Tickets at $5 / 7 (conc. for students, NSFs, SFS members and Friends of The Substation)
17th September, Thursday, 7.15pm – 8.30pm
Venue: The Substation Theatre
Total runtime: 68 min
Session is rated NC16
Animations, cartoons, stop motion, claymation…
A selection of in-competition animated pictures in motion.
Short films in this programme are in-competition for the Audience Award for the top 3 most voted International and Local short films.
1) Share: A Tale of Two Humpty Dumpties & a Bird
Zhu Chuan / 2008 / 4min / Singapore / G
Synopsis:
Adapted from the classic household fable of Humpty Dumpty, “Share: A Take of 2 Humpty Dumpties & a Bird” revolves around a naughty Humpty Dumpty who refuses to share his food with others, and his arrogance and selfishness to those around him bring about disastrous yet hilarious consequences.
Director’s Statement:
Fairytales and fantasy worlds are an integral in our lives and our process of growing up. In my film, I seek to expand on the existing storyline of the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty”, and to explore the underlying dark themes inherent in fairytales. Furthermore, by utilizing stop-motion animation, I also strove to fulfill and realize the potentials and wonders of this medium, which has become less and less regarded in today’s modern age of digital and computer animation.
Director’s Bio:
Zhu Chuan was born in Singapore in 1990, and is a graduate from Hwa Chong Instituition. It was during his years in the Art Elective Programme that he discovered his love for art and movies. He has since created numerous award-winning short films. He is currently serving national service.
Contact:
zhu_chuan@hotmail.com
2) Anti-Gravity
Chow Lin Ping / 2008 / 4min / Singapore / PG
Synopsis:
The play on gravity draws a parallel to the pressure of conformity present in society. Like gravity, it is a seemingly harmless force moving in all directions, only becoming a strong resistance when we push against it.
Director’s Bio:
Aspiring animator from National Junior College.
Contact:
e-lp-pa@hotmail.com
3) Pulcinello
Gabriella Mesenas / 2009 / 6min / Singapore / PG
Synopsis:
Pulcinello always had a smile on his face. However, a hollow smile was all it was. He lived as a puppet, chained onto his master's hands, emotionlessly dancing to its master's rhythm. Pulcinello’s only wish was to show his true emotions, even so being unable, Columbine, the beautiful puppet that descended from the sky, accepted him for what he was. Yet, when everything was at its peak, Columbine’s time was up and she departed against her will.
Contact:
Bhakta_SRINIVAS@nyp.gov.sg
4) Story of I
Syarah Mahmood / 2009 / 4min / Singapore / PG
Synopsis:
The main theme of the story is Identity. RED exists in a world of Grey, unique yet oblivious to her surroundings. She disturbs their continuity; they do not like people standing out. In her distress, a red balloon comes and saves RED from the vicious Grey, and leads her on a path to self discovery where RED finally realizes that she can never really lose her identity as its in her all the while… or is it a catch-22 situation?
Director’s Bio: The Red Balloon Project. Our group consists of seven members, Phang Ni Zhen, Rosalind Sam, Syarah Mahmood, Stella Ng, Jingky Gilbert and Wei Linfang. Story Of I, our final year project was completed over a span of three months.
Synopsis:
HERO is a 2D animation based on the legend of a Chinese warrior king, Xiang Yu. One young tourist tries to follow the trail of the warrior king, and gets into a fight accidentally. He defeats every single enemy as an invincible warrior, until a tinkling sound of cymbals clashes, pulling him back to the real world.
Director’s Statement:
The story idea came out when I watched a Hong Kong film where the male impersonator took on a role full of personalities.
Director’s Bio:
Born in 1987 in Chengdu, China. Wang Xun graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Animation at the Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design and Media.
Synopsis:
“Synchronicity Series” is an animated series shot and performed in Little India and at The Sch. of Art, Media & Design in Singapore. It is a migrant artist’s interpretation of living as an outsider and an alien in a foreign land where conformity is seen as admirable and where the government takes pride in its systems of order, cooperation & control.
This 2 min video is the result of 12 consecutive weekends spent choreographing, animating & performing improvised formations within the urban space.
Director’s Bio:
Beginning her art career working primarily in painting & photography, Eileen Reynolds went on to work in the film and television industry. Along with shooting various independent short films, she was Director of Photography for the “Pow Wow, Gathering of Nations”, a video series distributed by FOX TV. Eileen continues to exhibit her personal artwork, consisting of painting, photography & stop-motion animation. For the past 3 years, she has been an Asst. Prof. Of Animation in the Sch. Of Art, Design & Media at NTU.
Contact:
ereynolds@ntu.edu.sg
7) Hush Baby
Tan Wei Keong / 2009 / 3min / Singapore / PG
Synopsis:
Overturning the popular association of animation with children's entertainment, "Hush Baby" depicts a baby's struggle against confinement and restrictio. The many expressive faces of a baby are brought to life with dark humour and wit as the film imaginatively explores a different facet of animation.
