Three Little Cats

Be warned.  This is sad. Heartbreakingly sad.  A happy cat family is left in mourning when the mother dies.  However, that is just the beginning of a run of misfortune which, in the end, leaves a single survivor.

Trois Petits Chats (as it is known in French!) was co-directed by four students:Benoît Delaunay, Albane Hertault Lacoste, Maïwenn le Borgne and Alexia Provoost who created it as part of their degree studies at Supinfocom.  It won Best Student Short Film - Effets Stars - in France as well as appearing at a number of other festivals.

Sunday Short Movie: 1982

We’re not all about loud bangs, laser guns and space ships at Kuriositas.  This is a new feature for our readers – a Sunday Short Movie that will be entertaining, heart-warming and perhaps even uplifting while retaining our promise to you to only deliver the highest quality film and animation.  So, make a date each Sunday for something quite special.

Our first feature presentation is 1982, written and directed by Jeremy Breslau.  It tells the story of a blocked novelist reflects on a pivotal year in his life when he struggled for the attention of his bickering parents.  It may not, from that description, sound like something which will warm the cockles of your heart, but trust us!

Blackbirds by Gretchen Peters

Gretchen Peters has been a famous face on the American music scene for two decades.  Her latest single, Blackbirds, is a wonderful slice of American noir which pools her eclectic musical influences in to a murder ballad which tells the last chapter of a family’s history.  Together with a great stop motion silhouette animation from Eric Power this might not be one to show the kids just before bedtime. Oh, go on then.

Legacy

Sometimes the burden of family history – its legacy if you like – can weigh heavily upon someone.  So it is with the hero of this animated short written and directed by Adam Floeck.  Yet whether one makes one’s own way in this world or follows in the footsteps of who went before, perhaps the greatest resolution is to do it for yourself.  Maybe that is the greatest legacy anyone can bestow upon their children – the right to make decisions for themselves.

This is a thought-provoking and beautifully made animated short.  It is even more of an achievement when you take in to account that Floeck created it while a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design.  As an undergraduate piece this is outstanding.

My Eternity

Sometimes we lose people we love – and that can be a time which is difficult to bear because all you can see is an eternity – my eternity – ahead without that person in your life. Yet what can make these periods in our lives easier to tolerate are the memories which those loved ones leave behind.

Here, a family loses a husband and a father. The daughter reflects – and remembers one moment that she shared with her father which could become her eternal and most abiding memory of him. Beautifully made, this short film which combines live action and animation was made by Michael Bauer.

When it gets tough, remember the happy times...

Family Cycle Train

Image Credit Flickr User Amsterdamize

Times are hard and people the world over are exploring new ways to save money. This family in Amsterdam seem to have taken the green message to heart and happily get around the city by pedal power. Who said you needed a beast of a machine to move people from one place to another?

Love Nest

You may actually wonder for a second or two what the video above is doing on Kuriositas. After all, with due respects to its creator, the characters are not the best drawn in the entire universe.

To be honest, with a script as sharp as this they could have just been the vaguest of squiggles and I would still have included this little gem amongst the Oscar winners and nominees you might normally expect to see here. The short animation, Love Nest is both seasonal (in as much as it features a pair of robins) and a fond, if somewhat jagged, take on married life.

The animation which comes in under four minutes in length made me laugh out loud several times - and surely the key to good comedy is to do just that.  I could add that the laughter was induced as much by my recognition of some of the circumstances portrayed within the short as the delivery of the lines themselves.  Oh, I just did. Put it another way - if you have ever cohabited (and produced offspring), you will see the truth in much of the humor on display here.

Love Nest is the creation of Sami Abusamra who works as an editor to pay the bills  but who also directs - his aim is to make feature films in the future.  In fact he is seriously looking for a collaborator (one, he says, who can draw) so if you are interested drop by his Vimeo page and make contact! 

A Tale of Delight

Get your hankies out.  This short film is special but you may need something in which to catch your tears.

One Christmas Eve, a young writer, Michael, helplessly witnesses his wife's tragic death on the porch outside their home.

A year later, as his family celebrates the holiday season, Michael's depression leads him towards suicide. Only his sister, Camille, recognizes his desperation and sees where this need for peace is leading him. Now, she must convince him that a joy exists, despite horror and grief, and that it is something worth fighting for.

This film, inspired by real life events, explores the craving for happiness at the heart of human action, regardless of the means we employ.

This short film was made by Edd Blott.  He is a Minneapolis-based writer and director with one passion in his life: To tell compelling stories and address life-changing themes through his films to renew a creative hunger in the souls of his fellow artists. He lives to help other artists look inward to create more beautiful art.

The Neanderthal in You

Have you ever wondered what it means to be human? Well if you haven’t then many scientists, theologians and philosophers have given it quite a lot of thought over the last six thousand years or so. For that amount of time we have thought we were pretty much unique – a one of a kind.

However, new evidence shows that we are more related to our closes ancestors, the Neanderthals, than anyone had previously guessed. Here Stephen Nash, a Denver Museum of Nature and Science scientist explains this link to the Neanderthal, with the aid of some excellent visuals.