Anima Brussels, from 5 February to 14 February, is packed full of film, workshops and special informative sessions.
I always look forward to Anima Brussels. It is the first festival that I attend each year, and it lasts nine days, and includes three programs of new short films from Belgium. I especially enjoyed The Long Vacation (De longues vacances) by Caroline Nugues-Bourchat. The 15 minute film starts out happily enough with what appears to be a family on a camping holiday at the seaside. The film soon reveals that all is not well, the father has lost his job and the family has nowhere else to live except in the small caravan. While Louise is discovering the pleasures of the beach her parents are becoming more and more depressed. This is a situation far too many families are facing and Caroline’s film does an excellent job of portraying how this insecure situation affects the entire family.
The Long Vacation was produced by Zorobabel Atelier Collectif (Zorobabel Collective Workshop in Brussels). The collective is an animation workshop for professional and non-professional animators. Founded in 1994 Zorobabel produces and distributes numerous films that consistently win festival awards. The Long Vacation won the Best Wallonie-Brussels Short Film prize.
Voltaire by Belgian animator Jan Snoekx is the story of Voltaire, a rooster shaped weather vane who lives atop a lowly country chapel. One night he decides to move to a beautiful cathedral and unknowingly stumbles into a murder scene. The CGI animation with large format photography and special effects were amazing, which is understandable because Jan has spent seventeen years working in 3D as a special effects director and character artists on commercial projects, feature films, and television. Unfortunately I felt that at times the special effects overpowered the 12 minute film and the story got a bit lost. Voltaire was awarded the BeTV Award at the festival. It will be screened at the Trickfilm Festival in Stuttgart and I am curious to see if the special effects are as strong upon a second viewing.
In the International Competition Sunday Lunch (Le Repas dominical) is a film that many people can relate to. French animator Celine Devaux’s 13’40” film is a coming of age narrative that delves into the changing relationship between an adult child and his relatives. The love Jean feels for his parents and relatives becomes mixed up with the disagreements and the total disgust that he feels for their opinions and narrow mindedness as they ask him questions about his personal life, sexual orientation, job and apartment at the weekly Sunday lunch.
I don’t often get excited about feature films but this year I saw three at Anima that I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the short film Birdboy based on the graphic novels by Alberto Vazquez and brought to the screen by Pedro Rivero. The 2012 short won the Goya Award (The Spanish Academy Award) and I have been waiting to see his feature film, Psiconautas. I was not disappointed and highly recommend Psiconautas.
As the 1 hour 15 minute film begins, teenager friends Birdboy and Dinky have survived the ecological disaster that has devastated their island. Birdboy has been deeply affected by the death of his father. After his only friend Dinky decides to leave the island and venture out into the hostile world, life becomes even more difficult for Birdboy.
Image from Birdboy
Co-directors Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vazquez have created a feature film that is visually beautiful. The story is deeper and darker than the short film and does real justice to the graphic novel which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Pedro told me that Alberto Vazques enjoyed the experience of working on Psiconautas so much that he has decided to give up creating comic books for animation.
Psiconautas director Pedro Rivera and Daniel Suljic, Zagreb Festival director
Long Way North (Tout en haut du monde) is a film aimed at young audiences that their parents can enjoy as much as they do. French director Remi Chaye has created a beautifully hand-drawn film set in 1892 St. Petersburg. Sasha, a young Russian aristocrat, sets out in search of her grandfather and his ship that disappeared during an expedition to the North Pole. Never mind that there were no Russian expeditions to the North Pole in the 1890’s, the film has a good story full of adventure and best of all a strong female heroine that does not find romance on her adventure or depend on men to take care of her. It is refreshing to see a very human female character in a feature film with no magical powers and who is an excellent role model for young girls.
Little from the Fish Shop by Czech puppet animator Jan Balej is a beautifully animated dark contemporary take on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. This is an adult film that finds the title character Little, who works in her father the fish king’s fish shop, encountering drugs, prostitution, and the seamy underbelly of life when she becomes involved with a slick but charming crook. Her desire to become a human leads to predictable disaster. The 72 minute feature film has beautifully constructed sets full of so many details that the film needs more than one viewing to see everything. Little From the Fish Shop took 410 days for Balej and crew to shoot but it was time well spent because he has created an entertaining adult film that visually draws the viewer into Little’s world.
