Animated / Brief Encounters · Bristol
254 films from 31 countries are recorded in the archive for this edition, with 3 award winners.
The eleventh Brief Encounters ran alongside the fifth Animated Encounters, together presenting one of the largest programmes to date. Martin McDonagh's Six Shooter screened in competition and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short — the festival's most high-profile alumni success to that point. Marcal Forès' Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! took the International Jury Award. The animation programme featured Ryan by Chris Landreth, Birthday Boy by Sejong Park, and an Oscar-nominated selection. DepicT! continued to grow, with Susie by Cathy Snelling winning the Audience Award, and youth filmmaking strands expanded with work from community media centres across the UK.
Read the 2005 Brief Encounters programme on the Internet Archive
Read the 2005 Animated Encounters programme on the Internet Archive
Annika has made out with almost all the guys from her high school. Passion, Bananas, Blood, Kissing, Death and Dancing. This is a teenage love short with a panda.
A woman's masturbatory fantasy becomes a bizarre folk tale of a voracious vagina that cannot be silenced. 'Susie' is a frank celebration of female sexuality.
Whilst out walking one winter morning, Jim, an elderly veteran suffers a heart attack. During his dying moments he reflects upon the man he was, and the experiences that defined him. 'Indians' being his final statement.
A case of mistaken identity plunges a young couple in a remote country cottage into a frantic race against time to survive.
A terrified mother calls 999 when her estranged husband turns up on their driveway with a gun.
A fast paced comedy about how to get the most out of your supermarket trolley.
No film called Oedipus will ever end happily. A hand warming tale of love, lust, incest, death, etc. Warning – may contain traces of poetry. From the makers of the Depict! winning Le Cheval 2.1.
Butt sniffing, stick fetching and squirrel chasing abound as a normally sedate suburban park becomes the playground for five characters hell bent on getting in touch with their primal instincts.
Shy Lee lives in bedsit hell, constantly disturbed by the payphone in the hall. It's never for him – so why does he answer it?
Two life long friends find their relationship is tested to breaking point when one of them commits a brutal crime.
An edgy, incisive look at the cut-throat world of bouncy balls and their malign influence on contemporary British life.
Kitty, who lives with her mother in a lonely spot on the moors, is plagued by the distant memory of her absent father and his gift to her of a dog – a very special Chihuahua.
A young child visits a magical shop and embarks on a journey of discovery.
A man and a cat take a comical look at the thorny issues of life, love and mobile phone envy.
Loyalties and friendships are put to the test when a group of traditional cartoon actors find their CG flatmate is getting all the work.
The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland reveals that he's actually an incredibly annoying man.
A film that investigates what happens when you get a tune stuck in your head.
The stylised, fast paced journey of a 1920s love letter from New York to Europe.
The British obsession with tea is the subject of this quirky animated documentary.
Two frogs consult "The Big Guide for Little Creatures" and decide to embark on a perilous journey across a busy road.
A unique shoes eye view of an illicit affair.
Two blokes discuss the state of modern TV, extra limbs and the enduring significance of 'Battle of the Planets'.
An Alphabet of human qualities and emotions.
A unique insight into the lives of three visually impaired artists. Through an evocative use of images, sound and interviews, this short documentary depicts an alternative world, experienced through all senses.
Buying property can be a gamble. Getting the right advice can turn that gamble into a sure thing...
The story of a young homeless man.
Imagery of a dark and twisted filmmaking community accompanied by poignant Gravenhurst lyrics.
While the Iraq war continues, a day's sightseeing and the features of a German hotel provoke a stream of thoughts about events large and small. The second video in the 'Hotel Diaries' series which relate personal experiences to contemporary world events.
Summer… bored… a chance meeting in the woods.
As the camera looks out through a barred window and the clock strikes four in a Swiss city, the death of Yasser Arafat provides the starting point for a journey back in time. The third video in the 'Hotel Diaries' series.
Documentary concerning the underprivileged children of Lahore and the issues of extreme poverty, child labour and social class that control their environment.
