Within the world of animation, most experimentation occurs within short format productions, whether they be high budgeted commercials, low budgeted independent shorts, or something in between. The growing number of short film festivals around the world attest to the vitality of these works, but there are few other venues for exhibition of them or even written reviews. As a result, distribution tends to be difficult and irregular. On a regular basis, Animation World Magazine will highlight some of the most interesting with short descriptive overviews.

If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a clip from each film by simply clicking the image

This Month:

Prasavci (Premammals; Czech Republic, 2001). 9.5 min. Writ/Dir/Anim: Michal Zabka (Czech). Dir Phot: Tomas Sysel. Music: Ondrej Soukup. Sound: Jachym Dusbaba. Ed: Sarka Sklenarova. Produced at FAMU. Contact: Michal Podhradsky, Animation People, NA Doubkove 8, 1500 Prague 5, Czech Republic. Tel: +420 2 515 63 200. Fax: +420 2 515 65 203.

Vessel Wrestling (USA, 2001). 13 min. Dir: Lisa Yu (Chinese Amer). Voice: Yuki Terazawa (Japan). Produced at University of California, Los Angeles. Contact: Lisa Yu, tel: +1-310-313-4634, e-mail: lisayufreak@go.com.

Bee Movie (USA, 2001). 2.25 min. Dir: Gil Kenan (USA). Voice: J.J. Martinez (Spain). Produced at University of California, Los Angeles. Contact: Gil Kenan, e-mail: gkenan@attbi.com.

Interstícios (Interstices; Portugal, 2001). 6 min. Dir: Marina Estela Graça (Portugal). Prod: Abi Feijó. Produced at Filmógrafo, Estúdio de Cinema de Animação do Porto. Contact: Marina Estela Graça (Professora Adjunta), ESE-Design de Comunicação, Universidade do Algarve, Campus da Pehna, 8000-117 Faro, Portugal. E-mail: mgraca@ualg.pt. Or contact Abi Feijó, tel: +351 226172747, fax: +351 22086861, email: abifeijo@ip.pt.

Fetch! (USA, 2001). 4.5 min. Dir: Nina Paley (USA). Music: Nik Phelps and the Sprocket Ensemble. Sound: The Stikman. Contact: Nina Paley, PO Box 460736, San Francisco CA 94146 USA. URL: http://www.ninapaley.com/fetchhome.html .

Premammals. © Michal Zabka.

Premammals
The puppet-animated Premammals was created as Michal Zabka's graduation film from FAMU, in Prague. The almost ten-minute work tells the story of a family of rat-like 'premammals' who can barely exist in a world dominated by hungry dinosaurs out to get them. A combination of good writing, interesting character and set design, and nice cinematography work to make this a satisfying film to watch.

After a printed introduction in both Czech and English that sets the scene, the film moves on with English-language dialogue. Mother premammal tries to feed her four tiny babies but finds her milk going dry, so she shames her mate into returning outside to find grains to eat. When he returns with a series of serious wounds, such as a bitten-off tail, she finds a way to put a positive spin on things, all-too-cheerfully concluding, "We can patch this up!" The father's misadventures are told through an interesting first-person point-of-view shot, as well as the series of unhappy grunts he emits throughout the film. Mother premammal is the only character that is really developed (she is the only one who speaks) and it is her job to maintain the comic elements in this darkly humorous story.

Premammals was completed with the assistance of a Kodak Student Fund grant. It has been screened in competition in animation festivals around the world and has won several prizes, including the José Abel prize for best animation from Europe at Cinanima, in Espinho, Portugal. Zabka now works as director of the Animation People Studio in Prague.