The National Film Board of Canada invades the 2010 Hiroshima International Animation Festival with six films in competition.
According to the NFB's press release, Theodore Ushev's two films, Lipsett Diaries and Drux Flux; Jeu de forme by Malcolm Sutherland; The Spine by Chris Landreth (click the link for an exclusive interview); Runaway by Cordell Barker and Retouches by Georges Schwizgebel are all competing for the Grand Prix at the Festival. Ushev will travel to Hiroshima for the festival, and Internet users can stay in touch with him via his blog.
Norman McLaren's Neighbours, Bruce Alcock's Vive la Rose Screen at Hiroshima Animation Fest
In addition, no fewer than 11 NFB films will be screened during the festival at various special presentations. Norman McLaren's Oscar-winning short Neighbours will screen at the opening gala. Bruce Alcock's Vive la Rose,which was co-produced with Canadian company Global Mechanic, screens at the Best of the World program, along with Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis' When the Day Breaks. Village of Idiots by Rose Newlove and Eugene Fedorenko, Richard Condie's classic The Big Snit and Chris Landreth's Oscar winning short Ryan – co-produced by the Toronto-based Copperheart Entertainment – are among the films selected for the Hiroshima festival’s 25th anniversary celebration program.
Theodore Ushev’s Lipsett Diaries – a collaboration with Ottawa International Animation Festival head Chris Robinson – uses a series of imaginary diary entries to follow the life of the brilliant-but-troubled Canadian filmmaker Arthur Lipsett: beginning with his solitary childhood and culminating in his suicide in 1986. Xavier Dolan narrates the flick. Lipsett Diaries premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival last June, and received a Special Distinction Award. Ushev’s second film Drux Flux is an abstract-expressionist piece that calls into question industry’s supremacy over humanity. Both films are produced by Marc Bertrand at the NFB’s French Animation Studio.
Hiroshima Animation Fest Runs August 7 to August 11, 2010
Runaway, by Oscar-nominated director Cordell Barker (click the link for an exclusive interview) uses an out-of-control train as a metaphor for modern society, and features a hot jazz score by composer Benoit Charest (The Triplets of Belleville). The film garnered awards at Cannes and Annecy in 2009. The Spine by Academy Award-winning animator Chris Landreth, follows a man and woman (voiced by Gordon Pinsent and Alberta Watson) who are trapped in a self-destructive relationship. Jeu de Forme, directed by prolific Montreal filmmaker Malcolm Sutherland is a playful creative exercise. Georges Schwizgebel’s Retouches (co-production with Studio GDS) is a stylistic exercise based on the progressive transformation of images through a series of repeated movements.
The Hiroshima Animation Festival runs from August 7th to 11th.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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