This experimentary short is seen through the eyes of Alan, a trainspotter. The film questions society's notions of normality as Alan reveals himself to be more than just a bloke at the end of a platform.
As the city awakens and their mother sleeps, two children take advantage of a fleeting moment of freedom. By the morning's end, this freedom and their innocence is shattered forever.
One mad scientist's social experiment – the creation and destruction of the less than perfect miniature village.
A story of how one person's boundaries break when they're in pain. Pam infiltrates hospitals posing as a caring daughter, where she torments dying frail men.
A bloke walks into a pub… Six actors punch, kick and wrestle their way through the Wild West of an East London drinking establishment.
A lap dancer. A blind man. A tender modern love story.
Eight year-old Jenny comes to terms with the nature of gender and death as her transvestite father falls victim to a wasting disease.
A man decides to leave his safe house and fortress to explore the wide unknown world outside, only to find that it's never that easy to leave the past behind...
Fritz and Fred are two lazy nobodies who do whatever they want. Yet Fritz and Fred don't know what it is they want, so they end up doing nothing. But what if it isn't nothing at all, and actually happens to be everything?
A boy and his estranged father are thrown together for the day when they have a family duty to perform.
A delicate portrait of a mother and daughter's strained existence together in the Scottish countryside. A birthday celebration is hampered by a crumbling life that is held together by a daughter's love.
When Tomoko arrives in London, she has no idea that soon she will discover a mysterious secret hidden beneath the city.
Adam is a young slacker who buys a cloning machine on eBay. He hopes his clones will tidy his place up but he soon discovers that they are just as lazy-arsed as he is.
Eva is a young Jamaican who is lured into hard drugs trafficking with tragic consequences for herself and her family.
In the maritime cemeteries of northern India, the greatest of manmade titans are broken apart piece by piece using only the simplest of tools.
A 12 year-old Pakistani Muslim boy mistakenly crosses the mine-strewn border into India and finds an unusual ally.
The scenery is idyllic. Wild horses graze unspoilt coastal marshland. But the animals have to negotiate the recurrent flooding of their habitat during high tides. A mistake has fatal consequences.
One day, a five year old little boy decides to build a snowman. He puts all his energy and work and especially much hope. The creator is a proud and inventive knight who protects his snowman from bad weather.
A small carnivorous plant is hungry. Surely it would be able to catch one of the delicious flies, if only they weren't its larger brothers…
Man has evolved throughout the ages… Relationships, unfortunately have not. After being kicked out of his cave, Brog discovers that living a bachelor's life is not all that it's cracked up to be.
A man walks through a hall of mirrors where the reflections don't behave as they should.
The film is about the friendship between a girl and a cow. Their perfect times together are interrupted by a bee and some sneezes. An enforced separation inspired by caring parents pales into insignificance when the cow finds herself on another planet.
A penguin on the South Pole tries to get his letter to Santa Claus on the North Pole.
A man stands alone, with his peculiar physique: he has his head held low, looking down at the ground.
A tale of mixed up love and mysterious deeds. Hartley is an agoraphobic romantic poet in love with his goldfish, but does his goldfish have eyes for another?’ It’s not that’s that that there’s plenty of fish in the sea, it’s simply a question of whether they’re the right one for me.’.
A moody snapshot looking at the lives of three teenagers in a summer in Marseilles. The present, past and no future played out under the sunniest of skies.
Jessie wakes to hear footsteps inside her flat. Will she be able to confront them or will the monsters inside her head render her powerless? A powerful psychological drama about the nature of depression and what it means to be truly alive.
Two children in a tree house perform top-secret experiments. But even science can’t help them make sense of the loss of their best friend.
There was once a hotel in the mountains that was so popular with guests, the Manager decided to extend it. Yet still it remained full. The Manager continued to extend it, until eventually it became infinitely large. One day much to his surprise, no spare rooms could be found in his now infinite hotel. All the mathematical calculations, which he normally relied on to find the rooms, just wouldn’t work...
A typist gets artistic.
The glass elevator at the luxurious hotel Marriott Marquis in New York brings you to "heaven"...
