A tribute to stopmotion supremo and special effects genius extraordinaire Ray Harryhausen, the man behind some of cinema's greatest fantasy films - The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Jason & The Argonauts and One Million Years BC. Featuring exclusive footage of Harryhausen at work on his first stopmotion for over 20 years, and contributions from many of Hollywood's top special effects directors and creators.
Ray HarryhausenSelf
Tom BakerSelf - Narrator (voice)
James CameronSelf
Stan WinstonSelf
Joe DanteSelf
Dennis MurenSelf
Charles H. SchneerSelf
John Phillip LawSelfThe tragedy of the Syrian people: War, conflict, loss, migration, exile, asylum, detention, drowning… A deserted place. Abandoned people. Abandoned country. The doors slammed shot; the doors are now locked - the keys thrown away...for what seems forever.
Good Grief is a short stop motion animated documentary that explores the lessons we learn from dealing with grief and loss. Five real people share their true stories of losing something precious and what it has taught them about living.
For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.
Sketch Film #5 (Tomonari Nishikawa, 2007, 3 min., super 8, silent, 18/24fps, b&w, USA) This is the last film in the series. I shot at the site of Marin Headlands County in California when I was an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Art. The footage shows the nature in the area, as well as the historic buildings originally built for the US Army, including batteries and the Nike Missile Site. It was all edited in camera and hand-processed afterwards.
In December 2011, a security guard was killed by a pack of stray dogs prowling in a poor neighbourhood on the Bogota suburbs.
A prominent Russian ballet dancer and teacher Alexander Shiryaev had another talent hidden for almost a century. Archive materials that date back to 1906 reveal his bold experiments at stop-motion and paper animation.
Eric Leiser displays his boundless creativity in this short collection; A stunning compilation of works presented with a mixture of live action, stop motion animation, puppetry and pixilation techniques, produced between 2001 and 2006.
A documentary about an old animation technique and the film studio that tries to carry on the legacy. The worlds oldest animation studio still making film with stop motion technique is Nukufilm located in Tallinn, Estland. Here we can follow the work in the studio which was founded in the Soviet era and has survived heavy censorship and global competition.
As an actor, director and producer, Ray Harryhausen has been a vibrant figure in Hollywood, working on everything from family films to mind-bending sci-fi. But his true genius lay in the creation of special effects for movies such as Mighty Joe Young and It Came from Outer Space. Narrated by Leonard Nimoy and featuring appearances by George Lucas and Ray Bradbury, this film documents Harryhausen's remarkable life's work.
The Quays' interest in esoteric illusions finds its perfect realization in this fascinating animated lecture on the art of anamorphosis. This artistic technique, often used in the 16th- and 17th centuries, utilizes a method of visual distortion with which paintings, when viewed from different angles, mischievously revealed hidden symbols.
Follow the animated journey of an Indigenous photographer as she travels through time. The oral and written history of her family reveals the story — we witness the impact and legacy of the railways, the slaughter of the buffalo and colonial land policies.
For three and a half centuries, from the same day that Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) applied his last brushstroke to the canvas, the enigma of “Las meninas, o La familia de Felipe IV” (1656) has not been deciphered. The secret story of a painting unveiled as if it was the resolution of a perfect crime.
An autobiographical, partly animated, documentary about a filmmaker striving for a better future as a survivor of childhood sexual assault.
The original 54-minute documentary, as broadcast by Channel Four on 20 June 1984, after which the animated links by the Quay Brothers were recompiled as a separate short.
Poland, 1970. When popular protests erupt in the streets due to rising prices, the communist government organizes a crisis team. Soon after, the police use their truncheons and then their firearms. The story of a rebellion from the point of view of the oppressors.
The untold state of mind dealing with an incurable disease. One is wondering if there's still a dream to achieve in life. One is running as if this free spirit of mine has never been taken away.
A stop-motion adaptation of the 1981 novel by geologist Dougal Dixon of the same name, which explores the speculative paths of evolution of modern animals into the far future.
A documentary about autism and sensory perception that features live-action and animated segments.
A documentary on the making of Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case trilogy.
A look inside the Will Vinton Studio, with specializes in stop-motion animations with clay. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.