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In this autobiographical animated short, Elise Simard crafts the story of a young girl seeking self-discovery and rebirth. Drifting between real and imagined events, the film uses time-lapse photography with ink and pastels, creating a haunting, compassionate exploration of addiction and existence.
The art of M.C. Escher (Dutch printmaker) never fails to facinate and astound. M.C. Escher: Sky and Water 1/M.C. Escher : l'air et l'eau 1 mixes traditional and computer animation -- accompanied by a stunning soundtrack -- to playfully explore and deconstruct the optical illusion within one of the artist's most famous works. A fitting homage to a master on the 100th anniversary of his birth. A film without words.
Perhaps the only film whose content is totally based on the musical form known as canon. The first sequence is a simple demonstration of the canon "Frere Jacques" where four cubes dance and combine with one another on a checkerboard. The second sequence show four little human-like figures dancing in space. The third and most elaborate sequence shows a human going through several strange gesticulations. Through multiple printing we realize that the man, as in the previous sequences, is part of a visual canon and is making the gestures to himself. As we hear variations on the canonic theme so too do we witness visual variations: a woman and cat enters the canon. To show the musical technique of inversion, the image of the man is printed upside down.
The first of a trilogy, this animated media film embraces novel production and broadcasting methods to embrace a non-narrative, open form. FOREIGN BODIES was created using video light painting and modern medical imaging (CT, MRI, cryosection), generating a mythical landscape of transparent bodies, and instilling a sense of strangeness that our own bodies can sometimes inspire.
An animated documentary about the need for price controls and rationing in Canada during the immediate post-World War II period.
This brief animated film was designed to promote the remodelling of old clothing as part of the World War II effort.
Taqralik Partridge asks what if every language that had been lost to English — every word, every syllable — grew up out of the ground in flowers? Taqralik’s grandmother’s Scottish Gaelic and her father’s Inuktitut unfold in memories of her family, of pain, and of love.
A summer in the life of a mother and her two children. Précis of the Everyday is a tender look at the memory, passing time, imagination and poetry that make every day a unique experience. In her desire to “record every moment”, the mother is humbled by how much escapes her.
National Film Board of Canada and staff wish a Happy Birthday to Annecy Festival
This film deals with a Jewish family in Montreal, Canada as they care for a dying grandmother and the young boy who is impatient to get the room he was promised as soon as she kicks the bucket.
Director Bruce Alcock takes his inspiration from Chopin’s eponymous composition in this wonderful 3D animation, which pays tribute to the moments of beautiful chaos that can spring suddenly from the mundane.
It's winter in a thatched cottage, home to a family of teddy bears. The young cub Ludovic dreams of tobogganing but his parents tell him he's too little. He invents wonderful games to share with a doll that miraculously comes to life. This tender tale evokes the cozy relationship between a child and a favourite toy.
This is the story of the first French settlers in North America, who spent their first winter on an island in the Bay of Fundy. Despite overwhelming hardships the survivors, joined by other new colonists, eventually established Port Royal, the foundation of Acadia and the Acadian people.
A mathematical play on one repeated movement. It imparts a sense of possibilities: that something simple can produce complex and unexpected patterns. As with an atom, the variety of possibilities from a base movement is potentially infinite.
One of Lotte Reiniger's very last animated silhouette films, issued both in French and English versions.
A deep dark stop motion tale by Frederick Tremblay
A psychologist attempts to uncover the mystery behind his teenaged patient's strange behavior and finds more than he bargained for...
A magnet moves on a floor. A moth beats against a window. A doll child watches the magnet; threads of metal filings gather around the magnet.
An animated short poking fun at selectively-bred mammoth sheep, whose out-of-proportion form makes them vulnerable to tipping over, and a very fat Farmer who tries to save them, with dire consequences. This film was made as part of the 8th edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
Christopher and the Bug is a heartwarming short film about a reclusive owl who is disrupted when a tiny bug moves into his home. He discovers the transformative power of friendship, empathy, and inclusion.
In Tulugalik things are getting busy. The village is building a new harbor to make room for the increased tourism. 12-year-old Maliina adores living here, but her mother wants for her to get a real education in the big city. As things start to heat up between the two, a mystery occurs. The fish has disappeared and soon the town starts to suffer. Maliina learns that she is the one who can solve the mystery. Facing her own fears and the unknown of the Spirit Realms, she begins her journey. But as she delves down into the depth of the sea, destructive storms strike the town. Can Maliina persevere enough to find and calm the Mother of the Sea before the town – and life as they know it – unravels?
