Every Tuesday, Chris Robinson digests and dissects (relatively) new indie animation short films.
'Celebration and Chorale' by Yukie Nakauchi
Put aside your cheap chocolates and factory cards and all that assorted material crap you’re hoodwinked into buying because this is supposed to be THAT day where you damn well better show LOVE to everyone. I have something to share that’s so much sweeter and won’t hurt your blood sugar levels.
Yukie Nakauchi’s surprising student gem (from the wonderful Tama Art University in Japan), Celebration and Chorale (2013) has a sort of Fantasia minus Mickey vibe as the protagonist appears to unveil and conduct the images and sounds in her head for us. I remember seeing this late in the selection process one year in Ottawa. It was so out of sync with all the talky, fast paced entries. It was slower, quieter, calm and, unlike the endless stream of woe is me films, this was bursting with genuine love and wonder and excitement.
So sit back in your Ikea office chair and allow this mesmeric sensation (featuring a score by Niel DePonte) to take you beyond your current time and space and colleagues. For a few minutes, allow the fleeting touch of a stranger to bring you closer something good.
You'll awake. There will be light. Dazed but refreshed you'll float from your office chair only to be momentarily ear-punched by the pained, disjointed moans of the i-didnt-get-it companion as they flee fecklessly in search of something they already have, but cannot recognize.
Or maybe they just went off to the washroom.
Not sure.
A well-known figure in the world of independent animation, writer, author & curator Chris Robinson is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
