Chainsmoker

It is hard to give up smoking, especially if you have been doing it and enjoying it all your adult life. However, sometimes life can be a little cruel and here an inveterate chain smoker finds herself in sheltered accommodation for the elderly – where smoking is forbidden.  Add to that a caretaker who is more than keep to stop people indulging in their tobacco vices and you have something akin to a geriatric covert operation which, you know, is never going to go well!

Chainsmoker was created Ulf Lundgren of Lost Liner Productions back in 2001 but it only saw the light of day in terms of the internet a few years ago.  I have to say that although it is over a twenty years old the digital techniques used here still stand up very well indeed. Yet the most important elements of animation – character and plot – ensure that it would still be more than watchable however it was made.

Medicine - A Dance Film

Dancer and choreographer  Zack Benitez approached creative agency Carlos et Marcos with the idea of telling a story through dance. It is a love story tangled in addiction. It tells of a lover struggling with her partner’s disease and the person he once was, only to succumb to his demons and dive head first into his addiction. Tamara Marthe joined Benitez to tell this powerful story, shot in an abandoned warehouse in Paris.

Glued

This may more than resonate if you have had the misfortune of raising a video game addict.  Here a young mother tries to lure her son away from his games consoles until finally resorting to desperate measures. Yet, is it too late?

This is a student film made as part of the third year of animation studies at the Bezalel Academy of the Arts.  It took us 10 months to create from concept to final render. As ever with Bezalel it is wonderfully made - and promises great things for the future of the tyro-animators.

And who are they? It represents the first CG film by Alon Tako, Guy Elnathan, Daniel Lichter and Sivan Kotek. The soundtrack is provided by Assaf Shlomi. Take a visit to their website, which tracks the creation of Glued.

Bittersweet

This is a rather unusual animated short film about the nature of addiction.  If you have ever been addicted to anything you may well recognise the compulsions that the protaganist - in this case a watch - goes through. 

Even though his addiction means placing himself in danger and knowingly so, it seems almost fated that he does what he does, that he has little or no choice in the matter.

This was a solo procuction by Tim van Hussen for his graduation from the Willem de Kooning Academy.  As such it is a very mature piece of animation for someone still learning his trade and congratulations must go to him for producing such a heartfelt and grownup piece.