A couple of years ago at Anima Brussels I saw a pitching session for the proposed feature film Cafard. I was intrigued by the short segment that I viewed of Flemish director Jan Bultheel’s true story about Jean Mordant. The story begins in 1914 when Jean is in Buenos Aires winning the World Wrestling Championship title. Back home in Belgium his daughter Mimi is brutally raped by German soldiers. Mordant swears to avenge her attack and enlists in the prestigious ACM, the first ever armored car division. What follows is the story showing the horrors of war and an epic journey that takes Jean and his fellow WW I soldiers around the world, heading to the Eastern Front and landing the survivors in Russia in October 1917 as the Bolsheviks seize power. During many dangerous encounters, they continue heading East,finally crossing the Pacific Ocean to America, and at last, 400 Belgian soldiers known as King Albert’s Heros’ parade down 5th Avenue in New York City. After trekking around the world, Jean finally returns to Belgium at the end of the war, a hero.
I was looking forward to seeing the finished film but unfortunately I was terribly disappointed. If the poorly rotoscoped film had been made in live action and been much more effective. The true story is not well-known and is remarkable, but the film much too long. What could have been an interesting 30 minute film dragged on at 92 minutes.
The brilliant Dutch painter, illustrator, and animator Hisko Hulsing ,whose 2012 short film Junkyard won numerous awards, gave a master class on his music compositon and animation. As well as being incredibly talented, Hisko has a great sense of humor. Along with giving many practical tips for young animators he told numerous funny stories about his stint in Los Angeles creating the animated segments of Montage of Heck, the feature length documentary about Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. The best piece of advice he gave to his packed audience was “Don’t think that working in Hollywood is glamorous - it isn’t.”
I have no interest in Curt Cobain and Courtney Love and ordinarily I would never have gone to see Montage of Heck, but I wanted to see Hisko’s animated contributions to the film. His painted animation segments were beautifully done, but I can’t recommend the film. If you care about every pore on Cobain’s face, this is the film for you, because there are endless close ups of him from early boyhood to the less than flattering moments of his later descent into death resulting from mental illness and his overuse of drugs and drink. At 145 minutes long I thought that the film would never end.
Hisko Hulsing with Nancy
Anima Brussels is truly a family affair with films for all age. Morning screenings were devoted to programs for youngsters. For the 3 to 5 year old film goers and their parents, Rascals (Deugnieten) from Latvia was a big success. The series of short films about 2 crafty little hedgehogs had no dialogue but offered lots to laugh at. Lillla Anna, based on a series of children’s books by Swedish authors Inger and Lasse Sandbery was another 45 minute screening for very young children.
Several feature films for pre-teens and teens were also screened. I was particularly interested in The Boy and the Beast directed by Mamoru Hosoda because I had seen the Japanese director’s previous film Wolf Children which I had enjoyed. His latest film is the story of a lonely boy and a solitary beast who live in two separate worlds until the day that the boy gets lost in the beast world. Unfortunately I didn’t think that the story was as strong as Wolf Children and the animation wasn’t as refined.
Daily workshops for children organized by Ateiller Zorobabel gave future young filmmakers from 6 to 12 years old the opportunity to try their hand at animating using puppets, pixilation, sand animation, and pastels. The young people created the ideas for their films themselves and members of the Zorobabel Collective were on hand to explain the process or to lend a hand if needed. Zorobabel put all of the films online so that the young film makers could see their finished films and could show them off to family and friends on their computers.
Young animators at work
Along with 10 days full of screenings, Anima held special sessions devoted to the business of animation for professionals. Animated Film Distribution: What Opportunities Today? Organized by the Creative European Media Desk of Flanders and Walloine-Brussels brought together authors, producers, and others working in international distribution for a roundtable discussion on good practices, experiences, and successful elements for production and distribution of feature animated films for adults.
Webcreation #5: Special Animation and Comics was part of a series of web creation meetings that brought together professionals working in web writing on a regular basis. The 5th meeting which was held at Anima was devoted to the connection between webcasting, animation, and comics. Of special interest to students were sessions on cracking the mysteries of TV Paint 11 with Leo Fernandez, a French based TV Paint trainer.
Producing Films: TH1NG/ Film Club (pronounced Thing One) introduced its audience to the London based animation, graphics, and mixed media production company. Since its inception in 2003 the company has expanded with offices currently in Dubai, New York and London. They have also created new branches such as the Film Club to give young animators the opportunity to make commercials and short films.
Giannalberto Bendazzi and Nancy
Italian animation historian, film critic, and Professor Giannalberto Bendazzi presented his recently published 3 volume masterpiece Animation: A World History. The three volumes cover all facets of animation from the very beginning with detailed quotes from hundreds of animators talking about their films and work processes. This extensively researched encyclopedia belongs on the desk of every animator for handy reference as well in every library and animation institution’s collection. At his presentation Giannalberto talked about how he began studying animation at the age of 19 (he is now 69). He also talked about the difficulties he faced in finding a publisher for his 3 volume life’s work.
