Biology Made Un-easy

This short animated film looks at the relationship between social spaces and taboos surrounding mental illness and other forms of marginalization. The film is intended as a mood piece, a chance encounter between a lone figure and an indifferent crowd.

Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

In this short animated film, a little banjo-picking monster is trying to find her way at a signpost by the railway tracks. She sets out and finds what she is looking for in a rather surprising way.

Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

This minimalist piece of animation explores the origin of life.

Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

This short animation film is a multi–layered story of an accumulation of encounters between black clouds.

Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

Inside Hothouse 4 takes an informal look into the personalities and frenzy behind the fourth iteration of the NFB Animation Hothouse. A hand-held-mini-doc, reflective of the youthful iconoclasm of the eight emerging filmmakers (6 Canadians and 2 Brazilians). The Hothouse filmmakers and their NFB collaborators offer candid and oftentimes pithy comments on the nature of auteur animation filmmaking, the place and role of the NFB in that world, and the excitement and fear of making a first professional film. This year's Inside Hothouse mini-doc includes the process of generating podcasts for the Hothouse 4 web site.

This short animation film is about two little men floating into the deep blue sky, tied to balloons. But then each decides the sky belongs to him.

Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

In this short animation film Dale Hayward brings to life his watercolour on paper.

Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

This stop-motion animation is about a spider who professes its love for a squirrel. An interspecies courtship unfolds between the two doe-eyed neighbours. This short film is a testament to the fact that there is truly someone for everyone and that love is species blind.

Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

In this whimsical animated short, filmmaker Rachel Peters asks: "what if the laws of physics suddenly ceased to apply?" Peters explores this question through the tale of a man and his two goldfish as they prepare for the end of the world. Technique: drawn animation, digitally coloured and composited.

Produced as part of the third edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

This is a combination of stop-motion puppet and drawn animation. We observe a forlorn woman on a Halifax dock, whose loneliness is lifted by the passing of a fishing trawler. A metaphor on the connectiveness of water and water's capacity as a medium of freedom.

Produced as part of the first edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship. Theme was "Water and Our Relationship to It".

In this animated short from the Hothouse 5 series, a lonely old lady sits in an empty room knitting. As her thoughts wander, her dreams take the shape of fanciful knitted creatures and objects that cocoon her in a pattern of wonder and comfort.

Produced as part of the 5th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.