behind the scenes

An experimental documentary/animation hybrid exploring likeness scanning, AI, and what that means for identity.

The Exhausted

Four puppet soldiers walk and make a movement inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Quad (1981). By visually adapting Deleuze’s analysis of Quad (The Exhausted, 1995), the film explores the idea of "The exhaustion of possibilities” through stop-motion animation. The puppets and the printed images slowly disintegrate, and the residue envisions new possibilities.

Séance

Séance provides one of the first cinematic examples of a flicker effect.

MARKS/MARKS

MARKS/MARKS examines the relationship between the mark making of optical lens technologies (writing with light) and the mark making of painting within the context of digital technology and mass data. The film maps the movement of painter Dr Harrison Waed See in the studio painting to generate the tempo and trigger audio and visual effects. Similarly digital image sonification and digital data sonifcation of still and moving images of Dr See were used to generate further noise and visual effects. Alongside this, the soundtrack also includes amplifcations of the sound of his movements and paint brush.

3 cortometrajes sin título

Mini Epochs

Experimental animated film made for the Palazzo Zenobio at the Venice Biennale in 2003

Consumido Hasta la Carne

Ramsés begins to experience disturbing changes in his body and mind, unsettling shifts that disrupt his daily life. Soon he realizes he is no longer alone in his own skin: the demon Asmodeus has taken control. Under this possession, Ramsés is driven into a spiral of desire and violence, seeking out both men and women to consume through blood and sex, feeding the darkest temptations of the demon within. As reality and delusion blur, Ramsés struggles to hold onto what remains of his humanity while Asmodeus leads him ever deeper into a world of lust, horror, and destruction.

Interior

Short experimental computer animation by Jules Engel

Mother, Oh Mother...

An experimental short film exploring the endurance of the feminine spirit against oppressive structures. As a faceless maternal figurine stands paralyzed in a crumbling room, a son narrates the voice that was stolen from her and apologizes for the world that silenced her.

Metamorphoses I

For the multimedia exhibition Tangenten I (Tangents I), Dammbeck and co-organizer, sculptor and painter Frieder Heinze had planned to collaborate on a film that would combine non-camera animation with 35mm footage of a train ride between the two Dresden districts of Radebeul and Pieschen. When the exhibition was banned in 1978, Heinze turned to other projects, but Dammbeck continued working on the film by himself. Metamorphoses I—the first experimental film ever to be shown publicly in East Germany—marks the filmic beginning of Dammbeck’s long-term art project the Herakles-Konzept (Hercules Concept).

Spectral Ascension

Music by Byron Westbrook, 16mm film by Paul Clipson.

O/S

Taking inspiration from 20th-century avant-garde experiments in graphical sound generation, the entire image in O/S functions as an optical soundtrack. Abstract motion becomes sound.

Stitched Together

An experimental hand-stitched short film, exploring the feelings of gender dysphoria experienced by transgender people.

Rhythm

A comfortable rhythm composed of light and shadow. Director Ogino-style absolute movie which freely manipulates geometric figures.

Theophany

a young timid boy who is doubtful about faith and religion is beaten by curiosity and ends up wandering into a peculiar church and encountering a celestial yet godlike girl.

Rumble

Featuring indigenous women of various generations, Pidikwe integrates traditional and contemporary dance in an audiovisual whirlwind that straddles the border between film and performance, somewhere between the past and the future.

Whereabouts

Whereabouts is a riso-printed animated short that follows a woman’s journey through New York City, unfolding through small, intimate moments. From sunrise to sunset, Whereabouts becomes an observation on presence, connection, and the quiet magic of simply moving through the world.

Keratin

Keratin is a collaboration with the London Sinfionetta, visually responding to Gavin Higgins' Seven Welsh Folk Songs: I. Dacw 'Nghariad i. The film tells the journey of a mating of elements, two bodies grieve over a lost third: a child separated from their womb. The three bodies bound by their keratin, regain connection in a wombic journey which spiritually networks the three into a fused collective body.