A series of encounters on the city streets leads to a violent confrontation.
In an apocalyptic city a small Robot jumps from a bridge and loses his head.
One man, one coffee, one balloon.
What goes on behind a movie snog?
A group of foxes on the hunt...
A playful tale of how one's desire can be overwhelming.
An office worker makes ever more radical efforts to transform the routine of his life.
The spark has gone out of their marriage. That's when the butler might come in handy.
The story is set on a very hot day; it's all about a conehead and a runaway ice cream van.
The story of a bald man's attempt to seduce his neighbour, the jazz singing bearded lady.
A director and his stunt driver attempt to film a spectacular car chase. However when a strange cat interferes in the creative process things spiral out of control.
This musical shows how a crazy conquistador's crew tries to find the hideout of the famous pirate Hernando.
Somewhere in the limbo… between elevenses and lunchtime… where not too much ever really happens.
Defending tennis champion Kurt Bruckner is struggling to stay in the quarterfinals against the up-and-coming tennis star Jorge Romeo. Bruckner loses his serve and his temper when Jorge inadvertently triggers a courtside competition he didn't expect.
A wild cabriolet driver with no mercy. (A social spot.).
In a cardboard street, in a run-down city, odd shoes are scattered hoping to be found by Princes. In this world of strange promises, fairytales become reality as our lonely heroine tries to find her place amongst the stories.
What does a modern boy do if he meets a rabbit?
A stick woman demonstrates her underwear.
A drunken dreamer imagines his ambling along the house he sees far away.
Unhappy with the lip-synch in a badly dubbed spaghetti western, a tiny child shows how it should be done.
A father and son pass time while waiting for the bus.
The story is about the obsession of a magic diamond eye which will bring its owner a dreamlike power to control babes.
In a time when dragons threatened mankind, there was only one man who fought against them all. His name is Tarragon and riding on his brave battle horse Black Bull he is on his way to work. But things don't always turn out as they should…
Hanging a painting on the wall, building a house of cards, doing the laundry and watching TV: utmost innocent and harmless actions in the daily lives of four ordinary people. But of all the bad luck, these people had to live next door.
Granny and her girlfriend Sharlene are enjoying a nice Saturday morning lie in when granny spies Sharlene's bloomers are missing from the line. Granny suspects their mysterious neighbours.
A group of ladies from Brittany in traditional dress compete in a contest to cook the Breton speciality of crêpes of an ethereal lightness.
On the surface of the abyss it's cold, dark and hostile, the meeting place for two toy boats as they battle to survive.
Overtime is a tribute to muppet show creator Jim Henson. It is a beautiful 3D animated black and white short film with stunning music and visual story. It portrays a dead puppeteer being serenaded by a mass of Kermit-like frogs.
Puleng struggles to take care of her ailing father as a terrible drought comes to an end with the arrival of rain.
An insight into the alternative therapy that is sweeping the west country… alleviate the anguish of the body and mind with 'aqua-porkline healing'.
Behind the curtains of everyday life an unnerving tale of pets and pests is played out.
What can you do with two hands that you can't do with one?
Good workers never work alone. With numbers comes efficiency… until one gets mad!
A story of a monkey who lives in a zoo and, as chance would have it, is forced to start living like a human being.
A story about wacky modern life with its everyday little troubles! All created with universal language: no words, only mouth-made sound-effects. Enjoy these smiling 'Blues Stories', there is always a solution — a funny and truly optimistic solution!
A little girl refuses to get dressed before going out to play. In order to persuade her, her grandfather tells her a strange story about his hardships during the war. Kortfilmfestivalen Grimstad – Norway.
Cecile thinks she's going to have a fun time with Pierre on the ferris wheel at the fair. Suddenly everything goes wrong. Pierre coldly announces that he wants to break up.
The story is about a robot living a quiet life on a metal planet when suddenly peace is disturbed by an extremely charming and very organic flower. This turns into a battle of life and death.
Pat and Stanley is a TV series for a French channel in which a childish Hippo (Pat) and his intelligent dog friend (Stanley) live their everyday life, full of jokes, stupid games and songs.
