top of page

RISING OF THE PANDEMIC ANIMATION
 

Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej ŁAŹNIA / KinoPort

(ul. Strajku Dokerów 5, Gdańsk)

PROGRAM

Photo 5 1325km77dias_still05.jpg

Gustavo de Almeida, Vítor Teixeira

1325 Kilometers 227 Days

Vítor and Gustavo decided in January 2020 to be in a long-distance relationship. The idea was to meet again every few months. Until COVID stopped them. This is the story of how they overcame the distance and the time through so much love and, mainly, Whatsapp voice messages.

Brazil 2021, 05:06

Photo 1 Screenshot_2021-04-26_17.45.14.jpg

Jason Chuang

In Due Time

As lockdown has reinforced an invisible parameter around my life. I started to question the idea of the self, the ego, the mind, and my consciousness seem to have drifted into another dimension from time to time.
This film is a documentation of my introspective journey being alone indoor during the pandemic, it shows the fears and desires that arose in such a liminal time and the uncertainties of coming out of lockdown.

Jason Chuang is an illustrator and storyteller from Taiwan now based in the UK. His practice focuses on the exploration of human emotions, through the creation of symbolic imageries coated with elements of the absurd and poetries.

United Kingdom 2021, 04:48

Photo 1 Screenshot_2021-03-03_at_4.44.15_PM.jpg

Natasha Malpani Oswal, Vridhi Goyal

Pandemia

A story of two children and their friendship in an underwater pandemic world. A child from the lower depths of the ocean, is excited to embark on his first journey to the “upper” world. He’s been waiting for this day for a long time, and his mother has finally given in, despite her misgivings.

Natasha is a passionate storyteller who loves experimenting with genres and formats. She has produced several series and short films. This is her first animated film. She currently runs Boundless Media, a creative house that makes stories for a new India, and has published two poetry books. In a past life, she was an investor in London, and holds an MBA from Stanford.

Vridhi is a visual storyteller and communicator driven to use design, illustration and animation to tell stories that leave people feeling something deeper. Always having her hands in different baskets, she loves to experiment with different styles of art and translate all her thoughts into her work.

India 2021, 07:29

THE FIGHTERS.png

WU Chenmo

The Fighters

THE FIGHTERS tells the story of a doctor who supported the frontline of the epidemic. He came to Hubei to provide support and witnessed the great contributions made by people from all walks of life to fight the epidemic. Now he has to make a final fight the virus with the help of all people who love life.

China 2021, 01:15

Photo 3 UtopiaC_02.jpg

Reinhold Bidner

Utopia – C

"Utopia - C" is an experimental animated short film/animated documentary about my personal hometown-observations and thoughts during lockdown in Austria:

On March 4th 2020 by incident I happened to be in my hometown Salzburg/Austria. Then things became weird and "coronoid". So I stayed and on March 15th I decided to shut down/shut up in Salzburg to work on these personal/animated hometown coronicles, that deal with some places I grew up with but also with some of my thoughts and absurd observations between March and June 2020.

Reinhold Bidner was born in Salzburg/Austria. He studied at University for applied sciences and technologies in Salzburg, at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Scotland, Dundee (Animation and Electronic Media) and he finished his studies in Berlin.
Until 2006 he was key researcher at the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz in the field of time based Media. Since 2007 he is a freelancer in animation, games and media art, either as an individual or as a member of the art collective gold extra. Currently Reinhold lives in Vienna and Salzburg and teaches at Art University Linz in the fields of animation, motion graphics and interactive video.
He received various prices (for example: Federal Chancellery of Austria´s Outstanding Artist Award with gold extra / Media Art Award Salzburg with gold extra and 1n0ut), grants and residencies (for example: Cité internationale des arts Paris / Budapest Art Residency) for his artistic work, and exhibits nationally and internationally since 2001.
Furthermore, since 2017 Reinhold is a member of Asifa Austria.

