Solar Walk
Solar Walk
Roundabout
Roundabout
Pedestrian Pastry
Pedestrian Pastry

Screened as part of NZIFF 2019

Animation NOW! Invert – Characters 

This stunning and immersive programme takes us on an animated journey inside the rich mental states of unique characters.

74 minutes

The power of animation is at its peak when deployed in the name of bizarre characters and uncommon souls. Animation can physicalise inner lives in a way that mere words or story arcs have no hope of emulating. To take what is inside a character’s mind and mould it into form, colour and motion brings a unique dimension to whatever a film has to say.

This programme begins with Reruns, the last film made by Rosto, one of the true masters of the medium, who passed away earlier this year after a brief battle with cancer. His passing deprives the world of a true animation maestro. Rosto had a feature in development with his producers, Autour de Minuit, and we can only wonder what would have been.

The fourth in a quartet of films which traverse the immersive, mental cartography of a world that formed in Rosto’s dreams over a period of years, Reruns was the original spark for Invert Characters.

Other highlights include Herman Brown Is Feeling Down, a vivid and immersive study of anxiety, animated using ink on film; the very strange Turbine, a showcase of intricate line work and surreal imagery; and Roundabout, a darkly comic exploration of the birth–death cycle.

Reruns 2018

Director

14 minutes

A visceral trip through a sunken maze of memories, dreams and constructed visions.

Where’s the Butter, Betty 2018

Director

Elsewhere

UK
3 minutes

The bloody butter is around here somewhere, Betty, it has to be.

Herman Brown is Feeling Down 2018

Director

UK
6 minutes

Herman Brown has every reason to be happy. Herman Brown has every reason to be unhappy. How to decide?

Turbine 2018

Director

Elsewhere

8 minutes

Arriving home, a wife discovers that her husband’s face has been replaced by an airplane turbine and he’s fallen in love with their kitchen.

Roundabout 2018

Director

USA
7 minutes

A darkly comic reminder that life is really just driving around in circles until your particular record comes to a stop.

Long Meg and Her Daughters 2018

Director

USA
3 minutes

In a strange, faraway land, Long Meg contemplates nature and all its wondrous mutations and oddities.

Bavure 2018

Director

4 minutes

The evolution of a human being, from his creation to his awareness of the mysteries of the universe, portrayed in thick oil paint

Pedestrian Pastry 2017

Director

3 minutes

They are pedestrians and they should not – they must not – lose their hats.

Solar Walk 2018

Director

Elsewhere

21 minutes

A post-imagination tour de force following a journey through a landscape of softly unfolding hallucinogenic change.