A seventeen year old boy dreams of the girl that he can see from the roof where he works.
Hermetic is a tale about human emotion.
The animated music video for Gisli's single 'How About That'
Karl is tired of the heavy burden of fame that oppresses him and he decides to liberate himself from it. He returns to life among so-called ordinary people, after which he crosses paths with fame-seeking Marilyn. Ordinary Karl is the force that turns Mary Marilyn into an idol of the masses. But not for long…
A self-defeated Marbled Rock Crab discusses his species' 120 million years of tragedy.
While their owner is having his siesta, two old caged parrots rake up memories from the past. This leads to unexpected consequences for the three of them.
Three friends sit around a table drinking red wine as drawings on a tablecloth become animated. Music video for 'A torte ou à raison' by the band Prudence.
Vent is a short comical animation about a man struggling against a storm. When the man suddenly meets a little girl, we discover that somebody is in control of the wind…
A fast paced choreographed skate film with a thumping soundtrack. Dance 4, Nottingham.
A cycle of boredom and petty crime forms the day-to-day existence of one drug addict. Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol. *First Light Award Winner 2004.
Liah recounts why she and some of her friends no longer go to school. Media Learning Centre, Northampton.
A young girl narrates her ambivalent feelings towards her grandmother. Smith & Watson Productions, Totnes. *First Light Award Winner 2005.
Rivalry drama between two local Turkish gangs – they play it out with a game of Okey. Greenwich Films Ltd., London. *First Light Award Winner 2005.
Energizing documentary made by Edinburgh school children about their anti-war protest. Pilton Video, Edinburgh. *First Light Award Winner 2005.
A thought provoking animation about a postman with dyslexia. Cre8 Studios, Swindon.
An adult filmmaker takes some young wheelchair users to a remote location to make a film – with surprising outcomes. 104 Films, Hereford.
Beautifully shot atmospheric silent monster-movie pastiche. Cape Cornwall School, Penzance. *First Light Award Winner 2004.
A young American girl arrives in Cardiff to trace her Welsh ancestry. Things don't quite turn out how she expects. Cinetig, Cardiff.
One cannot alter his fate; a hunter will always hunt and the animals will hide from him.
Korean War, 1951. Little Manuk is playing on the streets of his village and dreaming of life at the front where his father is a soldier. He returns home to find a parcel on the doorstep and, thinking it is a birthday present he opens it. But its contents will change his life.
Even a God might have to be reincarnated to get rid of a pesky fly.
An expression of the tense feeling when a boy at puberty expresses his feelings to his first love.
An autobiographical story.
A hungry Gopher hatches a clever plan to get a quick snack, but discovers that even the best laid plans can go utterly awry and learns that no matter how hungry he may be there is no free lunch. *Oscar Nominee 2005.
Why do dogs bark at such innocent creatures as pigeons and squirrels? What are they afraid of? This film answers that eternal question. *Oscar Nominee 2005.
A man makes a pact with a magician and swaps his shadow for riches. He soon discovers that the absence of a shadow can be a humiliating handicap. After fleeing to the far corners of the earth, he witnesses the theatre of shadow puppetry and learns the true worth of shadows.
This is the tale of Lorenzo, the spoiled and pampered cat, and what happens the day his tail is hexed and comes to life. *Oscar Nominee 2005.
A gentleman panhandler. One of the pioneers of Canadian animation. Oscar nominee. Poor beggar. An artist unable to create. God observing the world. Fallen angel. Arrogant. Shy. Broken. Not destroyed.
A satirical look at current political issues in today's society. As part of the Abu Dhabi Network for Kids, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden are able to elude US troops with their magical powers.
This film explores one of the most ecologically destroyed regions of Poland. It also has the highest level of unemployment.
The new television cable system, Broadband, purports to make people happier. And, it does bring most people joy, with one exception: Rune, an ordinary man living in a small Swedish town.
Soraya visits her 8 month-old son in a foster home. That day she receives the news that, given the fact that she is a drug addict, the baby is on the verge of entering the adoption process.
