Within the world of animation, most experimentation occurs within short format productions, whether they are 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.a

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

Backbone Tale (Une Histoire Vertebrale) (2004), 9:08, directed by Jeremy Clapin (France). Contact: Sylvie Martin, Strapontin, 6 rue Henri Feulard, 75010 Paris, France [T] 33.1.42.08.07.07; [F] 33.1.42.08.09.09 [E] sylviemartin@strapontin.com [W] wwww.backbonetale.com Distributor: Premium Films, 130, rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris, France. [T/F] 33.1.42.77.06.39 [E] contact@premium-films.com [W] www.premiumfilms.com

The Curse of the Voodoo Child (2005), 3:30, directed by Steven Woloshen (Canada). Contact: Steven Woloshen [T] 514.270.3563 [E] swoloshen@hotmail.com

Meeting Me (Wie ich mich traf) (2004), 4:41, directed by Angela Steffen (Germany). Contact: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Mathildenstr.20, 71638, Ludwigsburg, Germany [T] 0049.7141.969.0 [F] 0049.7141.969.299 [E] eva.steegmayer@filmakademie.de ]W] www.filmakademie.de

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005), 27:00, directed by Anthony Lucas (Australian). Contact: Deirdre Berry, Monster Distributes, Ltd., The Monster Mews, Rear 51 Merrion Square, Dublin 1, Ireland. [E] Deirdre@monsterdistributes.com

Perfect 2004), 3:00, directed by Sally Arthur (U.K.). Contact: Sally Arthur [T] 0044.117.939788; [E] sally@world of arthurcox.com [W] www.worldofarthurcox.com

A man, a dog, and a backbone search for love in Backbone Tale (Une Histoire Vertebrale). © Strapontin.

A Backbone Tale (Une Histoire Vertebrale)
There is a delicate art to the judicious concealment and revelation of information, and A Backbone Tale (Une Histoire Vertebrale) is an object lesson in same. The tiny star-crossed love story is animated traditionally with 3D elements, and takes place in a quiet urban neighborhood with a canal, a movie palace and a lonely man with a head pointed forever down at the pavement. The man walks through his neighborhood unable to see trees or sky, endlessly inspecting his shoes as he makes his way to his third-story apartment.

His dog greets him and he takes a look at his mail; there are some X-rays, confirming what he’d already guessed, that not only does his neck turn sharply perpendicular from his spine, there’s a little crossbar of bone preventing straightening. Depressed, he turns instead to his movie magazine. In front of the cinema across the street, a cardboard cutout of a pretty lady beckons patrons inside. He steals it, playing out imaginary movie-lover poses as he takes her passionately in his arms and tries to plant a kiss on her mug.

Sadly the angles don’t work and first he bends, then breaks the cardboard girl’s head completely off her body. He goes to sleep in the usual way, sitting up with his pillow hanging from the wall, unaware that someone has moved into an apartment one floor below him.

The following morning the first reveal is made, as the pet bird of the new lodger flies up out of her second-story window and lands on the depressed man’s third-story window, then returns to her owner — a woman who, wouldn’t you know it, has a similar but exactly opposite neck condition and can only look straight up. In a montage of cross-cut scenes, we follow them both through their daily routines as again and again they casually miss each other — he taking the stairs, she taking the elevator; he fishing in the canal while she gazes up at a string of balloons. When, at last, the anxious pet bird drives them both to stick their heads out the window at once, they finally see each other, and the bloom of potential love bursts onto their faces.

Only then does the story deliver its diabolical reveal of something the director has coyly hidden thus far. The vignette doesn’t go so far as to cynically punish the viewer, but this is a microscopic version of perennially great gotcha pictures like Deathtrap where your first viewing is something you can never get back. You’ll spend your second go-around looking at all the clever ways the director hid that thing without letting you suspect a thing was hidden at all; and by your third trip you should simply be able to enjoy this great short.

The wordless scenario was written and animated by Jeremy Clapin, and is the first independent short project for the freelance animator/illustrator following stints at Duran and Vivendi Interactive. The melancholy music and the muted greens, blues and browns of the desaturated color scheme complement the initially bleak mood, and make the short’s later “up” moments all the more bittersweet.