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Experimental

  • Gloria Victoria
    Gloria Victoria
    Theodore Ushev 2012 6 min
    Gloria Victoria unfolds on the still-smouldering rubble of a furious 20th century, propelled by the exalting “invasion” theme from Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony (No. 7). Resembling a military march with bolero overtones, the music sweeps over imagery of combat fronts and massacres, leading us from Dresden to Guernica, from the Spanish Civil War to star wars. It is at once a symphony that serves the war machine, that stirs the masses, and art that mourns the dead, voices its outrage and calls for peace.
  • CMYK
    CMYK
    Marv Newland 2011 7 min
    This short animation is a dizzying celebration of sound, colour and movement. Here, multitudes of CMYK symbols, pulled off flaps of cereal boxes and other common printed materials, have been isolated and assembled. Freed from their workaday origins, these objects become moving artwork. Coloured dots pulsate, crosshairs roll and primary shapes dance. The result: an unrestrained riot of colour and energy.
  • Orange
    Orange
    Sylvie Trouvé 2009 1 min
    This animated short poses some interesting questions: what if buildings pulsed, trees tapped out beats, or shadows could whistle a tune? Through the creative interpretation and animation of the city's natural rhythms, Orange orchestrates a contagious urban dance.

    Produced as part of the 5th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
  • HA'Aki
    HA'Aki
    Iriz Pääbo 2008 4 min
    In this short abstract-impressionist film the animation and music were made simultaneously in an organic process of symbiotic creativity. Filmmaker Iriz Pääbo tells the highly subjective story of a complete hockey game using a new cinematic vocabulary she calls "animbits." Pääbo readily admits she is not the biggest fan of Canada's national game, so the great, though highly underappreciated NHL stalwart of the '60s and '70s, Eric Nesterenko, was her hockey muse in this artistic journey. A lyrical and wonderfully unorthodox interpretation of hockey.
  • Hunger
    Hunger
    Peter Foldès 1974 11 min
    In this animated short, director Peter Foldès depicts one man’s descent into greed and gluttony. Rapidly dissolving and ever-evolving images create a contrast between abundance and want. One of the first films to use computer animation, this satire serves as a cautionary tale against self-indulgence in a world still plagued by hunger and poverty.
  • Around Perception
    Around Perception
    Pierre Hébert 1968 16 min
    Watch an early experiment using computers to animate film. The result is a dazzling vibration of geometric forms in vivid colour, an effect achieved by varying the speed at which alternate colours change, so producing optical illusions. In between these screen pyrotechnics there appears a simple line form gyrating in smooth rhythm. Sound effects are created by registering sound shapes directly on the soundtrack of the film.
  • Notes on a Triangle
    Notes on a Triangle
    René Jodoin 1966 4 min
    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. Film without words.
  • A Matter of Form
    A Matter of Form
    René Jodoin 1984 3 min
    Set to the rousing notes of Schubert's Military March, this animation film is an ingenious example of how a single point can be the building-block for a multiplicity of shapes and configurations. Lines and forms grow out of the point, eventually covering the entire screen in splashes of colour. This is geometric wizardry at its colourful best. A film without words.
  • A Chairy Tale
    A Chairy Tale
    Norman McLaren  &  Claude Jutra 1957 9 min
    In this short film, a chair, animated by Evelyn Lambart, refuses to be sat upon, forcing a young man to perform a sort of dance with the chair. The musical accompaniment is by Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal. This virtuoso film is the result of a collaboration between Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra.
  • Synchromy
    Synchromy
    Norman McLaren 1971 7 min
    This animated short by Norman McLaren features synchronization of image and sound in the truest sense of the word. To make this film, McLaren employed novel optical techniques to compose the piano rhythms of the sound track, which he then moved, in multicolor, onto the picture area of the screen so that, in effect, you see what you hear.
  • Altötting
    Altötting
    Andreas Hykade 2020 11 min
    “You know, when I was a boy, I fell in love with the Virgin Mary. It happened in a little Bavarian town called Altötting.” Mesmerizing, haunting, and deeply personal, Altötting is a coming-of-age story about love, faith, mortality, and shattered illusions.
  • Thanadoula
    Thanadoula
    Robin McKenna 2020 6 min
    Layering real-life details with an otherworldly magic, Thanadoula recounts the story of an end-of-life doula brought to her calling through the loss of her beloved sister.
  • No Objects
    No Objects
    Moïa Jobin-Paré 2019 6 min
    Combining hands-on techniques with digital and analog technologies, No Objects transfigures forms of expression, turning photographs into etchings and sound into motion. An ode to touch in which every gesture is magnified and the image can be heard, the film offers both a bracing and contemplative meditation on the tactile world.
  • Third Page from the Sun
    Third Page from the Sun
    Theodore Ushev 2014 5 min
    Heralding the “end of paper,” this experimental animated short is an abstract exploration of a number of big issues, from the ephemerality of the digital age to the practice of recycling. To create this painting in motion, Theodore Ushev took an animation film festival catalogue and set its pages alight with the broad strokes of a paintbrush.
  • Turbine
    Turbine
    Alex Boya 2018 8 min
    A war pilot crash-lands through his apartment window. When his wife returns from work, she discovers that her husband’s face has been replaced by an airplane turbine. He’s also fallen in love with their kitchen ceiling fan. To save their faltering marriage, his wife decides she will no longer let her humanity get in the way of love.
  • I Am Here
    I Am Here
    Eoin Duffy 2016 4 min
    This short film from Eoin Duffy introduces a mysterious traveler journeying across time and space in search of the origin of life, God, and the universe. Looking for answers, he arrives at a devastating realization, yet the earth continues to spin.