Vignettes from an extraordinary but imperfect life that a couple have created for themselves.
In a world where iron and land mix themselves creating unexpected cities, the wind blows life among leaves in the eternal rebirth cycle.
A film about life, love, and death.
In the middle of the tracks Nils pulls on the handbrake and turns off the engine. The train is due in three minutes…
"Lisandro has died, the one who was going to marry Lucia…" An undefined town… Voices spread through walls and the silence shouts out a legend, drop by drop…
A young lady is waiting for her beloved for their first kiss...
In one single shot, the film is a poetic and graphic journey through time and space, exploring Barcelona's wild irreversible destruction and reconstruction.
A witty documentary about an inept but lovable farm dog.
A mother gives her daughter a box full of old coloured records of children's songs. She says the girl may listen to the records, but never to the green one.
Life is what happens in between.
There is no birdsong to be heard anymore as a wedding procession drives past on this quiet country road, trailing in its wake a retinue of ordinary life stories, made up of pettiness and envy.
An adaptation of a story by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami about a man, already in turmoil, who finds himself further mystified by a number of women he meets one Tuesday.
Marlena is 16 years old. She has a strong need to meet her father, whom she hasn't seen for a long time. She believes he is able to solve all her problems.
Cows are integral to agriculture in Sweden. In fact, it could be said that cows are an important part of the Swedish identity. A moo-cumentary about a cow who refuses to stay in the barn.
A powerful montage of treated news footage of migrants who have drowned trying to reach a better life, set to a haunting folk-song.
A castaway on a small island tries to make contact with anyone who can save him. Eventually he succeeds, but his cry for help is completely misinterpreted. This forces him to make a difficult decision.
In the North Sea a flounder hides in the seaweed. Dangers lurk on the bottom of the sea but the flounder is clever. But one day a net catches the flounder and it is pulled up on a trawler. It dies on the deck. The fish enters a new phase and travels on, though life has ended.
Both sides of the road are lined by piles of rubble and in the middle of the road – a huge boulder. Would the Palestinians be able to leave their town?
Justin must return a video rental before he loses his membership and his one excuse to visit Emily.
An Argentine writer, facing execution under a military dictatorship, is granted one last wish.
On a sad train journey home through rural Ireland, an older man, whose wife has just died that morning, encounters a strange and possibly psychotic young oddball. Please note this film contains bad language which may offend some viewers.
Henrik gathers some friends at a cottage by a lake, deep in the forest. How will these city folk cope with the countryside? And how will they react to each other, way out in the wilderness?
Annika has made out with almost all the guys from her high school. Passion, Bananas, Blood, Kissing, Death and Dancing. This is a teenage love short with a panda.
In Hungary in 1999, a bus disappeared, then turned into a phantom bus. Nobody drives it, nobody travels. The village people talk much, for example of Ferenc Ràkóczi II, a hero of Hungarian history… The voices and sounds of the film are real voices and sounds, recorded by the director in 1999–2001. Mediawave Film Festival, Györ –.
Pedro is hiding, watching the girls dressing as angels for the procession; he doesn't want to wear his costume. Pedro wishes a huge storm would rage over the island so that the procession would be cancelled. Festival Internacional de Curtas Metragens Vila do Conde – Portugal.
Simon has to drive his old aunt Mala and two of her friends, Lydia and Colette, to the seaside. While driving, he gets a call from his girlfriend Alice, which turns into an argument. Being the Jewish grandmothers that they are, the three women slowly interfere. This, of course, doesn't solve anything. Festival du Court-Métrage de Bruxel.
Paavo is forced to sell handkerchiefs in the street to get money for his bitter and tired father. At home Paavo escapes his harsh reality by drawing pictures of happier times and thoughts. One day three old ladies with runny noses give Paavo crayons instead of money for his handkerchiefs…and Dad gets mad. Tampere Film Festival – Finland.
Undressing My Mother is a poignant documentary that explores a woman's unique take on her overweight and aging body.