Pig's Inferno

Kaito lost his sister who was his lover in his childhood. He severed all contact with the outer world for twenty years and devoted his time to writing down memories of his sister. One day, a week before the manuscript is to be completed, a woman visits his room. She burns all his papers and takes him to the city to cut him off from his memories. Nevertheless, Kaito cannot stop writing about his sister. The woman decides to lead him on a journey to ultimate hell.

Smoke

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo mesmerizes the people in his village with his magical gift for spinning wild tales with origami. When he accidentally summons an evil spirit seeking vengeance, Kubo is forced to go on a quest to solve the mystery of his fallen samurai father and his mystical weaponry, as well as discover his own magical powers.

Hi Stranger

I made this film especially for you. I needed to check in with you. I needed to tell you how I feel.

Sing: Thriller

Buster Moon dreams up a star-studded spectacle set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in this animated short featuring characters from the hit "Sing" films.

The Boxtrolls

An orphaned boy raised by underground creatures called Boxtrolls comes up from the sewers and out of his box to save his family and the town from the evil exterminator, Archibald Snatcher.

The Brave Little Toaster

A group of dated appliances, finding themselves stranded in a summer home that their family had just sold, decide to seek out their eight year old 'master'.

Early to Bed

Donald has to get up early, but everything seems to be working to keep him awake. His loudly ticking alarm clock resists several attempts to quiet it. Donald ultimately swallows it; the glow-in-the-dark dial can be seen through his feathers. Then his folding bed folds up on him. Springs start popping out of it; Donald builds an elaborate framework to hold it down. Finally, enough of the clock reassembles itself to sound the alarm and night is over.

Day & Night

When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other's unique qualities--and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world-the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.

The House

Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house in this animated dark comedy.

Fast Film

Bits of found film and different types of animation illustrate a classic chase scene scenario: A woman is abducted and a man comes to her rescue, but during their escape they find themselves in the enemy's secret headquarters.

Mike's New Car

Mike discovers that being the top-ranking laugh collector at Monsters, Inc. has its benefits – in particular, earning enough money to buy a six-wheel-drive car that's loaded with gadgets. That new-car smell doesn't last long enough, however, as Sulley jump-starts an ill-fated road test that teaches Mike the true meaning of buyer's remorse.

Despicable Me 2

Gru is recruited by the Anti-Villain League to help deal with a powerful new super criminal.

Trouble

A pampered dog named Trouble must learn to live in the real world while trying to escape from his former owner's greedy children and must learn how to survive on the big-city streets.

Afro Samurai: Resurrection

Afro Samurai avenged his father and found a life of peace. But the legendary master is forced back into the game by a beautiful and deadly woman from his past. The sparks of violence dropped along Afro’s bloody path now burn out of control – and nowhere are the flames of hatred more intense than in the eyes of Sio.

Luxo Jr.

A baby lamp finds a ball to play with and it's all fun and games until the ball bursts. Just when the elder Luxo thinks his kid will settle down for a bit, Luxo Jr. finds a ball ten times bigger.

Minions & More Volume 1

This collection of 10 short films produced by Illumination includes: From the "Despicable Me" franchise: Puppy (2013); Minion Scouts (2019); Training Wheels (2013); The Secret Life of Kyle (2017); Santa's Little Helpers (2019). From the "Grinch" franchise: The Dog Days of Winter (2019). From the "Secret Life of Pets" franchise: Norman Television (2016); Weenie (2016). From the "Sing" franchise: Love at First Sight (2017). From the "Lorax" franchise: Forces of Nature (2012).

Cars Toon Mater's Tall Tales

Mater the tow truck travels from country to country as he retells his infamous but unbelievable stories.

Monster Family

The Wishbone family are far from happy. In an attempt to reconnect as a family, they plan a fun night out. However, the plan backfires when they are cursed and all turned into Monsters.

Panic in the Mailroom

Two Minions are busy at work in the mailroom. One of them, bored, decides to throw a box of expired PX-41 samples into its designated chute.

How to Play Baseball

Goofy shows us the national pastime. After a brief overview, we have a demonstration of the many possible pitches. On to the World Series, where we go through an eventful inning, culminating in a baseball that disintegrates when being hit.

Far from the Tree

On an idyllic beach in the Pacific Northwest, curiosity gets the better of a young raccoon whose frustrated parent attempts to keep them both safe.