JAPAN MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL

PARTICIPATION IN OVERSEAS MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL

Screening Program

The Medium as Somatic Impulse- Drawing Animations


The word animation derives from the Latin anima, spirit, and means to breathe life into lifeless drawings and make them move. This program features drawing animation as the first impulse of expression, examining its avant-garde forms across the Entertainment and Animation Divisions.


息ができない
I Can't Breathe

KIHATA Sayaka(Japan)

Animation Division 2015 Jury Selections8 min.09sec.
Animated short film

This sand animation uses the motif of water to interweave reality and an imaginary landscape, expressing the emotional changes and uncertainty of the protagonist's guilt. A young boy accidentally drowns his friend while playing during a school swimming class, after which he is tormented by guilt and the accusing stares of his peers. Gradually he is drowned by the water that rises all around him, leaving him alone in the deep underwater.


Erlking
Erlking

Georges SCHWIZGEBEL (Switzerland)

Animation Division 2015 Jury Selections5 min.30 sec.
Animated short film

Based on GOETHE's poem Erlking and its musical rendition by SCHUBERT and LISZT. A father rides with his ill son through the forest. The sick child thinks he sees the Erlking, who both charms and frightens him. The intention behind this short film is to substitute words with images and to accentuate, the four voices within GOETHE's poem: the narrator, the king, the child and the father.


Sea Child
Sea Child

Minha KIM / Jacob THOMAS / Islay BELL-WEBB(South Korea / France / United Kingdom)

Animation Division 2015 Jury Selections7 min.24 sec.
Animated short film

This work is the story of a young girl called Sora, who discovers her sexuality in a dark and oppressive world. On the verge of womanhood, Sora is awoken by a nightmare and decides to follow a group of men into the city in the hope of finding her mom. The animation was created using stop motions hand-painted with calligraphy ink in order to express Sora’s fear and the nuances of character movements.


A Family Story
A Family Story

UESHIMA Shiro / ASAI Yuki / KANO Akira / KANNO Satoko / AIHARA Sachie / audioforce / IZUMIDA Takeshi / TEKKEN
(Japan)

Entertainment Division 2014 Jury Selections9 min.45 sec.
Video work

This animation was made to celebrate 140 years since the founding of the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. It took a flipbook manga by TEKKEN and printed it cell by cell on a newspaper printer, filming this in real time. The family-themed scenes were designed to make young people want to return to their hometowns, portraying how regional newspapers can connect parents and children living separately in cities and the provinces.


*Anzen unten no shiori* (Safe Driving Guide)
*Anzen unten no shiori* (Safe Driving Guide)

AC-bu(ADACHI Toru / ITAKURA Shunsuke)(Japan)

Entertainment Division 2014 Jury Selections6 min.49 sec.
Performance

This is a high-speed kamishibai (Japanese storytelling with a series of pictures), featuring two performers using over 20 sketchbooks in rapid fire. The story is similar to television police documentaries, and employs various tricks and techniques to bring the filmic appeal of the genre and even the sense of speed in the car chases to brilliant analog life.


やますき、やまざき
YAMASUKI YAMAZAKI

Shishi YAMAZAKI (Japan)

Animation Division 2013 Jury Selections2 min. 22 sec.
Animated short film

When you feel delight, your joy feeds into itself making you forget the reason, and as the feeling passes through your entire body it embraces even sorrow and madness, before blossoming… Created as the end of 2013 approaches, this work expresses “innocent elation” at the opening of curtains onto a new year, coupled with the “joy so great that it makes you forget its reason” felt everyday by the creator.


Remember me
Remember me

HASHIJI Misuzu / Remember me production team (SAKAI Yosuke, Representative) (Japan)

Entertainment Division 2014 Jury Selections5 min. 13 sec.
Video work

This is a music video for the song Remember me by Quruli, produced by HASHIJI Misuzu and CHIMASKI. It animates the life of a girl through a series of pictures drawn by pencil on a white piece of paper, which are then erased, with new pictures drawn over the top while traces of the previous ones are still visible. The story uses the familiar material of eraser shavings and unfolds in accord with the world of the music.