Latent Sorrow (2005, 4 min., U.S./South Korea) by director Shon Kim is a cutting-edge experiment in free-flowing artistic expression. He uses his 2D artwork, Moving Painting #7, to reach a coexistent point where abstract and figure are equally fused. Kim studied experimental animation at CalArts and continues to work on moving paintings in Los Angeles.

Close Your Eyes and Do Not Breathe and Africa Parting both use the freedom of animation to tell vastly different tales. Close Your Eyes and Do Not Breathe © Vuk Jevremovic. Africa Parting © Robyn Yannoukos and Brian LoSchiavo.

Director Vuk Jevremovic's beautifully drawn Close Your Eyes and Do Not Breathe (7 min., Germany) is based on the Ivan Turgenev novel Ghost Story. The film is a shadowy flight of fantasy, which blurs the line between dreams and reality. A native of Frankfurt, Germany, Jevremovic graduated in Architecture at the Technical University in Belgrade and more recently graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

The earth is confronted by a massive destructive force in Oneheadword Protection (6 min., color, Hungary/Canada) a collaboration by directors Igor and Ivan Buharov (real names: Kornel Szilagyi and Nandor Hevesi) who have created 10 experimental short films together in 10+ years using any film they can get their hands on, from 8mm to 35mm, including expired stock because they like to get the unexpected and unintentional.

Robyn Yannoukos and Brian LoSchiavoco-directed Africa Parting (7 min., color, U.S.). This allegory of the violent apartheid era in South Africa follows the story of a tormented "memory-keeper" who is offered the chance to reconstruct her creation, at the expense of her own life. Yannoukos' roots in both Africa and Greece have influenced her art, which she uses to bring escapism to life. Brian claims to have been raised by a pack of wild animators. They both have a fine arts background and met at UCLA while studying animation.

Tinnitus (7 min., color, U.S.) directed by Mark Zero Lastimosa tells the story of a man who wakes up to a terrible, on going ringing and only knows of one way to make it stop done in a 2D anime style. Lastimosa went to the School of Visual Arts for Traditional Animation and currently works at J.J. Seidelmaier Prods. His dream is to become a 3D animator.

Mary Ann Skweres is a filmmaker and freelance writer. She has worked extensively in feature film and documentary post-production with credits as a picture editor and visual effects assistant. She is a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild.