Arnolds Burovs animanted this short about Cosette, one of the carachter of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. In the nove, she's the daughter of Fantine, she is raised by Jean Valjean after her mother dies. She falls in love with Marius Pontmercy, and marries him at the end of the novel. For the first few years she is raised, she is used as a worker and beaten by the Thénardiers.
This stop motion is so elegant and beautiful, but personally I prefer the original version of Cosette.
Trying to Kiss the Moon is an autobiographical film-poem, which contains poignant home movie footage of his life in the US prior to the childhood polio attack which forced him to rely on crutches and eventually confined him to a wheelchair. Dwoskin attempts to recreate his past by rendering impressions from his life using old film fragments from 20-odd hours of amateur home movies shot by his father. He stitches together his personal doc without following chronological structure. The clips are from both color and B&W sources, some with sound, some without. Some scenes are occasionally narrated by Dwoskin himself. His friend and colleague, documentary and feature filmmaker Robert Kramer also contributes comments about the events.
These events are liberated and interwoven like an inner landscape framing one life: all life-connected and film-connected by personal associations and rediscovered fragments. Flashes, reflections and memories are situated like remnants in an old drawer, box or film can. The images are elaborate and extend the film's intimate and integral form of self and shared expression. The thoughts and anecdotes are presented in a multi-layered display that becomes an extension of the self, and the self as an extension of film. The overall expression is that of a filmic selfportrait one that is reflective and open ended. This cognitive extraction of the multiple meaning intrinsic within images through the conscious manipulation of time is also reflected in Dwoskin's paintings. This autobiography can be seen also as a cinema of implication in which the uncomfortable, extended gaze facilitates the process of interactivity that is intrinsic in the act of seeing. You can buy Stephen Dwoskin 15 films box.
The Sand Castle is the story of the Sandman and the creatures he sculpts out of sand. Under his direction, they build a castle and celebrate the completion of their new home, only to be interrupted by an uninvited guest. The wind blows, and the castle crumbles.
Co Hoedeman’s films are usually geared toward children and promote strong humanitarian values: ecology, social inclusion, respect for diversity, peace. Hoedeman tackles filmmaking with serious pedagogical objectives but does not sacrifice magic and fantasy in the process. In The Sand Castle, the filmmaker leaves the door open to various interpretations. You can buy Sand Castle & 3 Other Tales.
Kurt Kren's Leda and the Swan is one of the most densely constructed of all Kren's Aktion films. Based on the poem by Yeats it features some unforgettable and disturbing imagery. The almost convulsive use of juxtaposition and the captured gesture assume a erotic sensitivity, though the action itself was primarily a gradual destruction of the erotic. The film retains the classical motif, portraying, for most of its duration, a young woman embracing a swan.
Kren's editing leads to many interlocking continuous shots; central takes recur like a leitmotif, circular motion and networking can be observed throughout the film. Kren painstakingly weaves the fury in front of his camera lens into dense geometrical figures. Shot/countershot sequences alternate, jumping back and forth between single frames, they turn the Actionist turmoil into ornaments, rigid geometrical patterns, the equivalent in time to what Mondrian used to distill on canvas in space. Appreciating Kurt Kren's films is not a question of dissecting his technique, recognising their richness of innovation or analyzing their rhythm. To understand these film it is not necessary to see through them but to feel and perceive them as real.
Henry's Cat is a whimsical cartoon series that follows the adventures of a small yellow feline and his friends. Henry's Cat is the typical cat, loving nothing better than to eat and to sleep. He has recently developed a cult following in student circles, possibly due to the similarities in lifestyles led! Each episode featuring the custard-coloured cat and his friends was narrated by Bob Godfrey and ended with a philosophical thought. Henry's Cat was the third and probably the best of Godfrey's three key tea-time series. Like Godfrey's other works, this serie reflects his irreverent, humorous approach to life.
Henry's Cat evolved considerably through production of its three series. Series one and two were composed mainly of 5 minute episodes animated using felt pens on white backgrounds, much like Roobarb. There was a theme change between the two series, with Peter Shades' 'music being replaced by a new miow based track from John Hyde. By the end of that second series, episode lengths had been extended to 15 minutes and, more importantly, Henry and the gang had shifted from felt pens to cel-based animation. The third series ushered in a whole new production style, presumably to break the American market. His third series is an extraordinary melting pot of wit and technique. The Godfrey crew expanded to incorporate a bigger writing team and a trace and paint department. As the series went on, the stories became longer and they changed to suit the American market. Not only that, but the style of the show changed. Gone were the white backgrounds and the rough and ready characters. They were replaced with a more colourful show, with extremely polished characters. You can buy Henry's Cat.
Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow) 's early materialist works anticipated Structural Film, the definition of which provoked his rejection of film theory and convention. Having first explored the physical qualities of the celluloid strip itself in Film in Which There Appear …, his attention will turn to the spectator in a series of literal films that question the illusionary nature of cinema through the use of word play and optical ambiguity.
