The term Avant-garde meaning “advance guard” or “vanguard” is used to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative. Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo. With influences coming as vitally from art, music and literature as from technology, and with experimental filmmakers defining their own paths of exploration and often crossing paths, Avant-garde in Animation filmmaking is a vast area and difficult to define.

German abstract animation filmmaker, Max Hattler will track the progress of experimental and abstract animation from the 1920s to 2010, with a selection of films that illustrate the genre.
http://www.cinephilia.co.uk/west/

21st March 2010
ANIMATED WORLDS presents Avant-garde Animation

The term Avant-garde meaning “advance guard” or “vanguard” is used to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative. Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo. With influences coming as vitally from art, music and literature as from technology, and with experimental filmmakers defining their own paths of exploration and often crossing paths, Avant-garde in Animation filmmaking is a vast area and difficult to define.

German abstract animation filmmaker, Max Hattler will track the progress of experimental and abstract animation from the 1920s to 2010, with a selection of films that illustrate the genre.

Previous ‘Animated Worlds’
18th October 2009- Lines and Scratches
15th November 2009- The Animated Documentary
20th December 2009- Bob Godfrey retrospective part 1
17th January 2010- The Animated Metaphor
21st February 2010- Authorship: Written and Drawn

Photographs by Susanne Ludwig
www.susanne-ludwig.de

The Lost Objects of Childhood
Selection of shorts curated by Deborah Levy

‘The idea that repressed anxieties and desires are embodied by objects is well established in the literature of psychoanalysis. The films selected for The Lost Objects of Childhood broaden the application of this dynamic to animation. These five films resemble postmodern fairy tales for adults. Their subject is often the experience of childhood – its passions, longings, mysteries and magical thinking. Some of the films take place in domestic enviroments that offer surreal possibilities, others in landscapes that juxtapose social realities with imagined worlds. All of the films share an interest in creating a visual grammar for the unconscious.’
http://www.arteleku.net/program/animac-in-arteleku?set_language=en

http://videoholica.org/en_2009.htm

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/news/34580/

34581/210689/020709visionawards.htm

Synopsis
The Village of Moo is kept standing because the inhabitants speak Moomoo. If they stop speaking Moomoo, the village would crumble and fall. A little boy realises that his grandfather has died and that he is the last person in Moo. Cracks begin to appear on the walls…

About the Project
This film was written in collaboration with Ambjorn Elder for the 2009 Commonwealth Awards. The theme for the Vision Awards was Global Challenges and The New Generation. The story was based on disappearing languages and how the new generation played an important role in keeping disappearing languages alive.

Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the languages spoken on Earth- many of them not yet recorded, may disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture and the natural environment.

The images below are a few sketches from the project.

Screenings and awards
2009, Highly commended Prize, The Commonwealth Vision Awards ceremony, London