    Through sharp modernist shapes and a riveting score by Menalon, I Am Here takes a curious and contemplative approach to dark and complex themes. Featuring the voice of Nicholas Campbell (Da Vinci's Inquest), the film is a thoughtful and open-ended exploration of existence itself.
  • Caterpillarplasty
    Caterpillarplasty
    David Barlow-Krelina 2018 5 min
    A prescient, grotesque sci-fi satire that lifts plastic surgery to another level. Set in a state-of-the-art clinic, in a world where advanced technologies have given rise to new standards of beauty and prestige, Caterpillarplasty offers its sardonic take on a social obsession with beauty that’s spiralled out of control.
  • The Tesla World Light
    The Tesla World Light
    Matthew Rankin 2017 8 min
    New York, 1905. Visionary inventor Nikola Tesla makes one last appeal to J.P. Morgan, his onetime benefactor. Inspired by real events, this electrifying short is a spectacular burst of image and sound that draws as much from the tradition of avant-garde cinema as it does from animated documentary.
  • A Little Craving
    A Little Craving
    Frances Adair Mckenzie 2014 1 min
    In this surrealist stop-motion animation, two disembodied wigs give in to their desires and grow themselves into something a little more whole.

    Produced as part of the 10th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
  • XO RAD Magical
    XO RAD Magical
    Christopher Gilbert Grant 2019 1 min
    XO Rad Magical is a personal lyrical poem about the daily struggle of living with schizophrenia. This psychedelic and hypnotic film shows that there is beauty in the brains of those who are at war with themselves. Produced as part of the 12th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
  • Skin for Skin
    Skin for Skin
    Kevin D.A. Kurytnik  &  Carol Beecher 2017 15 min
    Skin for Skin is a dark allegory of greed and spiritual reckoning set during the early days of the fur trade.

    In 1823, the Governor of the largest fur-trading company in the world travels across his Dominion, extracting ever-greater riches from the winter bounty of animal furs. In his brutal world of profit and loss, animals are slaughtered to the brink of extinction until the balance of power shifts, and the forces of nature exact their own terrible price.

    With nods to Melville and Coleridge, directors Kevin D.A. Kurytnik & Carol Beecher have created a visually stunning contemporary myth about the cost of arrogance and greed.
  • Detention
    Detention
    Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers  &  David Seitz 2017 37 s
    This ultra-short film proves that walls are real and borders are imaginary with an animated critique of long-term detention for minors in immigration centres.

  • Mud
    Mud
    Neal Moignard 2014 1 min
    Children guide the audience through a vision of shifting digital polygons in this CGI take of the beloved NFB classic Helicopter Canada.

    Produced as part of the 10th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
  • The Fake Calendar
    The Fake Calendar
    Meky Ottawa 2019 1 min
    A neon glimpse into a personal world within an urban landscape. From FOMO to JOMO, The Fake Calendar is an artist’s expression of how people come up with interesting and creative ways to avoid social functions in favour of their own private space.

    Produced as part of the 12th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
  • Focus
    Focus
    Alex Boya 2014 1 min
    A 1-minute cart ride through the mental shopping mall of attention deficit disorder.

