Animation on 4. Vol. 02

A compilation of award-winning animated short films commissioned by Channel 4 in Britain. “Screen play” (dir. Barry Purves) is a tale of doomed love played out on a model Japanese stage. “Abductress” (dir. Paul Vester) combines live action, grainy black and white documentary footage and drawn animation to explore the memories of people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. “The Village” (dir. Mark Baker) juxtaposes delightful storybook images of a traditional village with adult concerns about social behaviour. In “The Sound of music” (dir. Phil Mulloy) uncompromising black ink drawings flesh out an acerbic satire on modern city life. The relationship between rhythm and movement is explored through a seamless merging of the human form with music in “Triangle” (dir. Erica Russell). In “The Mill” (dir. Petra Freeman) a little girl is left to her own devices in an unwelcoming factory. “Secret joy of falling angels’ (dir. Simon Pummell) uses a sumptuous visual feast of mixed media - line drawings, still paintings and model work - to create a seductive, atmospheric abstraction. There is no explicit narrative, instead emotion and instinct guide the viewer through the film’s hypnotic, intertwined threads.