The City (Osaka)

The NFB's 16th Oscar®-nominated film.

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.

The NFB's 22nd Oscar®-nominated film.

This animated short proposes what many earthlings have long feared – that the automobile has inherited the planet. When life on Earth is portrayed as one long, unending conga-line of cars, a crew of extra-terrestrial visitors understandably assume they are the dominant race. While humans, on the other hand, are merely parasites. An Oscar® nominee, this film serves as an entertaining case study.

This short cartoon film for young kids tells the adventures of a little chick from the time he falls from an egg basket and breaks out of his shell. Together with a duck who waddles along, he goes to explore the world and discovers there is much to learn, even in his own farmyard. (The Peep Show is an early version of the acclaimed cartoon Peep and the Big Wide World.)

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.

This animated short is a visual representation of Goethe's poem, The ErlKing that uses sand-on-glass animation set to the music of Franz Schubert. The moving images, resembling woodcuts, capture the haunting, nightmarish quality of the tale of the ErlKing who steals and kills a little boy.

A film without commentary in which multiple images, sometimes complementary, sometimes contrasting, draw the viewer through the different stages of a labyrinth. The tone of the film moves from great joy to wrenching sorrow; from stark simplicity to ceremonial pomp. It is life as it is lived by the people of the world, each one, as the film suggests, in a personal labyrinth.

In the Labyrinth was first released as a multi-screen presentation for Chamber III of the Labyrinth at Expo 67. These separate images were integrated into a single strand of film, using a "five-on-one" cinematic technique.

Reflection is an exploration of Montreal through an abstract lens. Director Sylvie Trouvé examines how reflected images pervade our surroundings, how our senses filter out these ghost images and, finally, how the camera can capture emotions created by a shimmering puddle or a sparkling coloured glass surface. At the same time, Trouvé raises a new awareness of our urban environment. The editing, which animator Theodore Ushev collaborated on in a spirit of mutual emulation, embraces an animation aesthetic that fully respects the filmmaker’s artistic vision. While examining our relationship with images, this exploration of the city blurs the distinction between real-life shots and animation. Indeed, though inspired by reality, the film is thoroughly immersed in the world of animation.

Film d'animation illustrant l'écrasement de l'homme moderne par le rouleau compresseur de la performance. Entre figuration et abstraction, Drux Flux s'inspire de L'homme unidimensionnel du philosophe Herbert Marcuse. Le cinéaste déconstruit les paysages industriels et met en cause la suprématie de la technique au dépend de l'humanité.

Everyone has wondered what it would be like to dig right through to the other side of the Earth. This animated short takes that notion one step further. Here, the probe is accomplished by an ingenious machine dubbed Old Chucknose, which with the help of amazing gadgetry, bores through every layer of the Earth’s crust and centre.

For more background info on this film, visit the NFB.ca blog.

A film that enlarges on humanity’s capacity to foul its own nest, and to ignore it. Made by a joint team of Canadian and Croatian animation artists, the film transmits its warning with unflagging humour, imagination, movement and design. It consists of 14 shorts, as well as comical segments—played by actors—that introduce and serve as transitions between the animated pieces. The film comments on our responsibility, on a global scale, to conserve what is left of our vital resources and usable environment.

This short animation about the perils of tobacco smoking takes us to the kingdom of King Size, a land where "no smoking" is illegal. Here, intoxication dangers and health risks linked to cigarettes are blissfully ignored, and non-smokers are unwelcome. A humorous invitation for young people not to start smoking, or if they have, to relinquish the hazardous habit.