Land explores the material qualities of celluloid film, turning its imperfections into content, in this early film, made from a brief loop of a Kodak colour test. Usually the imperfections of filmmaking are normally suppressed, but in this short they are at the core of a work: we see the sprocket holes which normally are out of sight, the dust which is normally incidental recurs here in patterns, and the image itself, the static face of a girl, becomes incidental to the movement of the film. The audience sees not just one but two frames of the girl on the running film at center screen. These holes, unlike the images of the woman, are much more variable and therefore flicker. Here is the essence of "deconstructivism": the marginal becomes center, and the center becomes marginal. This is one of the earliest examples of the film material dictating the film content. It is a kind of Duchampian found object, a looped test film that focuses attention on the medium and the viewer.
The film depicts five individuals living on a small platform floating in space. Each man is aware that the platform is not stable and in order not to fall to their deaths, they maintain a careful balance of weight to prevent the platform from tipping too far and causing them all to fall. The group works cooperatively to maintain a balance until one individual pulls a box onto the platform. Since all are curious as to what the box is, the individuals try to check out the box and their actions disrupt the balance of the platform. All but one of the individuals falls off the edges of the platform. In the end, the lone individual must maintain a balance with the box, that is well out of reach.
Originally the band Alphaville commissioned Balance to Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein for inclusion in their 1990 video compilation Songlines. I guess that the board represents the world and these men, which want to keep this box all to himself, referres to people's possessions and resources, and how if one part of the world takes too much power over resources, then other parts of the world will be effected. How many time do you ever think that if we shared all resources, all countries would be balanced and we would have no need for concern and worry? The short is so simple, so creepy and still so real. Its depiction of the absurdity of doomsday politics is equal parts choreography and Samuel Beckett: only Lauenstein Brother can turn a black comedy into a meditation on human interdependence!
Filmed in a garden through a powerful magnifying glass, filmmaker Marie Menken's Glimpse of the Garden is a simple visual poem accompanied by the sound of birdsongs. When Glimpse of the Garden was shown at the Cinemathèque Française in 1963, Jonas Mekas reported that the French audience laughed at it, embarrassed by the film's benign simplicity. In contrast to the avant-gardist gestures of many of her contemporaries, Menken offers a simple yet expressionistic view of a garden. This film captures the stumbling: the transfixed but rather aimless survey of branches, what’s grown overnight, which way which plants are leaning, lapping up shadows, gargling color.
Glimpse of the Garden represents Menken's interest in pure visuals and essentially feminine point-of-view. There is no why for his making films. She just liked the twitters of the machine, and since it was an extension of painting for her, she tried it and loved it. In painting she never liked the staid and static, always looked for what would change the source of light and stance, using glitters, glass beads, luminous paint, so the camera was a natural for her to try. Whenever she was in her garden, she opened her soul, with all her secret wishes and dreams The title is Glimpse of the Garden, and not Glimpse of a Garden, because this garden belonged to one of her husband’s former male lovers.
Crac! traces the rapid transformation of Quebec society through the story of a rocking chair. In this charming tale tinged with nostalgia, Frédéric Back takes us back to rich traditions swept aside by the relentless forces of progress and urbanization. The film begins with a chair being built long, long ago. As the years passed and life changed around the chair, it's all shown in a magically lyrical manner--with lovely folk music, dancing and visuals. In this charming tale tinged with nostalgia, Frédéric Back takes us back to rich traditions swept aside by the relentless forces of progress and urbanization. The rocking chair is a standard feature in Quebec homes. From one generation to the next, it accompanies family members from cradle to grave.
This short, like all Frederick Back's earlier shorts, include humor and the characters are designed in a frankly cartoony style. Crac is wholly pantomime accompanied by music. He wanted to create a film to celebrate a rapidly disappearing, if not altogether lost, way of life in Quebec. The film was inspired by a French homework assignment written by his ten-year-old daughter, Süzel. Enchanted by her tale of a trusty old rocking chair that no one appreciates anymore, Back put it away for safekeeping and eventually used it as the starting point for the storyline of Crac!. This film is simply gorgeous. For the time it was made, this was a standout film that begged to be noticed for both its artistic styling as well as the fascinating history lesson contained within. Still it's an epic without dialogue; the images are held together by a musical theme Roger slowly develops over time. You can buy The Man Who Planted Trees DVD Box Set - Nine Animated Classics by Frederic Back.
Inhabitants is an impressive reflection on the relationship between wildlife and humans.. About nine minutes long, it's divided into three sections in which Artavazs Peleshian intercuts footage of birds taking flight with huge closeups of caged animals, wet, dark eyes staring straight at the lens; the contrast between freed and incarcerated creatures is striking, dramatic.
The segments of animalography are intercut with shots of people in precarious positions, as the role of man oppressing beast is reversed, with the beast dominating the world. Again distance montage is put brilliantly to use here, the camera’s angle remaining static yet tracking the tide of the flocks. Movement is the sole emotional device, complemented by the score of music and indeterminable animal sounds. Most of these scenes were filmed by Peleshian and his film crew on location. He connects images together beyond narrative. The separate shots cohere and gain full meaning when the puzzle pieces are in place, and the picture is seen whole You can buy Mer dare.
