Balcony Cacophony
https://kaboomfestival.filmchief.com/film/22806#
Dutch Shorts 2: The Great Melting Pot
65 minutes
Sometimes we tend to forget what is closest to us. Right here, in the Netherlands, there is an abundance of talent. Have faith, trust us and discover the best of Dutch animation.
We tend to think that the grass is greener on the other side. But there is so much talent right here, in the Netherlands, that Kaboom just HAS to dedicate a whole competition to Dutch shorts. Go and discover the best of what this country has to offer in terms of animated short films! This is one hell of a showcase of both professional filmmakers and students.
This program screened as part of Kaboom Animation Festival 2023
Showing in this program
Crystal Glass – Nocturnal Thought Bus
The music video of Nocturnal Thought Bus was commissioned by German band Crystal Glass. The lyrics, which the film is based on, are about those nights in which you're caught in an endless spiral of thoughts and taken on a journey that you have no power over. The thoughts appear to the main character as a foreboding but colourful cast of characters.
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Diaphony
Diaphony is a short animation documentary (6”) in which three characters, who seem to have very few similarities, invite you into their world while listening to music that has been comforting to them during the pandemic.
The people that are being interviewed have different views on life, different interests and all experience the pandemic in their own different ways. One character, for example, is still recovering from the double shifts she had to work on the intensive care. She recalls the song that one of her patients requested to listen to one last time, just before the anesthesia took place. Another example is a character that only just returned from a demonstration on Museum square. He was forced to shut his cafe and had to witness the collapse of everything he had worked for. In the evening he plays piano in an empty cafe. The last character reminisces a song that she performed during her mother’s funeral. Now she plays the song at home to call to mind the connection she had with her mother.
All three music tracks are completely different. However, the way in which they will remain anchors in mind, is what connects them. The three characters will narrate about the songs, and take us on an auditory journey. Although they talk about the music, we are never actually exposed to the music. While they describe the sounds, rhythm and spheres of the songs, a new musical composition arises. This composition is, as it were, composed on the spot. The composition starts fragmented and slightly incoherent. We feel the distance and differences between the three characters. But then the stories and individual musical elements start intertwining. More and more, the different sounds start to feel like a whole. They become more personal, more intimate, and more emotional. It becomes a diaphony, a form of polyphony, in which various voices and sounds are heard together. The characters share the way in which they find consolation through music.
The stories of the three main character are, besides their voice and the music, to be distinguished by their own visual language: an animation style that reflects their personality, experiences and the music. Those three different styles start abstract and are built from shreds of stories that start to come to live. As the stories from the characters progress they start focusing on connection and the worlds begin to intertwine. The fragments from their memories come together and now form one
organic being, built from separate elements that pulsate to the tones of the music.
By bringing their worlds together, the film shows how societal and political differences that have grown through the pandemic, vanish when we find consolation and meaning in music.
Fuck It
Hair too long, singing too loud, and just not cool enough to sit with us. All these little things fill up the bucket, drip by drip.
FUCK IT is a short film about just not fitting in, wanting to please everyone by acting “right”, the stress that it brings and almost drowning in your feelings during the process of it all.
This is a mixed media short film. Using different styles and media like ink, lino, digital animation and post-it notes, to portray the situations a teenage girl goes through on a daily basis.
If she learned one thing throughout this process, it’s…. FUCK IT
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Hi!
Going to school and meeting new people is not easy for children. It could be very difficult for them to leave their parents and get into public life. This experience could be more difficult for ADDer children who have struggled with making friends. Sometimes they need a supportive family or/and friend who helps them to leave their comfort zone and try new things.
(Hi!) is the story of a little ADDer child who is encouraged to go to school by school bus by her mom.
Her mother, who is aware of her issue, tries to persuade the protagonist to take the school bus and try new activities. Her mother bids her farewell and writes something on her hand before she sets off on her quest. At the beginning of her voyage, the young youngster cannot analyze so much new information. By creating a paper doll of her mother, she tries to return to her familiar surroundings.
Then a group of kids get in and start playing. She likes to join them but it is difficult for her. When the kids start playing with a paper airplane, the main character accidentally gets it stuck to his backpack. She becomes frightened of them and begins to flee as they get closer to pick up their toy.
Because she is unable to distinguish between individuals within a large group of people and because everything in her mind is exaggerated, she views them as a kind of monster. Forms, sound, and images.
Finally, the character hides under a chair and tries to hide behind the paper doll of her mom but The kid covers her eyes with her hand and tries to stop them to not come closer when they want to get their toy. At this moment we see the note on her hand, something that her mom wrote at the beginning of the movie. Hi!
The children say Hi! And the character repeats what they said and the connection starts.
We hope this animation will help children, especially ADDers have a better experience on the first day of school.
Hooba
3000 BC. A small group of inhabitants of the 'Low Countries' are fighting the elements and hunger. Their endless inaptitude to organize themselves combines with their impulsiveness and this leads to the building of the mysterious standing stone buildings of The Netherlands. And the invention of ‘Hooba’.
How to Adult
Being an adult is really difficult. Most people struggle with it, no matter their age. But to us young adults, welcoming this new stage of life is really, really weird. Everyone is in different stages of their life, trying to figure out how to be stable, be it financially, physically, mentally, or sexually. This animation is a trailer for a webcomic called “How To Adult,” a story that follows a young man as he constantly fails to find the answer to the big question.
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I Am Crying All the Time and I Don’t Know Why
Someone starts crying, and as the tears appear, other things also overflow from their vessel and escape. In poetic form we follow the the person's thoughts as they become overwhelmed, confused and ashamed. Finally, when the last wave of tears ebbs off we settle in reflection and tranquility.
Pu Du Du
A threnody for lost friendships.
Questbound: Forbidden Ventures of the Undead Soul
An ancient evil king misreads the intentions of a noble knight, and ends up flirting with a married man
Scavengers
In een wereld waar robots en natuur in harmonie leeft, wordt deze vrede abrupt verstoord door een ongenodigde gast. Onze korte film genaamd Scavengers gaat over de balans tussen mens en natuur en legt een kritische blik op de invloed van de mens op haar omgeving.
Sensory Itch
After getting stung by a nettle Sarah finds that scratching, whilst providing relief, has destructive results. As minor irritations start to magnify her itch, and vice versa, restraint from scratching becomes insufferable. When Sarah is presented with a carefree alternative, can she still suppress her compulsion?
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Still Here
All the horrors we imagined for the future have come true. The end of our planet is near. While, the rich are able to live out their days with dignity, the poor must fight tooth and nail for the simplest of pleasures: even a breath of fresh air. In this world, one poor man is being manipulated by the state to help them weed out a small but effective resistance movement.
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You Are the Captain!
You are the captain of your body, your body belongs to you! But what do you do if someone doesn’t listen to your boundaries?
“You are the captain!” is a short film that teaches children that their bodies belong to them and what they can do when someone touches them inappropriately.