Austria 2020, 07:38

Photo 1 stil3.jpg

Farzaneh Ghobadi

Covid-19

The story is about corona and its effect on earth life and people.

Farzaneh Ghobadi, Animation Director and interested in doing other jobs in animation prosses and Research. Master of directing animation
Institute: Art university of Tehran. Making 4 short Animation: THE RHINO,MINI FARM, The Season Of Grapes and Non-Stop. Finalist And Winner in Some international Film Festival 2016-2021.
Writing scientific research articles. Making animation for the Iranian Youth Cinema Association. Participate in the Asifa Iran and International animation exchange program2020.

Islamic Republic of Iran 2020, 01:29

June 4, 2020.png

Yoko Yuki

June 4, 2020

In March 2020, COVID-19 went viral. Due to my grandfather's critical condition, I returned to my parents' home in Aichi and spent a long time with my family for the first time in ten years.
In June, the declaration of the state of emergency was lifted, and I traced the record of my days until I returned to Tokyo.

 

Yoko Yuki, filmmaker. Lives and works in Tokyo. After graduating from the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts, she has been creating works based on her daily impressions, using a variety of materials and art materials. He has been involved in the production and direction of Marza Animation Planet, and is also studying 3DCG animation now. He has won many awards at domestic and international film festivals such as New Chitose Airport International Animation Film Festival 2015 (Japan Grand Prix), 17th Digicon6 (Japan Gold), and Japan Media Arts Festival.

Japan 2021, 04:00

81b02294ca-poster.jpg

Isabel Galwey

Putting on the Mask

Three British medical students talk about their experiences of battling coronavirus during the first wave in Spring 2020.

Isabel Galwey is an animation scholar and practitioner. In 2014-5 She completed a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Leeds Arts University, specialising in moving image and achieving a distinction grade. She then completed her BA in Chinese at the University of Oxford and Beijing University. During that time she received funding from the Laidlaw Foundation to conduct research on Mainland Chinese independent animation, spending time at East China Normal University in Shanghai. After graduating with a First, she spent a year working for sustainability-focussed production company Green.TV before starting her MPhil Studies at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where her research focus is Hong Kong animation. 'Putting on the Mask' was made as part of HKUST's independent filmmaking course.

Isabel has also written for animation organisations such as the Association for Chinese Animation Studies, the Dot and Line and Skwigly magazine. In 2020, she was shortlisted for Penguin's WriteNow programme for emerging creative writers.

United Kingdom 2020, 07:11

Photo 2 photo3.jpg

Monami Roy

Tha Magik Change

The film “Tha Magik Change” is a step towards creating awareness about the pandemic-stricken apparel businesses (inclusive of tailors, thrift stores, recycling labels, upcycling labels). Revolving around the uneasy feeling of the happenings at the “katran ki dukaan”, where people are leaving, handing down the key to the last person to leave. It is a reflection of the lockdown and the effects on small scale businesses that lead to huge movement of people across the country due to the unavailability of living wages at the time of lockdown.

Monami Roy - I am an animator and illustrator currently working for my next film "Rainbow" which is an animated short film. I have been interested in this field for almost 15 years while practicing it's craft for the past 5. It's been a learning process and I would love to continue making short films that get better and more relatable every time.

India 2021, 04:00

Photo 2 Where_Are_You_Now_Still_2.jpg

Eneos Çarka

Where Are You Now?

A father sends well-wishing voice messages to his son confined in self-isolation far away from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Eneos Çarka (1996, Albania) began his film education at University of Arts of Albania graduating in Film Directing. As a recipient of the Government Fund of Excellence Scholarship, he was awarded an MA degree in Film Studies with Distinction from University College London. He is currently part of the 8th generation of DocNomads, an Erasmus Mundus Conjoint Masters on Creative Documentary.
His short documentaries focus on character studies and often deal with the themes of identity, migration and family relations. He pays particular attention to issues of representations experimenting with various approaches to documentary cinema.
His first feature-length documentary is currently in post-production.