The Street dramatizes family life. Based on a short story by Mordecai Richler, this short is set amongst the Jewish community in Montreal during the 1930s. The leading character is a young boy living in an overcrowded apartment with his mother, father, sister and dying grandmother. The boy is frustrated that his grandmother, now senile, won’t die, leaving him her bedroom. When she does finally succumb, he is overcome with feelings of guilt; the final image is of his sister wrapping herself in bed sheets, evoking the old lady’s ghost. Filled with colour and incident, this coupling of Richler’s narrative prowess with Caroline Leaf’s sensitive direction is a superb drama. Never losing sight of the central story, Leaf foregrounds the lad whenever possible, while filling the screen with representative Jewish immigrant figures from the Depression era.
At first she recorded a dramatized reading of the entire story, with the idea that in this way I would be true to the work of literature. The images would illustrate the text. I quickly found that it was dead as a piece of film when I duplicated the information in soundtrack and picture. She found it became lively film when she dropped as much of the text as possible, putting the storytelling into images. For moments the soundtrack and picture come together with the same information, but then they veer apart and have an oblique relationship. This short film spares no feelings and minces no words. In soft simple washes of watercolor and ink, the filmmaker interprets reactions to a dying grandmother, capturing family feelings and distilling them into harsh reality.
In this short, images of flowers, food, dolphins, and bears dance like figures in an animated cave painting in a child's head, heart, and tummy; the commentary is provided by a third-generation Hubley, Mark's son, Sam.
Parents and animators: both generate offspring, do their best to control them, then hang on as imagination and circumstance catapult them into the unknown. For Faith Hubley, animation was an adventure as much as an art, a kind of pictorial jam session. You can buy The Hubley Collection - Volume 1 and Hubley Collection, Vol. 2.
Ahndraya Parlato work consists of large-format, color photographs that explore the distinctions between banality and normalcy, and the ways in which people impose structures and ideals on the world.
Tango is an almost hypnotically complex work that requires several viewings to grasp completely. It is comprised of a single static shot of a simple room with wood floors, blue patterned wallpaper, and four points of entry: three doors and an open window. And is animated as a collage of live action film clips. Zbigniew Rybczynski had to draw and paint about 16.000 cell-mattes, and make several hundred thousand exposures on an optical printer. It took a full seven months, sixteen hours per day, to make the piece. His use to re-photographs film lends this film its washed-out, jittery quality, and accounts for the wonderful skips and bumps that give Tango its texture.
It begins simply, with one boy retrieving a lost ball in a repeating pattern. He is joined by others who also follow repeating patterns of their own. As soon as each new character has entered and left the room for the first time, the next one comes in with his own repetitious behavior. The film peaks with 36 people occupying its claustrophobic set. We get caught up in the combined texture of these erratic movements; characters pause randomly during their loops, sometimes passing through others in their attempts to occupy the same narrow space. It climaxes with a screen packed with individuals all going about their business in complete ignorance of the actions of the others, and ends as simply as it began. Tango suggests a need to transcend the unsatisfying personal routines of our daily lives. You can buy Films & Videos by Zbig Rybczynski - Part 1 - Media.
Ishu Patel's choice of subjects mark him as a pioneer. He has used imagery from Buddhist philosophy and Indian myths in his tales. Through a combination of visionary philosophy, scholarly ideals and innovative technical prowess, Patel has produced a unique body of work.
Paradise is a strange and fascinating film from Ishu Patel. This short is one long piece of art. Every action unfolds slowly and is accompanied by the ethereal music of Gheorghe Zamfir. What a wonderful combination! It's an absolutely inspiring and breathtaking piece of art.
This is one of my favourite shorts by Paul Driessen. His unique style remind me of Joanna Quinn's shorts for his delicate quality of his ever morving and wiggling lines, as well as by the fluid but akward movements of his characters.
The film starts with a bald, obese man in a bright yellow shirt preparing to eat breakfast, a soft boiled egg. As he taps the shell with his spoon, an english voice says "Hey, who is it?". Will the voice come from the egg? You can buy The Dutch Films of Paul Driessen.
By Adrien Missika. This photo is part of a photo installation named The Space Between. It is a basic representation of an emotional archetypal landscape (banquise, or ice desert, or pluton, or just a snow field at night).
Feel free to submit your artistic creations: artworks, short comics or panel strips, photos, experimental videos!
About
The goal of Mellart is to promote experimental and underground culture in its various visual forms: animation, art, cinema and comics. It's directed by Marco Milone. He is both a chess and a comics journalist (his book Fumetti was one of the finalists of the Franco Fossati Prize), a poet (Geometria del silenzio, Sulle orme della speranza, Nel labirinto del delirio) and a writer (L'eterna condanna ed altri racconti). He was editor of «Inguine mahgazine», «Be Side» and «Solaris», and of the publishing house Cagliostro E-Press. He also plays chess. He's in the national correspondence chess team. His blogs are: Marco Milone Poeta, Beautychess.
.
.
.
.
and 
.
.