Director’s Bio:
Tan Wei Keong's animated short film "White" was awarded the Special Achievement Award at the 20th Singapore International Film Festival. He has just finished his BFA in Animation at the School of Art, Design and Media.
Film Festivals:
- 22nd Singapore International Film Festival (Special Mention)
- 6th Singapore Short Cuts
Synopsis:
When real war victims cannot truly be illustrated in films, still frames can be more realistic.
Film Festivals:
- 4th ruyesh film festival, Iran, 2008 (Best Film)
- 25th Tehran international short film festival, Iran, 2008 (Best Experimental Film)
- 6th picture of year celebration, Iran , 2008
- 3rd Bursa international silk road film festival, Turkey, 2008 (Special Jury Award)
- 20th Ankara international film festival, Turkey, 2009
- 5th Aljazeera international documentary film festival, Qatar, 2009
- 2nd Cyprus international short film festival, Cyprus, 2009 (Documentary Award)
- 3rd International short film festival Kratkofil, Bosnia, 2009
- 19th International Videofestival Bochum, Germany, 2009
Synopsis:
The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was the revolution that transformed Iran from a constitutional monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic. It has been called: "the third great revolution in history”.
Film Festivals:
- 3rd international urban film festival, Iran, 2009 (Special Jury Award)
- Kimera film festival 2009 Italy
Synopsis:
A short film about the aberrations and confusions of love.
Director’s Bio:
Ines Christina Geisser was born in 1982 in Naila and has been studying illustration and animation at the School of Art and Design Kassel.
Contact:
ines.geisser@gmx.de
11) The Slub (The Wedding)
Maciek Salamon / 2007 / 4min / Poland / PG
Synopsis:
Honorata is a newly wed, who wakes up in the morning after her wedding night and realises her husband has left her. She is furious and starts to wreck her house, destroying one of the walls so we can see what is behind it. She finds an advert for home-helping robots and soon robots are helping her with her chores. Everything is going fine, until one day all the robots to go crazy and revolt by throwing her body off a cliff.
Film Festivals:
- 2nd Northernwave Fest, Iceland (Best International Short)
- Stranger Festival, Amsterdam (Stranger Award)
- XIV Polish Animation Festival
- Lava Kulturset, Stockholm
- 4th Athens Animfest
Contact:
hrabiasalamon@gmail.com
12) Viola: The Traveling Rooms of a Little Giant
Shih-Ting Hung / 2008 / 8min / USA / PG
Synopsis:
Viola, trying to discover the world, puts solitude in her suitcase and begins her dreamy journey.
Film Festivals:
- Festival de Cannes Short Film Corner
- Moondance Film Festival (Best Multi-Media Film)
- Expresion En Corto IFF Mexico
- Hermosa Film Festival
- California International Film Festival (Best Live Action / Animation Film)
Synopsis:
“Nature on Its Course” is a short mixed-media animation about a careless hunter who takes more than he needs.
Director’s Statement:
Throughout my development as an artist, I have been exploring the relationships between people and their immediate environments. I am interested in social design, making change, sustainability, and education, art as expression and art as a problem solver. I have always been influenced by design, photography and critical theory and see myself using animation as a form of time-based media to communicate ideas and stimulate discourse. I am inspired by everything around me, from the sound of trickling water on a mountain top to the design of chipping paint on the wall to the color of my coffee. What drew me to animation is the inter-disciplinary nature of the medium. With the combination of the power of storytelling, it presents itself as a limitless form of expression. I am excited about the possibilities.
Director’s Bio:
Su-An Ng recently graduated from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. She received the President’s Media Arts Award for her graduation film, “Nature on its Course”.
Interested in experimental approaches in her work, Su-An is a multidisciplinary designer and animator who doesn’t limit herself when trying to solve her creative problems. Whether it is using traditional 2D hand drawn animation, 3D motion graphics or stop motion animation, Su-An is willing to explore any medium necessary to get her message across.
Su-An founded the Motion Sickness Animation Collective in 2008. This collective allows for experimentation and collaboration with other animators in Vancouver. Their goal is to refresh the artistic standard through time-based media. She also contributes to the Roy Was Here Artist Collective in which she designs graphics for t-shirts and other accessories.
Synopsis:
A surreal neon animation film by stream-of-consiousness neon filmmaker Jack Feldstein of H.P. Lovecraft's prose poem EX OBLIVIONE about time and mortality
Director’s Bio:
Jack Feldstein is a scriptwriter, filmmaker and re-animator in Sydney, Australia. As a scriptwriter he has worked extensively on Australian series and in Network Production for Australian Networks. His previous neon films have included “3 Months with Pook”, “The Great Oz Love Yarn”, “The Loser who Won”, “The Ecstasy of Gary Green” and “A Wondrous Film About Emma Brooks”. His award-winning neon films have been screened worldwide from Lincoln center New York to Rotterdam International Film Festival to Mumbai, India. As a filmmaker, he works only in neonism… a stream of consciousness deconstructionist, post-modern animation filmmaking style that utilizes appropriation and pop art techniques in a “Warhol meets Vegas” look.
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