flowers in her jar. Much puzzlement and craziness ensues as she keeps throwing the flowers out, only to have them replaced. The ending is sweet and satisfying. But do lavatories in Russia really have opposite-sex attendants? That’s something to mull.

Lavatory – Lovestory in full (9:39 minutes)

Out of Control (Fuera de control, 2008)
Director: Sofia Carillo

Honestly, I couldn’t make heads or tails out of this stop-motion animation from Mexico. The CIFF program says, “A chain reaction upsets the balance of a bizarre cycle.” OK, that sounds good to me, though I really didn’t see any cycle going before it got broken. The film has a deathlike quality and a very organic look. I liked the visuals even though that’s all I could appreciate in the noisy, but wordless, short film.

Lies
Director: Jonas Odell

This strong, disturbing documentary from Sweden uses live-action animation to tell three stories of lies and deceitful lives—one of a burglar who managed to fool security guards at an office building and steal checks and merchandise, a young boy who confessed to a crime he didn’t commit and who then went on to become a thief, and a gypsy who was told by her mother never to reveal her true ethnicity and who bounced around the foster care system and became a drug addict. I found that this film from a young, but already celebrated, director,had an interesting and appropriate visual style—linear, mechanistic, muted in color. Because it uses interviews with the subjects themselves, the film is very dialogue-heavy and laden with subtitles, and that made actually watching the film difficult. Still, Lies is a compelling short. I couldn’t get this clip to download, but maybe you can. l

Shorts 2: Animation Nations screens on Sunday October 26 at 2:15 pm at the AMC River East 21, 322 E. Illinois.

Previous CIFF Coverage

The Sky, the Earth and the Rain (El cielo, la tierra y la lluvia): A beautiful, meditative look at the lives of four people on a cool, rainy island off the coast of Chile told almost exclusively with images. (Chile)

Heaven on Earth: A beautiful Indian woman travels to Canada to marry a man she's never met. When she becomes the victim of domestic abuse, her imagination conjures a potent ally for her release. (Canada)

Happy-Go-Lucky: Mike Leigh's newest film centers on a free spirit with boundless curiosity and a compassionate heart who tries to share her feelings of optimism with people desperately in need of it. (United Kingdom)

Native Dancer (Baksy): Worlds collide as the magic of a faith healer goes against the guns and influence of a young mobster over sacred ground. (Kazahkstan)

Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick): A family saga involving domestic abuse, poverty, and the miracle of photography from master film director Jan Troell. (Sweden)

Sita Sings the Blues: Riotous animated comedy by Nina Paley tells the story of her own break-up through a reimagining of the Indian epic the Ramayana. (USA)

Snow (Snijeg): A handful of Muslim women in a small village in Bosnia labor in unresolved grief until an unexpected confrontation frees them to go on with their lives. (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

Beautiful (Arumdabda): The burden of beauty gets a savage treatment in this disturbing film by a first-time director. (South Korea)

Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in): An unconventional vampire story and an even more unconventional story of young love involving a 12-year-old boy and a vampire "girl" is emotionally rich, surprisingly honest, and properly horrifying. (Sweden)