Festival Double Feature April 5–12, 2012

İstanbul Modern Cinema hosts two festivals. On Thursday, April 5, a ‘best of’ selection will be screened at İstanbul Modern Cinema from one of the major festivals of North America, the Ottawa Animation Festival, which brought together the award-winning and the most talked about animations of 2011. And on Thursday, April 12 İstanbul Modern Cinema will screen a selection of the best shorts of 2011 from the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, one of the oldest short film festivals in the world. The selection offers a colorful program ranging from South Africa to Portugal, from documentary to animation, and from narrative to experimental film.

The Best of Ottawa Animation Festival

12 Sketches on the Impossibility of Being Still

Magali Charrier, UK, 2010, 8´

A collection of experiments in animation and editing exploring the spaces where nothing happens: the liminal zone that exists between you and me, between here and there, sound and silence, movement and stillness.

Haru no shikumi (The Mechanism of Spring)

Atsushi Wada, Japan, 2011, 4´

Everybody is excited to see the arrival of spring. This film tries to depict the excitement spring brings.

The Renter

Jason Carpenter, USA, 2011, 10´


A young boy is dropped off at an elderly woman's home for the day. Her house sits amongst fields of weeds and rotting pears. A lone man who rents a room adds to the unsettling atmosphere. The savage slaughter of a chicken makes this daycare a harsh and confusing world for the boy, who learns caring can be shown in unexpected ways.

Joyz 'Electropia'

Noriko Okaku, UK & Japan, 2011, 5´


A music video for a Japanese band, JOYZ. A journey of a girl who steps into a chaotic world called “Electropia”. “Electropia” is a made-up work, which consists of “Electro” and “Utopia”.

Blanche Fraise

Frédérick Tremblay, Canada, 2011, 17´

A couple tries to survive in a dying forest...

I'm Fine Thanks

Eamonn O'Neill, UK, 2011, 4.5´


Winner of the "Best Graduate Animation" award, I'm Fine Thanks tells the story of a mentally unstable young man.

Det Siste Norske Trollet (The Last Norwegian Troll)

Pjotr Sapegin, Norway, 2010, 13´

In the old days Norway used to be a safe haven for trolls, but not anymore. One day, three young goats decide to get rid of an old Troll. Little do they know that he is the last survivor of his species, the very last Troll of Norway.

Moxie

Stephen Irwin, UK, 2011, 5´

A pyromaniac bear misses his mother.

The Goat and The Well

Ben Cady, UK, 2010, 5´

The determination of a little goat causes endless problems for a grumpy milking lady. A comic, minimalist exploration of the strained relationships between man and beast.

Oberhausen On Tour program

Kengere
Peter Tukei Muhumuza, Uganda, 2010, 22´

This stop-motion animation tells the story of a cyclist who returns to a village in search of a tape that contains the voices of victims who were locked in train wagons and set ablaze in 1989.

Atrophy
Palesa Shongwe, South Africa, 2009, 8´

Picture, poetry, voice and music are woven together into a contemplative short film about the lingering memory of youth, the loss of spontaneity and the quiet fear of growing up. Using dance as a metaphor, this visual composition reflects on how, in growing up, freedom and self-expression can become stifled.

Mercurio
Sandro Aguilar, Portugal, 2010, 18´
In this place, no one belongs together, everything changes before our eyes.

In the New World
Rick Raxlen, Canada, 2009, 7´

Employing a rotoscope, In the New World transcribes the film In the Land of the War Canoes (1914) into a short “undated” version of a West Coast classic.

Sans-titre
Neil Beloufa, France, 2010 , 15´
The full moon shining through the window has burnt the silk curtains. You know that lunar rays are more intense than those of the sun?

Inwentaryzacja
Pawel Lozinski, Poland, 2010, 9´

A short metaphoric story approaching the problem of memory, identity and the search for traces of the recent past. Here, on thirty hectares in the city centre, an inventory is being made – to reconstruct a lost city.