Animator, sculptor, musician, sound artists or just all-round spark of talent Gina Kamentsky curates a programme of films that hit her like a lightning bolt.
Gather round people! American animator and Kaboom 2024 jury member Gina Kamentsky is that rare all-round talent who has been a true force in independent animation, producing baffling abstract work that challenges our ideas of what the medium can do. Exploring movement, abstraction and structure, her animations are intuitive and experimental efforts combining numerous forms, including painting, drawing, collaging, musique concrète, stop-motion and pixilation.
And that same Gina is here to present a programme of films that hit her like a lightning bolt! One her most vivid memories was the first time she saw Sally Cruickshank's film Quasi at the Quackadero (1975) as part of her class screenings at the Philadelphia College of Art back in 1979. The lightning bolt that hit her seeing this particular film rewired her brain and drove her instructor and the rest of the class crazy; they requested that he showed Quasi two more times that afternoon before returning it to the distributor.
Many years later, as a teacher, nothing makes Gina happier than showing a film in her class and seeing a similar reaction from one of her students. Every film in this programme had a similar effect: inspiring her, broadening her understanding of what animation can be or do; and posing important questions that she can take back to her own studio. As Gina puts it: "Watching these films reminds me that as filmmakers, each of us is out in the world poking and prodding this art form and expanding the universe of possibilities inherent to independent animation."
A hand-coloured Super 8mm stop-motion film using collages from paintings of cats in a state of exhibition. Artist Martha Colburn reveals our animal instincts in a hot display of dancing woman-cats and dogs, hungry for love - with a soundtrack of a French version of I Wanna Be Your Dog by Jacque Berrocal.
Two decades ago, Canadian experimentalist Steven Woloshen - known for his camera-less and drawn-on-film animation - made a treacherous, late night winter journey across an old, Montréal historical landmark. Through the freezing rain, wind and snow, these were the ironclad hallucinations that he encountered on his path. As events becomes more distant, memories fade into abstract shapes.
The fascinating silhouette of Mount Fuji, filmed by American experimental filmmaker Robert Breer when he was in Japan for Expo 70. With its interplay of motifs and perceptions, Fuji is a synthesis of Breer's visual practice.
Who doesn't love Elizabeth Hobbs' cute yet trippy animations! Using an Underwood 315 typewriter, this film is a celebration of Amy Johnson's journey. Johnson worked as a typist for a firm of solicitors before her record-breaking solo flight from London to Australia in 1930. Now, we feel bad typing.
Painted and drawn on index cards with an improvised rotoscope made from a projector head mounted on a big coffee can, Jeff Scher's overwhelming flow of images explore the relationship between moving images and memory.
A hand-drawn experimental 2D film by now-renowned illustrator, animator and author Lisze Bechtold that started in sketch books while travelling. This dreamlike stream of consciousness follows a woman and her two cats, battling the forces of nature. Bechtold made this film a student at the California Institute of the Arts under the supervision of legendary animator Jules Engel. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
A hand-made, psychedelic photo-chemical war picture about the final minutes in the life of Winnipeg's doomed WOII hero, Andrew Mynarski. Matthew Rankin's award-winning micro-epic combines wartime aviation melodrama with classical and avant-garde animation techniques, including stop-motion, silhouettes, scratching, hand-painting etc. An acid rain of visuals that flashes before our eyes, electrifying the medium of film.
Perhaps one of the most allegorical films by Jan Svankmajer, the Czech master of stop-motion. Two puppets, Punch and Judy, do battle to the death over the custody of a live guinea pig.
A trippy cult film by Sally Cruikshank that is still regarded as one of the greatest cartoons ever created. The film follows two anthropomorphic ducks. Quasi spends the day at a bizarre amusement park with fellow duck Anita and a robot named Rollo, but his rude and annoying behaviour soon becomes impossible for his companions to tolerato. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Kiwi-born artist Len Lye was a fine-art pioneer and remains to this day an experimental icon. Inspired by a song in the musical Me and My Girl (1937), The Lambeth Walk was actually a popular dance named after a working class area of London. Lye edited together different versions of the song for this short, combining them with a diverse range of direct film images.
Hang in tight for a lovely bizarre and surprisingly violent hand-painted story about a spirited young woman who persuades a hyena from London Zoo to take her place at a dinner dance held in her honour. Based on a short story by British surrealist writer Leonora Carrington, Elizabeth Hobbs' commentary on elitist society celebrates the emancipation of women and of hand-painted animation.
True to his cartoonish style full of black humour and gags, Dutch animator Paul Driessen drawns an egg-ception story about a man cracking an egg, until violence turns against him.
Bird in the Peninsula director Atsushi Wada is one of Japan's most unique figures in contemporary animation. His work is comparable to bizarre doodles infused with fascinating sounds and a minimalist narrative. In The Mechanism of Spring he captures the delight of young children and animals that comes with the arrival of Spring.
Machismo dance for two planes. A visual dialogue based on timing, gesture, mark-making and sound. Grand Prix HAFF 2012 for non-narrative short.
Kaboom Animation Festival is the one-stop-shop for the latest and greatest in all things animated. Ranging from cutting-edge experimental arthouse to colorful stories for families and kids, Kaboom will cater to the animation needs of all. Yes, even yours, my amazing weirdo friend!
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