This year the festival featured a British retrospective. The highlight was the Aardman Birthday Celebration. The renowned Bristol animation company has had a long standing connection with the 35 year old Anima Brussels so the festival was the ideal location to kick off their yearlong Aardman 40th Birthday celebration.
Peter Lord and Morph took to the stage with festival founder Phileppe Moins and Festival Director Doris Clevens. Peter was surprised with a giant birthday cake topped with a big blue world with Morph stand on top of it. Peter told the audience “My relationship with Anima Brussels is very important and dear to me. Thank you for making me so welcome through so many years”. Another special surprise for Peter was a short Exquisite Corps film created at the festival over several days by a group of Belgian animators featuring Aardman characters. The celebration concluded with an hour long selection of films created at the renowned studio ranging from the Aardman original Cartoon created by the studio’s founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton to the award winning The Pearce Sisters, The Wrong Trousers and other seldom shown short gems.
Peter Lord and Nancy toasting Aardman Studio's birthday
The British Touch was a trip back to the mid 1980’s when, despite Margaret Thatcher’s austerity programs, funding for British animation received a boost thanks to Channel 4 Television’s animation commission policy. A host of promising young animators such as Joanna Quinn, Barry Purves, The Quay Brothers, Alison Snowden and David Fine created such classics as Quinn’s Girl’s Night Out, Purves’ Screen Play, and Snowden and Fine’s Bob’s Birthday which garnered an Oscar for them at the 67th Academy Awards. The witty, off beat portrait of Bob, the frustrated dentist, wrestling with his mid-life crisis was the pilot for the popular television series Margaret and Bob which ran for 4 seasons on BBC Channel 4.
New British Gems showcased the new generation of British talent. One gem is Up In The Air With Christopher Gray by Felix Massie is sure to bring a laugh to everyone who has had a pre- teen crush on someone. Christopher Gray has been in love with Stacey for a long time and no amount of lemonade can cool his desire. Meanwhile Barry Flint has just bought his son a 5 foot python from a pet shop. In an attempt to attract Stacey’s attention Christopher and the python collide with disastrous consequences.
I have been a fan of young British animator Mickey Please ever since I saw the BAFTA Award winning The Eagleman Stag. His latest film Marilyn Miller did not disappointment me. It is the story of an artist’s unending quest for perfection. It is made from millions of carved pieces of foam and it is brilliantly lit to give Marilyn and her creations the appearance of being made out of porcelain. The young animator’s work in the program shows that there is a bright future for British animation.
Studying Animation in the UK showcased films from 3 top British animation schools: The Royal College of Art in London, National Film and Television School of Beaconsfield, and Middlesex University. Professors from the schools talked about their programs and answered questions from the audience.
Deb Singleton, former director of the Bradford Animation Festival and now the co-director of the Manchester Animation Festival, represented Great Britian on the National Competition Jury.
Festival director Doris Cleven, Deb Singleton from the Manchester Animation Festival and Nancy
This year’s special exhibit and this year it was Proto Anime Cut: Visions of the Future in Japanese Animation. The exhibition featured background drawings, sketch, and source material used in some of the most influential science fiction anime productions from the 1990’s by 6 of the top anime artists: Hideaki Anno, Haruhiko Higami, Koji Morimoto, Hiromasa Ogura, Namour Oshii, and Takashi Watabe. It featured a fascinating collection of detailed background sketches, some completed in watercolor plus photographs of abandoned buildings, closeups of traffic, construction sites, and electricity poles. Scenes from the completed films were shown on a screen. The exhibition was organized by Stefan Riekeles of Les Jardins de pilote in Berlin. Les Jardins de pilote is dedicated to the presentation of outstanding pieces of art from installations, performances to solo and group exhibitions. This was the first time that the exhibition had been presented in Belgium.
A lovely 296 page book with 234 color and black and white illustrations, Proto Anime Cut Archive by Stefan Riekeles, is available from Les Jardins des pilotes. Stefan was kind enough to give me a copy. It makes an excellent addition to the library of anyone interested in Japanese Anime.
There were so many screenings and events that it was impossible to see everything and many screenings were completely sold out this year. I congratulate Festival Director Doris Cleven on a wonderful, very successful festival. My sincere thanks to Francoise Cathala, Noemie Meert, Dominique Seutin, and Karin Vandenrydt of the festival staff for the many kind things they did to make my job so easy and enjoyable and for making my birthday, which was during the festival, such a special day.
2017 Anima Brussels will be held 24 February through 5 March.
You can read more about the festival at: www.animafestival.be
