Accessible on our online festival platform July 24 – 25
Q&A with the directors live-streamed Sunday July 25 at 5pm
Open the doors of imagination with this medley of colourful animated short films.
COCKPERA
Kata Gugić, Croatia, 2020, 4.5 min.
A short opera inspired by Æsop’s fable “The Fighting Cocks and the Eagle.” Just a regular cock fight.
This film contains explicit imagery and is only available in Canada.
DRINKER – EVEN IF I KNOW
Tyler Byrnes, USA, 2020, 5 min.
World festival premiere
In the music video for Drinker’s EVEN IF I KNOW, a being made of rebar and restrained by concrete blocks tries to escape a Brutalist hellscape as the architecture closes in around them. The being’s blocks are broken both by accident and by intention, freeing them from their captivity. As we learn and change, both by accident and by intention, we break the shell of ignorance built around us by institutions. But even if we know, can we resist a system that would do this to us in the first place?
GRIFFURE (SCRATCH)
Julien Piau, France, 2021, 6 min.
North American festival premiere
Separation, loneliness and a deadly smell tarnish the lives of the occupants of the forest.
QUIET
Marianne Bundgaard Nielsen, Norway, 2018, 7 min.
Canadian festival premiere
QUIET is a kaleidoscope of traumatic emotions from unhappy childhoods. In a series of tableaux, scenes of neglect, alcoholism and depression fill the screen, showing us the deep and often lifelong impact of childhood traumas. What can children do but stay quiet?
This film depicts topics of alcoholism, addiction, mental illness, domestic violence and child abuse.
SNEAK UP
Raymond Caplin, Canada, 2020, 3 min.
Ontario festival premiere
SNEAK UP is about a song and dance known as “sneak up.” It’s a traditional dance I’ve seen at my powwow growing up, it intrigued me and always was my favourite. I decided to rotoscope the dance in hopes of conveying a visual story. The dance is meant to convey the movement of a warrior, tracking down his enemies and sneaking up for an attack.
MOONFRUITS – LES MARINS 
Andrew Robillard, Canada, 2020, 6.5 min.
World festival premiere
LES MARINS is a music video based in the fictional town of Ste-Quequepart, where workers are under an oppressive rule. The story follows two young characters who rally the townsfolk to rise up for freedom.
LILIANA
Milanka Fabjančič, Slovenia, 2019, 7 min.
Canadian festival premiere
Liliana, a young and modest girl, works in a factory. With her fellow female workers, she produces small and curious objects. She might look dreamy, but her life is hard work! In the evenings, just before sleep, she takes a mysterious glowing object from her chest. In the morning, she puts it back to its place. One evening, we will discover the driving force of her everyday life and a secret buried deep in her heart.
This film contains explicit imagery.
UNWANTED GIFT
Bomin Lee, Republic of Korea, 2020, 8 min.
Canadian festival premiere
On a dark night, a girl carrying a gift she didn’t want meets a woman in an alley.
This film depicts topics of misogyny and transgender discrimination.
BABEHEAVEN – CRAZIEST THINGS
Sacha Beeley, United Kingdom, 2020, 3 min.
Canadian festival premiere
Music video for CRAZIEST THINGS by Babeheaven, directed and animated by Sacha Beeley.
HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING
Aaron Holmes, USA, 2019, 5 min.
Canadian festival premiere
A poem of hope, despite looming apocalypses. Wonder at human flight curdles into dread; abstract fears of world-spanning system collapse become tangible in the bond between parent and child. Constructed by mining through airline safety pamphlets in search of buried meanings, resulting in a juxtaposition of ancient destruction myths, contemporary iconography and expectations of a brighter, stranger human future.
This film contains strobing imagery.
THE EDGE
Zaide Kutay & Géraldine Cammisar, 2020, 7 min.
Canadian festival premiere
A withdrawn truck driver collides with his parallelism and the world goes off the rails.
= local production
Mirror Mountain Film Festival 