This animated short poses some interesting questions: what if buildings pulsed, trees tapped out beats, or shadows could whistle a tune? Through the creative interpretation and animation of the city's natural rhythms, Orange orchestrates a contagious urban dance. This film was made as part of the 5th edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
A bastard satirical mutation of Gustave Doré's Divine Comedy engravings of the Inferno and those oversized "how-to" animation books that were put out by Hal Foster. SEE the hand of Cartoon Fate! TRY to figure out why Bob Hope's skull is in this film! Dante and Doré meet Disney in Hell!
A chapter in the life of Grigori Rasputin told through puppets.
Inside the Hothouse takes an informal look at this NFB experiment, Animation Hothouse, at its halfway point. In a handheld, gritty style, Inside the Hothouse gives the viewer a glimpse into the project and the participants' perspectives.
An animator dissects his own body, extracting memories, emotions and fears that will nurture his work. As he cuts into his skin, various symbolic objects recalling his past emerge. Reaching the heart, he succeeds in identifying the burden he’s been dying to cast off.
The dead and the skeletons, coming out of the ground, indulge in playful dance to the music of Camille Saint-Saëns, and rejoice in the terror that they inspire.
The Happy Place is a service that rents out rooms connected to a virtual realm that can be customized to any which way the user desires. A young girl frequently visits The Happy Place in order to live out her fantasy – a vast, beautiful world where she has friends who love and cherish her.
In claymation, the Ontario Censor Board meets to consider an animated short, which begins simply enough, but soon scandalizes the Board with the sexual activities of its two characters: a man and woman meet on a street corner, go to a bedroom, and soon are swinging on a chandelier. A dog joins them somehow, although by now, we see only the Board and its shocked response. The film finished, they must determine their rating: out come darts and a dart board. What rating will the film receive? Will the morals of the people of Ontario be protected?
Two lifetimes from now the world hangs in the balance. Dove, a young, enigmatic, gender-shifting warrior, discovers the gifts and burdens of their Inkwo (medicine) to defend against an army of hungry, ferocious monsters. Dove’s courage, resilience and alliance with the Earth culminates in a battle against these flesh-consuming creatures, who become stronger with each body and soul they devour. Inkwo for When the Starving Return is a call to action to fight and protect against the forces of greed around us.
The opera diva Bianca Castafiore spends a few days with Tintin and his friends at Marlinspike Hall, where a mysterious theft is perpetrated.
Like much of Sabrina Ratté’s video work, this collection for Undervolt & Co. explores the visual and sonic relationship between modular synthesis and simulated space. In all three pieces – Littoral Zones, Landfall, and Habitat – Ratté uses her signature modulator technique to intricately layer a series of moirés and checkerboards that bring depth to the otherwise flat surface of the video screen. Where others create depth through recording or simulating hallways and tunnels, Ratté bends the signal of the video itself to carve out corridors of an undetermined distance.
"Secret Weapons" is an experimental animated filmic essay that tries to work through the emotional and political confusion that has shaped the way I, and many other young Queer Aboriginal artists, relate to the world. — A.G.J.
A surreal portrait of homelessness.
A pathological detective story in which two doctors, working in an autopsy lab, investigate the cause of death of a victim found dead in his apartment. A debate ensues as to whether or not the victim died of environmental causes.
The bizarre adventures of the cartoon character Foska, drawn by 22 animators working in collaboration. Each animator worked on his or her own sequence only and did not know what action preceded or followed his or her sequence, except that the first drawing of a sequence is the last drawing from the previous sequence. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.
Frida, an 8-year-old engineering prodigy, builds an airplane behind her mother's back to follow in her Abuela's legacy.
A collection of one-minute cartoons produced by the National Film Board of Canada animators for government sponsors. Showcasing a playful selection of animation techniques, the clips include reminders about t4levision programs, traffic safety rules, and admonition from the Department of Labour.
Searching across a landscape, the tiny details of everyday life are revealed in this quiet exploration of everything we do — and don't— notice.
A story about two symbolic characters who sway to the song Alouette.
Welcome to a place where the houses have holes, tomatoes are ticking time bombs and snails wander the streets in search of a safe space. In Paradaïz, Sarajevo-born artist Matea Radic uses absurdist animation, archival images and her own slippery childhood memories to explore the real meaning of home.