Albania 2020, 08:06

Photo 2 Eyeball_branch.jpg

Rebecca Thomson

Forest of Fears

Forest of Fears weaves together the self-recorded Voices from the Island community of lutruwita/Tasmania during COVID-19 lockdown, into a strange, beautiful landscape animated from the paintings of Elizabeth Barsham.

Rebecca is a filmmaker based in nipaluna/Hobart who loves storytelling and connecting with people through a variety of formats and genres but usually with some humour and a twist. To that end Rebecca has directed and produced short documentaries, web series, horror films, activist films and music videos. In 2019 Rebecca completed the Screen Australia funded A Hairy Problem about female body hair, which has had around a million views online. Rebecca is also responsible for genre shorts Cupcake: A Zombie Lesbian Musical, Slashed and The Jelly Wrestler which have screened at more than seventy film festivals worldwide including Frameline San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Fest, New York City International Film Festival. Rebecca is one of the filmmakers behind Women of the Island, a web series of short documentaries telling the stories of the fascinating women who inhabit the island of Tasmania. As well as being viewed extensively online, the series took out the Grand Jury Prize at Berlin Web Fest 2019, Best Cinematography at LA Webfest and Best Direction in a Doco Series at Baltimore Webfest. Over the past twelve months Rebecca has been joyfully collaborating with songstress Monique Brumby on music video clips, developing a web series of original fairytale films with creative producer Catherine Pettman, working on a hybrid theatre/film project about the mental load that mothers carry, and has recently completed an animated documentary entitled There Is No ‘I’ In Island which weaves the self-recorded voices of Tasmanians during Covid-19 lockdown into a strange, beautiful animated landscape. 

In her down time Rebecca also runs a highly shonky but super fun festival in her own backyard named Bec's Backyard Film Festival.

Australia 2021, 05:27

Photo 2 bygning_animasjon.jpg

Astrid E. Mork-Knutsen

Lockdown Paris

March 17th 2020 Paris goes into lockdown. The global pandemic washes over Europe for months. This is a story about life in lockdown, unnervingly calm, strangely poetic and deadly quiet.

Astrid Ellensdatter Mork-Knutsen is a norwegian animation student, and artist. She was the leader of the international Animation Volda Festival in 2019. Currently studying at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris as an exchange student in the spring of 2020, she will graduate with a bachelors degree in animation from Volda University College in Norway the summer of 2021. Her art and animations are inspired by philosophy and symbolism.

France 2020, 02:10

Stay Safe.jpg

Mohamed Sobaih

Stay Safe

A man went for a walk forgetting the new normal situation that we live in, and then he meets his fate.

Mohamed Sobaih, Toon Boom Consultant and Trainer, Pre master diploma and B.A degree major Animation, with over 10 years experience in 2D Animation.

Egypt 2021, 03:04

Photo 8 .jpg.jpg

Hong Ning, Zhao Xiaofeng

The New World: Variations on Stay-home Activities

In 2020, most residents on the planet were forced to live indoors for days and months due to the epidemic, which has influenced our usual work and life to some extent. In this isolation, people tend to create ways of self-entertainment and take limited exercise at home. As a result, a large amount of ordinary people emerged on the Internet and started to show the interesting bits of living indoors in their own way. They straddled the differences in time and space, and built vast webs of data in live form, in which they connected and influenced each other.

Hong Ning, born in 1996 in Weihai, now lives in Nanchang. He graduated from Jilin Animation Institute, and majored in Animation studies. His work was shortlisted in the 45th Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Special Program (2021). He was official selected for the iArt project (2020) and the Stars project (2021).

Zhao Xiaofeng, born in 1998 in Wuhan, now lives in Guangzhou. He graduated from Communication University of Zhejiang, and majored in Stage Design studies. His work was shortlisted in the 45th Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Special Program (2021). He was official selected for the iArt project (2020) and the Stars project (2021).

China 2020, 01:45

bottom of page