Mamori
Mamori transports us into a black-and-white universe of fluid shapes, dappled and striated with shadows and light, where the texture of the visuals and of the celluloid itself have been transformed through the filmmaker’s artistry. The raw material of images and sounds was captured in the Amazon rainforest by filmmaker Karl Lemieux and avant-garde composer Francisco López, a specialist in field recordings. Re-filming the photographs on 16 mm stock, then developing the film stock itself and digitally editing the whole, Lemieux transmutes the raw images and accompanying sounds into an intense sensory experience at the outer limits of representation and abstraction. Fragmented musical phrases filter through the soundtrack, evoking in our imagination the clamour of the tropical rainforest in this remote Amazonian location called Mamori.
CircleSpeak
Shot in Southern England over the course of six weeks by a crew of three American filmmakers, CircleSpeak offers a nuanced look at the passions and beliefs of the people immersed in the crop circle phenomenon during the season of 2001. This feature-length documentary presents interviews with serious “researchers”, self-proclaimed “hoaxers”, local farmers and villagers who are all, in one way or another, involved in this strange and compelling summer spectacle taking place year after year.
Chase
An abstract pursuit that leaves you gasping for breath.
Shift
An attempt to visualize higher dimensions and unearthliness, taking into account these concepts' heightened awareness, when attempting to process or predict the end of the world.
NOOR (Light)
A tribute to the Masters of Middle Eastern Patterns. NOOR is 4D animation of classical design motifs and calligraphy from Arabic, Persian, Moroccan, and others. Inspired in part by British scholar Keith Critchlow's 1976 scholarly book "Islamic Patterns" and by my pilgrimage to The Alhambra in Granada, Spain.
Calculated Movements
Cuba programmed solid areas and volumes instead of the vector dots of the previous two films. It also in four "colors": black, white, light grey and dark grey. In five episodes, he alternates single events involving ribbon-like figures following intricate trajectories, with more complex episodes consisting of up to 40 individual events that appear and disappear at irregular intervals. Electronic sound scores accompany.
Keep on Turning
In Wiertz and Verbeek's kinetic, kaleidoscopic opus Keep on Turning (1974, 3 min, 16mm, sound) cubes convey, rotate and shift in tandem.
Spheres
This animated short is a play on motion set against a background of multi-hued sky. Spheres of translucent pearl float weightlessly in the unlimited panorama of the sky, grouping, regrouping or colliding like the stylized burst of some atomic chain reaction. The dance is set to the musical cadences of Bach, played by pianist Glenn Gould.
Infinite Blue
Last minutes of HDN Pegasus overseeing the colossus movement, trough the eyes of only one survivor. But when and where?
Dance Squared
Squares and other geometric shapes appear to "dance" along to music through their ever-changing movements.
Allahu Akbar
Rhythm and repetition plays an important role in the animated film Allahu Akbar by Usama Alshaibi. With this film, Alshaibi questions the confrontation between tradition and modernity by drawing inspiration from geometric motives of Islamic art. The artist offers a re-interpretation of these motifs through computer animation. By turning the shapes in different direction, new images are generated, freeing them from their fixed state. Traditional spiritual values feed the present and open up to a modern perspective.
The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics
Animated work detailing the unrequited love that a line has for a dot, and the heartbreak that results due to the dot's feelings for a lively squiggle.
Sakuhin
Yumi Shima's animated short film is an experiment with geometric objects.
Notes on a Triangle
In this short animation film the triangle achieves the distinction of principal dancer in a geometric ballet. The triangle is shown splitting into some three hundred transformations, dividing and sub-dividing with grace and symmetry to the music of a waltz. The film's artist and animator is René Jodoin, whose credits include Dance Squared and several collaborations with Norman McLaren.
Rhythm 23
We watch white shapes dancing on black background, which changes when the white shape fills up the screen completely, and black lines and figures bounce around on the now white background.
Cube
A filmed exercise that follows in the path of Rotating Cubic Grid and Cubits, the predictably titled Cube features cubes of varying shapes and size sliding around and growing into and out of one another, demonstrating how multiple parts can make up a whole.
Barcode III.0
A unique journey across a topography created entirely from a form of digital light and shadow—a bristling terrain of poles bending the light in every direction. This film is the remake of Barcode, an abstract road-movie about light and shadows.
Plans & Elevations
Abstract geometric diagrams come to life.
Evolution of the Red Star
Opening with a classic image of Chairman Mao spewing red star tears, this animation is a masterful example of Beckett’s distinctive technique as he continuously develops a cycle of six drawings, culminating in their transmutation via the optical printer. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with iotaCenter and National Film Preservation Foundation in 2007.
Boxxy
Boxxy is a cardboard box left by the roadside, full of dreams, watching the world in motion. One day, an unexpected push sets off a wild ride through obstacles and emotions — and from that moment, nothing will ever be the same.