In the Box
1999
6 min
sk
A character is inside a cubical room; there is a hole in the roof, which is too high to reach. But pushing on the walls distorts the room in various ways, always appearing to bring the hole closer while still leaving it tantalizingly inaccessible.
Animation
Drama
More Like This
Memory Hotel
Germany, 1945. World War II is nearing its climactic end. Five-year-old Sophie and her parents are refugees fleeing from the advancing Red Army. They hide in a hotel, where they encounter Nazi officer Scharf and Hitler Youth member Beckmann. As the Russians come closer, Sophie falls into a lift and is knocked unconscious. Meanwhile, Scharf accidentally kills Sophie’s mother and Wassily, a paratrooper, kills her father. Time passes and teenage Sophie works for Soviet soldiers as a kitchen maid in the hotel. Food sometimes disappears, but Sophie finds the culprit: Beckmann, who has been hiding in a corridor beneath the hotel since the war ended. As an adult, Sophie reluctantly marries Wassily and develops a relationship with Beckmann. Decades go by; the Russians leave and Scharf takes over the hotel. Sophie convinces Beckmann to leave, and the pair head for the North Sea, turning their backs on the hotel and its memories.
Add to Watchlist
Experimental Animation
Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a two-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.
Love on the Wing
Animation featuring dancing black and white shadows.
The Outlaws
In the 40's, after the Spanish Civil War, many republicans defeated by the nationalist forces of Franco found refuge on the bordering mountains in the north of Portugal. Some saw them as brigands, others gave them shelter and helped them on the sly to police forces of Salazar. They were... the Outlaws.
My Grandfather's Demons
Rosa's life, a highly valued professional, is turned upside down when her grandfather Marcelino dies.
The Flesh
A debate arises between Jesus Christ and a beautiful nun about her nightlife and whether the scriptures address any punishment for her sins.
Big Underground Ball
A 20 minute masterpiece with no dialogue necessary. A King of the Forest gathers elves, sprites, and other assorted woodland spirits for a night of festivities. The spirits frolic, dance, drink, and romance. Conflicts arise and are resolved. The puppetry here is top-notch, and the rear-projections of fire and water add an extra depth to the magical world. A trip to a mysterious and happy world.
Break!
This cartoon is directed against the brutality of professional Boxing. In parody form it ridiculed unworthy methods and means used to achieve victory.
A Mighty Nice Man
Patricia Highsmith's haunting story of a day in a young girl's life when a kind stranger comes to town.
Measure
The horror of Jen's teenage past catches up with her when she takes her autistic son to a birthday party in her hometown.
Spheres
This animated short is a play on motion set against a background of multi-hued sky. Spheres of translucent pearl float weightlessly in the unlimited panorama of the sky, grouping, regrouping or colliding like the stylized burst of some atomic chain reaction. The dance is set to the musical cadences of Bach, played by pianist Glenn Gould.
Even Mice Belong in Heaven
Whizzy is a little mouse, Whitebelly is a fox. They are naturally mortal enemies. One day, after an unfortunate accident, both meet in animal heaven. Together, they will embark on a fantastic journey and discover friendship can overcome everything.
Dolls
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
No Tomorrow: A Turbo Kid Tale
This short story is a prequel to our favorite friendship unit, Apple. Follow her in her adventure from the other side of the Wasteland, right before her memorable encounter with the Kid!
Two Bagatelles
Norman McLaren instructs Grant Munro on the movements he is to make. The film technique for Two Bagatelles is pixillation, where the actor is animated frame by frame, as in the film Neighbours/Voisins.
Helium
A young boy, Alfred, is dying, but through the stories about Helium, a magical fantasy world, told by the hospital's eccentric janitor, Enzo, Alfred regains the joy and happiness of his life, and finds a safe haven away from daily life.
Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?
A comedy about a chaotic morning in a family with kids, and a mother who is determined that it's best to take care of everything herself.
Savages
In Borneo, near the tropical forest, Kéria rescues a baby orangutang in the palm oil plantation where her father works. Kéria's cousin Selaï comes to live with them seeking refuge from the conflict between his indigenous tribe and the logging companies. Kéria, Selaï and the little orangutang, now named Oshi, will have to fight against their forest’s destruction.
Not That Kind of Guy
Léto, a young trans and gay man, lives in a small, social housing apartment near Tours. During the day, he kills boredom on his phone from the ticket booth of a movie theater on its last legs. But where he's looking for feelings, he's only offered sex. So at night, he flees disillusionment by heading for the stars. The roof of his high-rise building is like his moped: a refuge, an escape. However, one morning, the parking lot of an ice rink becomes the setting for a life-changing encounter when he comes face to face with Hamza, a solitary employee with an enigmatic charm. The emotional disturbance is immediate. With all due respect to the scoundrels!
It's Just in My Head
Andreas and Alessandro are two friends who have known each other since their childhood. Now that they have grown up, they study at University in different cities but they always spend the summer together in the place where they were born: a seaside resort that regularly fills up with tourists every year.
