These toons are chocked full of furry animals and imaginative creatures but they are not for Sunday morning. The twisted and perverse landscapes of our annual Dark Toons program provide a unique backdrop for stories of life askew. From a true story of forced labor at communist-era prison that kept megastores in the West fully-stocked to a beautifully-animated and probably-alcoholic badger which has a run-in with the law and a woman who can’t stop growing fingers, these tales remind us that animation is the ideal medium to glimpse the darker side of life.
The Films
Hot Dog Hands
Matt Reynolds | USA | 7
This woman can't stop growing fingers.
Decorado
Alberto Vazquez | Spain, France | 11
The world is a wonderful stage, but its characters are disgraceful.
Paris
Justine Vuylsteker | France | 3
A man walks among the streets of Paris. Around him, the city is waking up. Adapted from a poem by Robert Desnos. A sand and cut-paper animation.
Journal Animé
Donato Sansone | France | 4
An artistic improvisation in real time led and inspired by the international event of the pages of the French daily newspaper Libération.
Railment
Shunsaku Hayashi | Japan | 10
In a continuous scenery, his physical movement stays in the same position. The speed of the continuity and his movement have accelerated and gradually cause a distortion.
Chella Drive
Adele Li | USA | 3
A disembodied memory of adolescence in a California suburb. The stuck-stillness of endless summer is interrupted only by a passing El Niño.
Lovestreams
Sean Buckelew | USA | 9
A story of net-cross'd lovers.
Summer's Puke is Winter's Delight
Sawako Kabuki | Japan | 3
Painful events become memories over time. Still, we vomit and eat again. Life is Eco.
Scavengers
Joseph Bennett, Charles Huettner | USA | 8
Scavengers is a surreal sci fi journey into the unknown centered around two main characters as they struggle to find a way of getting some sense of what they had back on earth. It's a story about the exploration of the human condition surviving in an unforgiving world.
Lo
Ted Wiggin | USA | 3
We must protect this house.
Nighthawk
Špela Čadež | Slovenia, Croatia | 9
A badger lies motionless on a local road. A police patrol approaches the body in the dark. They soon realise that the animal is not dead; the badger is dead drunk! When the police attempt to drag the creature off the road, he wakes up and things take a strange turn.
Broken – The Women's Prison at Hoheneck
Volker Schlecht, Alexander Lahl | Germany | 7
Gabriele Stoetzer and Birgit Willschuetz were political inmates at Hoheneck Castle, the most notorious women’s prison in East Germany. Their story is one of overcrowded cells, despotic hierarchies, ruthless everydays, and the enduring effects of incarceration. Most of all, however, it is about the crushing pressure of forced labour. Prisoners at Hoheneck manufactured millions of pantyhose, bed sheets, and other products for West German retailers, bringing enormous profits to both sides of the Iron Curtain. Part of the young animadoc tradition, the seven-minute film pairs original audio interview extracts with abstract, monochrome animation.
Serpentine
Bronwyn Maloney | USA | 3
In the midst of reflective fantasy, a young woman's inner thoughts arouse a surreal exploration of sensuality, self-esteem, and deeply rooted fears. Her arrival is one of strength, beauty, and greater character.
