Time to dip into some more of the animation at HollyShorts Film Festival.
Area 52 (4 minutes, US, directed by Emily Dubovi) takes place in a lesser known scientific site. While great minds try to solve mysteries of the universe in Area 51, less than stellar minds are in Area 52. Two such scientists have created an enlarging beam. When they try it out (hoping to make their lunch bigger), they accidentally hit a fly. Oops.
Été 96 [Summer 96] (12 minutes, France, directed by Mathilde Bédouet) shows a vacation with a problem. A family heads off to a beach picnic on an island in Brittany. The family video camera captures the fun and sounds of a wonderful day. But they miscalculate and the incoming tide covers the road to the island, stranding them. For the boy who is the main focus, this becomes a time of danger and self-discovery. Although the screener I watched wasn’t subtitled, it was easy enough to know what was probably being said. The art work on this is lovely. [Note: Été 96 is one of the nominees for best animation at the festival.]
Fuzzy Feelings (4 minutes, directed by Lucia Aniello) is a hybrid animation and live action. A stop action animator makes a film of terrible things happening to her real world boss. The film alternates between her at work, and her making her film. But when she discovers something important about her boss, it changes her attitude and her film. It all plays out to the George Harrison song “Isn’t It a Pity”. [Note: Fuzzy Feelings has been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial (for Apple).]
Society of Clothes (15 minutes, France/Canada, directed by Dahee Jeong) is a world of clothes with no people. Each day the clothes assemble themselves into outfits and go out into the world. There is a naked human child that runs through them at one point, but other than that, it is all just the clothes who sometimes had difficulty making things work out.
Fortune Cookie (4 minutes, US/Taiwan, directed by Fu Yang) is a minor horror story. A being with a head of a fortune cookie keeps breaking off parts of his head trying to keep a hungry monster at bey.
Bye Bear (10 minutes, Germany, directed by Jan Bitzer) is one a step into a surreal world. In a rundown motel, a group of robots wearing the heads of dead animals party hard. Think rock band going wild and smashing things.
Origami (3 minutes, Japan, directed by Kei Kanamori) is a very pretty film. A sorcerer moves through the landscape as sheets of paper come to life in various origami shapes.
La Perra (14 minutes, France/Columbia, directed by Carla Melo Gampert) is another deeply surreal experience. Human bodies and bird heads are joined in this film about a girl seeing liberations from her mother, and perhaps sexually. The artwork is interesting. The film gets to be a bit pornographic at times. It struck me as being weird for weirdness sake.
Under the Black Hole (8 minutes, China, directed by Xuan Fan) may be about futility. When a black hole appears about the city, people try to eliminate everything round as a way of getting rid of it. The main character works on the crew cleaning up all the broken circles, but secretly harbors a Walkman. In time, he looks into a mirror and sees his eyes.