In the Dutch countryside is a farm. There are no sounds of chickens or cows. It doesn't smell of pigs either. There is no smell or sound. In the long, low barns live 20,000 white rabbits.
An apple a day is supposed to keep the doctor away...
A stranger than fiction horror story, based on true events that shocked America in 1970.
The dark and very disturbing tale of an obsessive doctor who imprisons a former lover in an operating theatre.
The horrifyingly hilarious story of a man who comes home to discover his family have become the victims of a brutal attack… and while trying to save their lives, bad things happen.
A woman's masturbatory fantasy becomes a bizarre folk tale of a voracious vagina that cannot be silenced. 'Susie' is a frank celebration of female sexuality.
The story of a man who bares his emotions, history, hang ups and desires in all of their dysfunctional absurdity, then leaves us to assemble not only his identity but to question our own.
Two astronauts find it increasingly difficult to get along in their cramped capsule. Can they reconcile their differences before it's too late?
A girl goes in search of her mother's ex lover, but what can she hope to gain from finding him? The London Film School.
A journey which explores the notion of home as a transitory state. University of Glamorgan.
The tale of a grumpy badger who just wants the world to let him sleep. National Film and Television School.
Travis is different from everyone else...or is he? National Film and Television School.
The simple tale of two farmers who try to overcome the day to day difficulties encountered on Doom Farm. University of the West of England.
An exploration of the intimate relationship between two people. As they function in harmony the film reveals a unique beauty in the small moments of everyday, even mundane life. Surrey Institute of Art & Design.
An emotional journey of bereavement explored through the eyes of an autistic child with Fragile X syndrome. Amy and Josh are drawn together through the discovery of one symbiotic item belonging to their deceased loved one. Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Our "hero from another era" discovers his miraculous gift. We go on a journey of discovery with him to find the best use for his new powers.
Six total strangers are drawn together at one moment, and their lives are changed forever...
Julia and Jim are dreaming of a white Christmas...
Peter is sent to a home for borderliners, where he is forced to share a room with a boy who self harms. Peter feels powerless, and overwhelmed in their silent friendship. He decides to escape with the boy.
Whilst out walking one winter morning, Jim, an elderly veteran suffers a heart attack. During his dying moments he reflects upon the man he was, and the experiences that defined him. 'Indians' being his final statement.
Ever wondered why one day you can wake up and you just don't love someone any more? This cutting exposé reveals all.
Sangeeta travels from India to England to join her husband only to find that the unthinkable has happened. Poppy explores the grief of betrayal creating a textural and evocative world in a deeply lyrical film.
A pleasant day's walking in the hills of North Wales turns into a nightmare as the forces of nature conspire against an innocent rambler.
Reception explores the significance of a spontaneous and abundant display of English flags on a housing estate.
One late afternoon a young girl decides to end her life, setting into motion a chain of events that flows through five random people's lives. How does the crossing of these people's paths shape the past, present and the future...?
The touching lifelong relationship between a ball and her owner.
Each night she follows her into Pitts Woods. Each night she waits. Each night she leaves her sleeping. A haunting story of two sisters struggling to come to terms with a night they can't forget.
If you owned an envelope that contained the whole of space and time, what would you do? The Space Time Envelope is a film with a beginning, a middle and an end. Just not necessarily in that order.
The story of a lovesick boy who plucks up the courage to give the girl of his dreams a love letter, only for fate to conspire against him.
The story of a boy who plays records to a girl in order to help her recover from amnesia and remind her of their relationship. As the memories start coming back, however, not everything is quite how it seems.
Lucky is a 10 year-old rural Zulu boy who is going to live in Durban with his uncle only it doesn't turn out to be what he expected. As a consolation, his uncle gives him a tape containing his mother's last words to him. Only now, Lucky has to find somewhere to play it…
Bob and Ellis are screenwriters with integrity, talent and the willingness to do absolutely anything to sell their movie. Over four frustrating meetings with film executives, they desperately rethink their pitch, willing to go to any lengths to make that elusive sale. But how far is too far?
