La dissolution du paysage

Somewhere Real

Roads fall into the sea and a travelogue breaks against the landscape.

Studie Nr. 4

Experimental short film by Oskar Fischinger

Purgatorium

After his death, a young man stuck in purgatory attempts to cope with the afterlife.

어떤 꿈

A female hotel employee wanders around different guestrooms and searches for an unreachable dream. Wandering in other people’s dreams, she encounters a mysterious guest and hears a story about a woman who dances deep inside her dream and a dancing procession...

No. 11: Mirror Animations

Cut up animation and collage technique by Harry Smith synchronized to the jazz of Thelonious Monk's Mysterioso.

Studie Nr. 8

An experimental short from Oskar Fischinger

Social Butterfly

A socially awkward, neurodivergent youth struggles to adapt at a social gathering that quickly takes a turn into the uncanny and surreal.

Functional Block Diagrams

A synthesis of sound and movement; colourful characters dance and move in repetitive patterns to percussive and melodic elements. A combination of motion and music that is hypnotic and beautiful. At first it feels structured and orderly but as more elements are added becomes quixotically expressive.

Spheres

This animated short is a play on motion set against a background of multi-hued sky. Spheres of translucent pearl float weightlessly in the unlimited panorama of the sky, grouping, regrouping or colliding like the stylized burst of some atomic chain reaction. The dance is set to the musical cadences of Bach, played by pianist Glenn Gould.

Flux

Samantha is an 18-year-old girl who, in the middle of a move, experiences a flashback of memories and is reunited with her imaginary childhood friend, Flux. Between waves and cardboard boxes, she passes the farewell with herself, with what surrounds her and with the tide.

The Waltz of a Lonesome Pigeon

An experimental fairy tale about life, death, and spreading your wings. After Cecilia witnesses a bird smashing into her window, she begins to notice her body transforming. Her skin starts to peel and little feathers start to grow out of her back. Will she fly away or end up like that poor little bird?

Demi-Goddesses

The second essay about still dominant dark aspects of our modern society. It is conceived as a surreal anti-patriarchal thought experiment and raises important questions about gender, power, and social change, prompting us to reflect on how historical patterns of discrimination and oppression might be either repeated or overcome in a reversed gendered world. It challenges the viewer to confront their own assumptions and biases, and to consider the possibilities of a more equitable society.

モル

Yukari Nishihara, 25, earns her living as an art model and aspires to become an actress. One day, while she was out, she saw “a man's face about to jump off the roof of a building”, and since then she has been suffering from a peculiar constitution: she sees a suicide while on her period, faints, and develops a fever. The goddess of love does not smile on Yukari, who is unable to become a sweet girl with a nice boyfriend. The only things that can save Yukari now are her best friend Hana, who has a keen intuition, and a suppository that can break a fever in one shot. On the day of an important audition, Yukari has decided that this is her last chance. However, Yukari realizes that she has forgotten her antipyretic suppositories, and her eyes meet those of another soon-to-be suicide victim. She is in a desperate situation. What does Yukari do?

Macabre Metrics

A young, wannabe streetwear influencer dying to make an impact on the world gets a lot more than he bargained for when a shy but obsessive fan decides to help him become a star for his own gain at the expense of everyone else involved. Macabre Metrics is an almost feature-length, visually experimental exploration into the world of image culture set in Seoul. Shot entirely on iPhone with animated sequences.

Englouties

Máquinas de palabras

影

A political work in which Ko Nakajima opposes himself to the Vietnam War.

Black Fish

Darkness and light, as seen by VIFF’s favourite Buddhist erotist. Part of the TOKYO LOOP animation anthology produced by ImageForum Japan.

Woolgathering

A collection of interwoven images are threaded together by a string of unspecified women who roam their dreamscape which they are unable to escape. They are displaced, belonging to no particular point in time or place, and a disoriented sense of self pervades. Together, the film becomes a quietly throbbing organism of reality and unreality, and the gaps between an impending present and a perpetual past are frail.