This 1967 footage shows McLaren at a computer with Evelyn Lambart, Rene Pardo and two other technicians, followed by the animation test some call Birdlings. McLaren found computers still too primitive for his needs and continued to explored the optical printer in Pas De Deux, Synchromy and Narcissus. Silent film.
A documentary showing Norman McLaren working on the hand-drawn sound process he uses for his short film, Loops.
While exploring an irradiated site, a soldier will make a dangerous discovery.
Books are everywhere in Meena's house - in cupboards, drawers, and even piled up the stairs! Her parents love to read, but Meena never even opens a book! When her cat Max accidentally knocks down a huge stack of books, heroes, heroines, and animals with attitude come to life and pandemonium reigns. Meena finds a unique solution to get the characters back in the books, and nothing, as they say, is the same after that. Based on the story by Manjusha Pawagi. The Girl Who Hated Books is part of the NFB's Talespinners 2 collection.
A cross-hatched fantasy about nocturnal furniture love.
The West. A prospector is awakened by the sound of music outside his cave to see an animal band and a chorus line of dancing cacti.
Based on a Jewish folk tale adapted by playwright John Lazarus, this animated short tells the story of Shmendrik, a simpleton living in a small Polish village. Weary of daily life in his native Chelm, Shmendrik sets out on a quest for knowledge that brings him to a new Chelm, a place eerily reminiscent of his old Chelm. An amusing take on our tendency to romanticize what we don't have.
Oh dear! Princess Pea is so busy playing, she's late to Sleeping Beauty's birthday party and misses all the fun! The reading heroes tumble down the rabbit hole in a madcap adventure to catch up with a famous white rabbit who is also tardy! Super Why and his friends must get through the topsy-turvy house and past the Queen of Hearts herself to find out if the white rabbit makes it to the tea party on time!
Thea Pratt explores the exhilarating moment of a poetic dive. The movement of the puppet diver is influenced by Norman McLaren, Leni Riefenstahl and Busby Berkeley. Dancing light, frothing oceans, rolling rivers and calm lakes describe in photographic images the diver’s own stream of consciousness. This film was made as part of the second edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
Tintin falls into a dangerous trap after his friends are falsely arrested in a troubled South American country where a revolution is about to explode.
Meet Annie, a woman who, despite being caught up in the circus of everyday life, finds her balance. Using live-action footage and traditional animation, filmmaker Anita Lebeau takes us on a whirlwind tour through Annie’s busy world and shows us the power that lies in the small choices we make every day.
In this animated short, Frank proves he’s no ordinary rabbit. He's a highly intelligent "wrabbit" with a philosophical world view that affords him great comfort. Unfortunately, his outlook is challenged when the farmer's carrots disappear.
Norman McLaren instructs Grant Munro on the movements he is to make. The film technique for Two Bagatelles is pixillation, where the actor is animated frame by frame, as in the film Neighbours/Voisins.
A sleeping computer dreams of humans forms, transforming their digital data into abstract and playful shapes. Movements, emotions, and musical lines are added layer upon layer until the complexity overloads the system and the dream ends. Reverie.exe combines Microsoft Kinect motion capture and music-driven visuals in an exploration of the connection shared between humans and machines. This film was made as part of the 8th edition of the NFB's Hothouse apprenticeship.
Can a living person dream of a ghost's dreams and assume ghosts can dream? This VR project reveals a forgotten Indochinese refugee camp in Asia and tells a story about a dream within another. The narrative is based on an unknown Vietnamese refugee camp in Penghu, Taiwan, and includes a dream about an unidentified female victim from the Khmer Rouge period. Phuong, the protagonist, was a 13-year-old Vietnamese refugee born in Cambodia. In those dreams, an unidentified Cambodian girl reveals the story of Phuong's family by asking, "HAVE YOU EVER BEEN THERE"? But what does she mean by "THERE"?
Mum's calling, and Lisa isn't pleased. "Hi, It's Your Mother" is a shocking tragi-comedic stop motion short about family and blood(y) ties.
This is the story of the architect, Carlo Mollino, animated within the desk space of failed architect, Rhayne Vermette.
The work was produced using a pinscreen. With its frame pierced by hundreds of thousands of moving pins that act as analog pixels, this 1930s invention builds a surprising bridge between engraving techniques, animated film, and digital imagery.
Centered on a confrontation between the last monster bear and an Inuit hunter, Giant Bear is a chilling short that brings an ancient story out of the North.