In the reading room of the British Library, shy Jess falls in love with a gorgeous young man. Too tongue-tied to actually talk to him, she 'borrows' his library card details and starts to send him books, the titles of which spell out her feelings for him.
History of Art lecturer Annie prepares for her perfect evening, a date with troubled genius, Vincent Van Gogh.
Unable to dress, eat, move or breathe on his own Antonio's father depends on him. Late for school and with his friends gone, Antonio is trapped on the fourteenth floor but desperate to follow.
An obsessive classical concertgoer wants to be the first clapper at the end of every symphony and sonata. But when he inflicts the clap incessantly on his pianist idol, the tormented virtuoso decides to fight back – with music.
What's the punishment for stealing a toy?…a ticking off?…a jail sentence?…or perhaps your soul? After stealing a toy plane the Little Thief comes across a deserted mansion, where toys hang from the trees like overripe fruit. But he isn't alone. The toy demon is here – ready to seal the fate of the hapless wretch.
An unconventional and atmospheric film in three parts illustrating the cycle of life. Inanimate and animate objects contain and give birth to completely unexpected items.
Firefly is a Rapunzel-esque story in the folk tale tradition. A girl appears trapped with melancholy in her apartment room. Her long hair leads out of the door and away from the city and into the countryside. Here, a man finds it, and follows it.
A short film looking at four eccentric hobbyists and their unusual hobbies.
Heavy Pockets is a six minute animated film about a girl who loses her gravity. *BAFTA Nominee 2005.
Experience the glamour and allure of hot sizzling romance! This is truly the greatest, sexiest, and somewhat shortest love story of the Millennium ever told… Ever! *BAFTA Nominee 2005.
With food scarce, a recently widowed fisherman and his hungry cat must leave their home. As they prepare to depart, a terrible tragedy forces the man to take a momentous decision that will sacrifice all to bring hope of survival.
A story of love, self-sacrifice and murderous jealousy played out against a black and white background, that is both nightmarish and hauntingly beautiful. *BAFTA Winner 2004.
Two taps discover they can create a rhythmic sound from the water dripping from their spouts but are constantly interrupted by a third tap.
This satirical short/promo links an amazing sound track by 'PLAID' with a touching story that crescendos in an all out fight to the death — who can survive!
An animated exploration of the way food and floors are linked across historical periods, inspired by a Roman mosaic.
The nightmarish story of a man, some bread, and a very nasty toaster.
6 Goats fuses 8mm footage with digital animation in a simple and evocative manner.
Is size so important? A fantastic tale of a teenage girl who longs for big feet. Her parents disapprove of her plans for a foot enlargement operation and an old picture of her grandmother wearing huge shoes causes outrage. A light-hearted commentary on teenage pre-occupations with cosmetic surgery and perceptions of beauty.
'Didgeridoo' introduces us to Jeff's Aboriginal mate Dave and illustrates the fun that two naked men can have blowing a long hard instrument!
A music video for the song ‘The Library’ by Cursor Miner.
An exploration of the shock and awe of finding out you are expecting twins. It is an opulent song of love, panic, and lots of nappies!
Isolated from the outside world, all that's left to do is kill time. For some, the only way to make friends is to grow them.
Sketches of a dysfunctional world in which everybody has their foibles. A cataclysmic event could shake things up, or are we too set in our ways to change? *BAFTA Nominee 2005.
Jan and Brian drift apart on a sea of objects. Shiny wedding list objects tarnish and break. But can their love survive?
A very short film about the brief life of a light bulb.
Lonely Bunny has an unusual admirer whose desperate attempts to get her attention intrigue her. In this dark fairy tale, emptiness is substituted for desire as Bunny gets closer to meeting her mysterious suitor.
More than three thousand insects appear in this film each for a single frame. As the colours glow and change across their bodies and wings it is as if the genetic programme of millions of years is taking place in a few minutes. It is a rampant creation that seems to defy the explanations of evolutionists and fundamentalists.
Shot over three years on the bank of the Kopaszi dam in Hungary. This impressionistic film evokes the passage of time, changing seasons and decay in this neglected area. The loose rhythm of life is counterpointed by the sound of an orchestra rehearsing.
