Independent Film Appreciation

FALL 2010

1. French Roast [8 mins] Animation; the guy who couldn’t pay for his coffee and was too proud to say so, but an honest hobo changes his mind

2. Pib & Pog [6 mins] The semi-violent claymation of two “friends”

3. Sleeping Betty [9 mins] Animation;a modern Sleeping Beauty even Prince Charming couldn’t kiss awake

4. Subservience [8 mins] A claymation depicting the relationship between indifferent masters and passive servants

5. Raymond [5.5 mins] A slightly scientific one about “chasing your dreams”, testing chemicals on people that make them walk, jump, dance, etc

6. Maestro [5 mins]  Animation; the cuckoo bird preparing for his entrance

7. Last Hand Standing [7 mins] Romantic one with the car contest :p

8. The Unnameable Broom or, The Epic of Gilgamesh [10.5 mins] The freakyish stop-motion by the Quay Brothers

9. Rent-A-Person [12 mins] Contains musical elements; A lonely restaurant waiter gets rich off his idea of people being rented for the carpool lane, meets his waitress after leaving his job ;)

10. Spider [9 mins] An angry couple stops for gas at a rest stop, where the boyfriend buys a few things from the quick mart to say he’s sorry, but adds in some fake spiders too, resulting in a gruesome scene LOL 

11. Alma [5 mins] Animation; Never try to buy dolls that look exactly like you in the window..

12. La Royaume / ”The King and the Beaver” [4 mins] Animation; The greedy king and the cute little outcast beaver who builds him his wooden castle, but le Beaver rebels! :p

13. Pigeon Impossible [6 mins] Animation; An evil pigeon chasing after a bagel that belongs to an earnest undercover government operator with a missile launcher…

14. Validation [16 mins] Same people who did Rent-A-Person, this one will definitely make you SMILE :) This one’s about the guy who makes everyone smile and the girl who just wouldn’t smile…

15. Bottle [5 mins] By Kirsten Lepore, A really great stop-motion short with a sandman and a snowwoman communicating by objects in a glass bottle across the sea…

16. Grocery Store Wars [5.5 mins] The galactic battle between organic and genetically-modified food!

17. La Revolution Des Crabes / The Crab Revolution [5 mins] Black and white animation; A narrative about the lives of crabs and what happens when one doesn’t adhere to their way of life…

18. Sweet Dreams [9.5 mins] By the stop-motion master, Kirsten Lepore; this one’s about the cupcake who is ship-wrecked in an island that will change his life foreverrr :)

19. The Magic Mile [6.5 mins] A deaf girl and a crippled man recover their lost senses on a magic mile strip of beach land…

20. Spin [8 mins] If God was a dj…. ;D

21. The Lady and the Reaper [8 mins] Animation; A comedic fight between a doctor and a grim reaper and an old woman who just wants to reunite with her husband again

22. La vie d’un chien / The Life of a Dog [13 mins] A dog-loving scientist creates a potion that can transform humans into dogs! :); a story told in photographs

23. Tachaaan! [4.5 mins] Animation; That one clown-dude that wouldn’t mind his own business..and picked a fight with an elephant :p

24. Noel Noel [22.5 mins] Animation; Pronounced “NO-ole no-EL”, a rhyming Christmas story behind this scrooge-like person and how he’s changed by little Zoey and her dog Snooze :3 I don’t think we ever finished this…

SPRING 2011

25. Fluffy McCloud! [3 mins] Cute and funny animation ;)

26. El Valero del Dinero / The Value of Money [7 mins] All the intangible things money could never buy, like suicides, other death, new consciences, etc. XD

27. Invention of Love [9.5 mins] A tragic love story in a world of gears and bolts, where the girl marries a guy who invents things, she dies from the man-madeness of the city; really great silhouette animation and music composition!

28. Home Game [9.5 mins] Can this guy make it out of bed and to work on time? Two sports announcers do a play-by-play and egg him on behind their glass ^^

29. The Gentlemen’s Guide to Villainy [1.5 mins] A old-style silent film telling a guy how to be a villain by roping a lady to train tracks, but forgets to check when the train schedule :P

30. Kitchen Sink [13.5] DUN DUN DUN, the one that pretty much grossed everyone out haha.The hair in the kitchen sink turned out to be a man! And the ending, ohhh that ending!

