By Jonathan Monovich. It’s always tempting to speed up the process and save money by using CGI, but I think we’re at a period where we’re drowning in CGI. Now, with the advent of AI, I think stop motion has never been appreciated as much as it is now.” —Adam […]
Connecting to the Illusions – The Flesh of Animation: Bodily Sensations in Film and Digital Media
A Book Review by William Blick. Despite its jargon-laden density, Sandra Annett offers some new insights and perspective into what is usually a misunderstood genre.” In The Flesh of Animation: Bodily Sensations in Film and Digital Media (University of Minnesota Press, 2024), Sandra Annett argues that digital media and animation […]
The Miyazaki Interlude: The Conscious and Unconscious Intervals of The Boy and the Heron (2023)
By David Ryan. Miyazaki moves beyond illustrating simple contrasts by creating relationships in apposition (not opposition), and this interdependency often encourages experiential growth for his younger protagonists.” Writer-director Hayao Miyazaki’s films are carefully planned adventures into the realms of innocence and experience. His abstract themes and dense stories have garnered […]
Small Town, Big Drama: DK and Hugh Welchman’s The Peasants (2023)
By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. DK and Hugh Welchman’s film, which recreates frames as oil paintings, is a captivating portrayal of the darker and most unsettling aspects of human nature, such as oppressive patriarchy, small-minded shared beliefs, selfishness, narcissism and jealous behavior within the constraints of a small community.” People […]
Falling in Love with Myself: Signe Baume’s My Love Affair with Marriage (2022)
By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. The film uses animation to delve deep into the complex tapestry of women’s roles in marriage and the harrowing loss of identity that often accompanies this timeless practice.” I felt like an inflated balloon trying to fit into a shoe box that couldn’t accommodate its […]
Recent Contemporary Protest Cinema and Political-Cultural Exoticism
By Hamed Soleimanzadeh. By bringing attention to the challenges of the surrounding world, exotic protest cinema encourages audiences to take responsibility against the injustices and inefficiencies.” The concept of political-cultural exoticism in protest cinema refers to the presentation and understanding of ethnic, national, and regional cultures and policies in films […]
War at a Distance: Aurora’s Sunrise
By James Slaymaker. In its intricate tapestry of storytelling modes and its profound engagement with the ethics of representation, “Aurora’s Sunrise” stands as a cinematic work that dares to confront the complexities of historical memory. It forces us to re-examine the role of cinema in shaping and distorting the past….” […]
What’s the “Something”?: Pierre Földes’ Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2022)
By Thomas M. Puhr. Based on six Haruki Murakami short stories, writer-director Pierre Földes’ feature debut is an invigorating curiosity, a much-needed reminder of the emotional depths to which animation can take us.” “What you see with your eyes is not necessarily real,” a character reflects in Blind Willow, Sleeping […]
Navigating History and Audience: An Interview with Ari Folman on Where is Anne Frank (2021)
By Yun-hua Chen. The biggest challenge was how to portray the last seven months of Anne Frank’s life into images that can be accessible to children without going graphically too deep in terms of what really happened. This is how I found the solution through a lot of parallel visual […]
A Surreal Soul to Sell: Jan Švankmajer’s Faust (1994)
By Jeremy Carr. Faust submits an unnerving introduction to a world defined by cumulative weirdness and instability, where physical transformation is a prevalent force engendering the potential for change….” From F.W. Murnau to Alexander Sokurov, adaptations of the Faust legend have been cinematically rendered by some of the medium’s supreme visionaries […]