Ariadne is a tactile hymn of restlessness and desire. Fragments of coastline, trees, hands and a woman's face are woven around a central spinning wheel and thread. Bursts of music and the films accumulated rhythm suggest the cycles of renewal and reinvention.
Dies Irae is a fluid montage of a lifetime of travel. Images of roads, streets and train lines overlap; towns, cities and continents dissolve into each other. The proliferation of images and the ubiquity of travel threaten to distract us from our real journeys.
Grey is the moment between events. This poetic film depicts the period of inertia following a personal loss. The unassuming images of snowy landscapes and a deserted studio transform with the season.
American society is upturned. A Navaho Indian retells the events leading up to an apocalyptic disaster. Evolving around a trip to 'the city that never was', Los Alamos, the historic heart of US nuclear development. Part road movie, part ecological creation myth.
This beguiling film moves imperceptibly along the coast of Portugal from dense forest to open beach. The exquisite static images of flora are fleetingly populated by animal movement. The journey was inspired by the writings of Carlos de Oliveira.
A man is heard fleeing from an angry mob. Yet the uncannily empty streets show no sign of the chase. The aural drama contradicts the emptiness of the images.
Oana Felipov contemplates her performance and its possible connotations. She pays tribute to the history of performance art and muses on the representation of women, before sidestepping these arenas to do what must be done.
Observations at a seaside park are offset by a lyrical voice-over in this video diary. Questioning received notions the voice muses on the nature of being, apparently in contradiction to the summer idyll depicted.
Discarded sexual gestures are reworked in this enigmatic collage. Fragmented images of men and women, sex and violence are re-filmed and re-structured. The repeated images threaten to rouse hidden compulsive desires.
This is a captured moment: a frieze that refers to painting as it reflects on the media. An alienating re-enactment of Magritte's painting, The Lovers, for our time.
Legal Errorist is a performance of transformation. An isolated figure appears in the light and asks the questions "Can you see me? Can you hear me?" Compulsive movements and mutterings consume her as she struggles to define herself.
Love Letter to Myself is one of Kai Kaljo's many deadpan portraits. Here we see an empty studio and a white canvas while Bob Dylan's 'Just Like a Woman' fills the room. The film is a study of presence through absence.
Overture is a sensual tapestry of gesture, movement and colour. The abstracted relationships amongst an isolated group are intimate to the point of cruelty. The arrival of a new guest threatens to rupture the harmony of this house of exiles.
Image Description investigates the changing urban landscape. The relationship between language and image reflects the elusive nature of cities and their inhabitants. This double portrait, of the people and place, is an "urban operetta in six languages."
This work sits between performance art and social documentation. We observe young statuesque figures performing the changing of the guard at the mist enshrouded citadel in Brest, Belarussia. This national ritual is an endearingly bizarre relic maintained in the last dictatorship in Europe.
Reminiscences explores in fragments of images and recollections the Spanish Civil War and Franco's following dictatorship. Deftly interweaving archival images and glimpses of historic sites and ruins, the film evokes the oppressive vividness of these years on those who survived to recall them.
Et cetera... depicts the wars that have marked successive generations of Russians. The inevitability of conflict is slowly grasped as images compiled from a century of wars anonymously cycle before us as certainly as each generation matures.
Piotr Bosacki's refined film explores the constant movement of history and the way language affects images. An archival sequence shot from the front of a tram is repeated as an elderly woman recalls her ambiguous feelings about a public hanging.
Fragments of sound and image from Algeria are densely collaged. This flurry of impressions evokes France's colonial past and the persistent influence of North Africa on French culture.
Shoes for Europe quietly observes a historic operation at a Moldavian-Romanian train station. Passengers wait as workers in the snow prepare the train to cross the border. This hypnotic work is a reflection on the real rate of change.
Zagreb, the capital of Croatia in former Yugoslavia has been witness to great changes. This work is a bridge from the 20th to 21st Century. It subtly shows the changes to the city by shifting from vintage photos of the past to the lively present, from stillness to movement.