31. Elk Hair Caddis [4.5 mins] Animated short about a bear who goes fishing but accidentally hooks a beer-drinking frog instead :p

32. Une Histoire Vertebrale / A Backbone Tale [9 mins] CUTE animation by Jeremy Clapin; one man who’s spine leaves him forever bent over, and one woman who’s vertebrae keeps her facing upwards, both in an L shape… and she lives on the floor below him! :D

33. Snack Attack [3 mins] Primitive Pete and a vendor machine full of meat! 

34. Laspus [3.3 mins] A curious nun ventures into the darker side of her world :)

35. Alarm [8.5 mins] The guy who puts alarms everywhere to get up, to brush his teeth, make toast, watch a little TV, and get dressed for work. haha

36. J’Attendrai Le Suivant / I’ll Wait For the Next One [4 mins] The guy who does a sketch on the subway about needing a girl like him, and the hopeful woman who falls for it :(

37. Eksamen / Examination [6.5 mins] When that exam gets too stressful, get up and DANCE! :D

38. Skhizein [13 mins] Animation also by Jeremy Clapin; about a guy with schizophrenia who believes he’s gotten hit by a meteorite ends up 91 centimeters away from himself…

39. Mixtape [2.3 mins] The boy next door gives the girl next door a mixtape of a song they both love. hehe

40. PLEASE SAY SOMETHING [10 mins] A troubled relationship set between a Cat and Mouse set in the distant future :) contains cussing

41.  the silence beneath the bark / le silence sous l’ecorce [10.5 mins] Animation; About two curious creatures awakened from hibernation in the dead of winter, they have a magical time; VERY CUTE

42. The Clap [12 mins] About the guy who always wants to be the first clapper at every classical music concert, until he annoys a very famous pianist/composer… :D

43. Day & Night [6 mins] Animation; Disney Pixar’s short film Oscar nominee

44. One Rat Short [8.5 mins] Really Good Animation; A tragic love story between a scrappy street rat and a beautiful white lab rat.

45. The Lost Thing [14.5 mins] The short film animation by Shaun Tan that won the Oscar award! About a lost thing that doesn’t belong, but find its way home eventually with the help of a guy who notices it when no one else does.

46. Oktapodi [2.2 mins] Animated short; Two octopi attempt to escape capture together!

47. Tete-a-Tete-a-Tete [12.5 mins] Animation; About how we’re all connected but need to think our own way :)

48. Bendito Machine [4.5 mins] Animation; A machine that people treat as a God, that produces things they need, until people on the other side of the hill take over and replace it with something more productive, leading to disastrous consequences.

49. Signs [12 mins] A guy and a girl communicating with signs across their office building windows ^^

50. Lifted [4.5 mins] Animation; Disney-Pixar; A young alien son being taught how to abduct sleeping humans :)

51. Logorama [16 mins] Animation; LOGOS LOGOS EVERYWHERE.. Disaster in the form of underground oil drowning the city… :) Very thrilly and actiony and violent and cussy and AWESOME.

52. The Ghosts [13 mins] ”Girls, Boys, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Sex, Guns, Leather, Summer, Humidity, Suburbia.” :)

53. A Gentlemen’s Duel [7 mins] Animation; An Englishman and a Frenchman fighting over a woman haha

54. Fallout [13 mins] Los Angeles has fallen victim to a nuclear attack from an unknown aggressor. In the aftermath of the bombing, a young mans search for his girlfriend highlights the human toll of eternal war.

55. Incident at Tower 37 [10.5 mins] Animation; Tower 37 siphons water out of a once-pristine lake, the tower guard realizes what it’s doing to the ecosystem and decides to put a stop to it.

56. Frank Dancoolo: Paranormal Drug Dealer [7.5 mins] Reporter Holly Malone (who follows the instincts of her uterus) tracks down the drug dealer Dancoolo, only to find that he’s actually a good guy and her boss is the bad guy. Hilarious stuff, one of my personal favorites hahhahah