New to the Indie Animation Mixtape: July 8, 2021
The first half of our recent additions to the ongoing Indie Animation Mixtape Vimeo channel
We may be behind on the summaries, but rest assured, we've been steadily adding to the Indie Animation Mixtape since our last update over a month ago. This post has about half of the new additions, and we'll be sharing the rest soon—or you could just head to the channel on Vimeo if you want to stay on top of new additions to the 600+ films in the channel. As usual, it's an eclectic mix of mostly contemporary, mostly 2D animation that we believe represent some of the best of what this medium can do.
Railment
Shunsaku Hayashi
9:53 | 2017
Winner of Best Animated Film at the 55th Ann Arbor Film Festival, Hayashi's film is a difficult one to describe, transforming train cars and subway crowds into an eerie setting where the laws of physics seem to be breaking down.
Lichtspiel Opus 1
Walter Ruttmann
11:43 | 1921
The first publicly screened abstract film, or so they say. An early exploration of the expressive ability of colour and shape.
Appease the Peas, Please
Arius Ziaee
4:13 | 2020
With shades of Amy Lockhart's QAS-produced Walk for Walk, and Chad VanGaalen's gloopy morphs, this video for noise rockers Sea Moss uses lo-fi animated loops to capture the band's organized chaos.
Lizard Ladder
Ted Wiggin
5:22 | 2020
Wiggin's film isn't the first to use software to generate the movement between key frames, but his custom Lizard Ladder software is a novel twist on the approach, fusing an Amiga aesthetic with psychedelic flair.
Xylophone
Jennifer Levonian
8:50 | 2016
Her watercolour cutouts are impressively realistic, but Levonian's films leave plenty of room for heightened playfulness. To see more of the same style and gentle humour, see 2018's Lost Islands of Philadelphia.
Infinite Water
Sunny Liang
3:33 | 2015
A celebration of beauty and connection, Liang's film is a pastel-coloured joy. Doodles and marginalia are recombined in After Effects into a swirling visual symphony.
such a good place to die
Onohana
3:13 | 2015
An ambiguous film set in an ever-shifting landscape. We tried to decipher it in a Monday Short post last May, but whatever the film's meaning, there's no denying its beauty.
Forming Game
Malcolm Sutherland
5:44 | 2008
Former QAS member Malcolm Sutherland has a knack for building philosophical depth into simple (but deceptively complex) images. Forming game is about perception, creation, and more—and as the making of video shows, its creation was anything but straightforward.
A Family That Steals Dogs
John C Kelley
7:30 | 2020
An unusual memoir and a striking story, animated in stark sketches and abstract forms. Death, memory, family, and mental illness, presented with the plainspoken poetry that comes with grief.
Mercury's Retrograde
Zohar Dvir
6:33 | 2020
After misplacing a Magic 8 Ball, a millennial sinks into her unconscious mind, experiencing a series of bizarre encounters and surreal settings in this GIRAF1-selected student film.
Island
Max Mörtl & Robert Löbel
2:30 | 2017
The routines of an island's unusual flora and fauna build to a satisfying rhythmical performance in this strangely satisfying collaborative animation.
La boum du gardon
Catherine Manesse
0:30 | 2019
A 30-second animation about a fish that wants to join the party. What more do you need?