    Produced as part of the 10th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
  • Bydlo
    Bydlo
    Patrick Bouchard 2012 8 min
    An allegory of mankind heading for disaster, this animated short is a tragic vision inspired by the 4th movement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Drawing on the composer’s brilliant ability to evoke work and labour in his music, animator Patrick Bouchard brings earth to life through animated clay sculptures, creating a tactile nightmare in which man is his own slave driver.
  • Mindscape
    Mindscape
    Jacques Drouin 1976 7 min
    A particularly creative example of the pinscreen animation technique, this film is about an artist who steps inside his painting and wanders about in a landscape peopled with symbols that trigger unexpected associations. Film without words.
  • A Chairy Tale
    A Chairy Tale
    Norman McLaren  &  Claude Jutra 1957 9 min
    In this short film, a chair, animated by Evelyn Lambart, refuses to be sat upon, forcing a young man to perform a sort of dance with the chair. The musical accompaniment is by Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal. This virtuoso film is the result of a collaboration between Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra.
  • Afterlife
    Afterlife
    Ishu Patel 1978 7 min
    This animated short film attempts to answer the eternal questions, What is dying? and How does it feel? Based on recent studies, case histories and some of the ancient myths, the afterlife state is portrayed as an awesome but methodical working-out of all the individual's past experiences. Film without words.
  • Angel
    Angel
    Derek May 1966 6 min
    In this short film, a young man, a girl and a dog attempt to fly with wings more symbolic than practical. Music by poet Leonard Cohen, performed by The Stormy Clovers.
  • Zea
    Zea
    André Leduc  &  Jean-Jacques Leduc 1981 5 min
    A superb visual trick that will mystify its audience, this animated film transforms the commonplace into magic.
  • Very Nice, Very Nice
    Very Nice, Very Nice
    Arthur Lipsett 1961 6 min
    Arthur Lipsett's first film is an avant-garde blend of photography and sound. It looks behind the business-as-usual face we put on life and shows anxieties we want to forget. It is made of dozens of pictures that seem familiar, with fragments of speech heard in passing and, between times, a voice saying, "Very nice, very nice." It was critically acclaimed and plays frequently in festivals and film schools around the world.
  • Two Sisters
    Two Sisters
    Caroline Leaf 1991 10 min
    This animated short, etched directly onto tinted 70 mm film, depicts the story of two sisters: Viola, who writes novels in a dark room, and Marie, her only companion. Disfigured, Viola counts on her sister to take care of her and shelter her from the outside world. But when an unexpected stranger turns up on their front door, the sisters' quiet lives are disrupted and their routine turns to chaos.
  • This Is a Recorded Message
    This Is a Recorded Message
    Jean-Thomas Bédard 1973 10 min
    This experimental animated short takes a critical look at consumerism in a material world. Thousands of cut-out ads are presented in increasingly fragmented, rapid succession. The film's disorienting and hectic pace seeks to interrogate the extent to which seductive advertising is a shockingly strong force in shaping our desires, needs, and lives in contemporary capitalism.
  • Spheres
    Spheres
    Norman McLaren  &  René Jodoin 1969 7 min
    This animated short by Norman McLaren and René Jodoin 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.
  • Series 4
    Series 4
    Normand Grégoire 1972 7 min
    This experimental short documents the clash, sometimes obsessive, sometimes glorifying, between humans and their mechanized environment. Using photographs, the animator creates varying perspectives through optical manipulation and changing colour, achieving bold and provocative effects.

    Warning: This film contains flashing images and stroboscopic sequences
  • Quilt
    Quilt
    Gayle Thomas 1996 6 min
    This abstract animated film is a tribute to the unique and long-established art form of patchwork quilting. Using computer animation, digital drafting, and experimental design techniques, this mesmerizing film choreographs quilt motifs and designs and sets them to music.
  • Poen
    Poen
    Josef Reeve 1967 4 min
    This short film features 4 readings of a prose poem from Leonard Cohen’s novel Beautiful Losers. Read by Cohen himself, the poem produces a distinct emotional effect every time it is read, following the poet’s rendition and accompanying visuals.
  • Pas de deux
    Pas de deux
    Norman McLaren 1968 13 min
    This short film by Norman McLaren is a cinematic study of the choreography of ballet. A bare, black set with the back-lit figures of dancers Margaret Mercier and Vincent Warren create a dream-like, hypnotic effect. This award-winning film comes complete with the visual effects one expects from this master filmmaker.
  • Free Fall
    Free Fall
    Arthur Lipsett 1964 9 min
    An experimental film from Arthur Lipsett, Free Fall is an assortment of film trimmings assembled to make a wry comment on humankind in today’s world. It evokes a surrealist dream of our fall from grace into banality.
  • Flutter
    Flutter
    Howie Shia 2006 6 min
    In this short animation, a young boy takes a flying leap away from normal, waves goodbye to his classmates, and disappears into the cityscape and beyond. At the same time, a young girl is inspired to reinvent her space with art.
  • Cityscape
    Cityscape
    Ryan Larkin 1966 1 min
    In this experimental animated short, Ryan Larkin creates a series of figures who move across the screen and disappear into a hole. Eventually, the hole metamorphoses into a bridge, on top of which stands the young man from whom the others figures originated.
  • Begone Dull Care
    Begone Dull Care
    Norman McLaren  &  Evelyn Lambart 1949 7 min
    In this extraordinary short animation, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted colours, shapes, and transformations directly on to their filmstrip. The result is a vivid interpretation, in fluid lines and colour, of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio.
  • Blinkity Blank
    Blinkity Blank
    Norman McLaren 1955 5 min
    This experimental short film by Norman McLaren is a playful exercise in intermittent animation and spasmodic imagery. Playing with the laws relating to persistence of vision and after-image on the retina of the eye, McLaren engraves pictures on blank film creating vivid, percussive effects.