The invention of music videos was purely due to the need for promotion without attending television channels. In other words, looking for the cheapest way of promotion.
We won't get into the discussion which was the first music video because it is a marshy ground. What is certain is that from the first attempts the music video clips did not aspire to more than illustrate in some way a song, or create an innovative concept to achieve a greater repercussion on the fans. As in the case of the so-called "first music videos of history"; Queen and The Beatles with their Bohemian Rhapsody and Strawberry Fields Forever, respectively.
But what no one suspected was that music videos would become an industry in itself. And only a few years later huge amounts of money would be spent to achieve the greatest impact, this clearly in coherence with the birth of capitalism and savage marketing that continues to reign in our days. As an example of those, we can remember the Michael Jackson videos from the 80's and 90's, where "Scream" had a cost of 7 million dollars. Or nowadays with music videos by Taylor Swift which costs around a million dollar per one.
If we think about animation within the first music videos, perhaps the most emblematic sample is Take on me by the Norwegian band A-ha. But since everything has a B-side history, independent music and animation have come a long way to achieve what we have today, animated music videos with a very high quality, not only narrative but also technical. These videos that thirty years ago could have cost a lot of money; with the talent and technology that we have today, music animated videos can mean a not so expensive investment for emerging bands or singers. The rest is social networks, TV channels are obsolete.
This program specially curated for Animocje festival is a sample of the quality achieved in our days and even more so, taken to the ground that mainstream does not dare to touch, which is: animated art doing more than illustrating music for promotion. Within this program, the audience will find music that will take us on a wild, funny, thoughtful and nostalgic journey with aesthetic proposals as varied as they are surprising. The films presented here achieve much more than necessary promotion, they manage to have a social, aesthetic and narrative impact. Using the music as inspiration, the animators managed to create little pieces of art.
The turning point, Steve Cutts, muzyka / music: Wantaways, 2020, 3’27’’
Very Noise, MeatDept., muzyka / music: Igorrr, 2020, 2’36’’
Underground Lovers, Gianluigi Toccafondo and Marco Molinelli, muzyka / music: C'mon Tigre, 2020, 4’29’’
Supersonics by Bechir "Jiwee" Jouini, muzyka / music: Caravan Palace, 2020, 3’
Drop to the hell by Esteban Azuela, muzyka / music: Los Viejos, 2021, 3’23’’
La rage by Alice Saey, muzyka / music: Charles Amblard, 2018, 3’53’’
MTV is my friend, Radu Popovici, muzyka / music: Sarmalele Reci, 2019, 6’33’’
L'area sta finendo, Luca Lumaca, muzyka / music: Gianna Nannini, 2020, 3’19’’
Black snot & golden squares, Irina Rubina, muzyka / music: Luis Schöffend, 2020, 1’08’’
Destroyer the protector, Space Dawg, muzyka / music: Dub Ryzor, 2020, 1’52’’
Hurt people, hurt people, Félicien Colmet Daâge, muzyka / music: Kriill, 2020, 3’28’’
Curator: Kropka (aka J. S. Álvarez)
Kropka (aka J. S. Álvarez) Kropka is a script writer for cinema, television and animation. In recent years, he has been specializing in and writing about international animation. Since 2013, he has organized and curated several animation events around the world involving festivals as different and diverse as: Etiuda&Anima, StopTrik, Animateka, Animasivo, Piccolo Festival Animazione, Żubroffka, among others. He has given diverse lectures about animation industry or history, and was a member of the jury in the Animateka Festival in 2017, PFA 2018 and Warsaw Animation Film Festival 2020. In addition, he has organized individual screenings in cultural centres, achieving a collaboration between several festivals for the sake of the big passion that unites them all – animation.
It is perhaps this independent and outside-the-rules spirit that made him seriously consider founding ReAnima in Bergen, Norway. He believes that the ReAnima festival is a cultural and artistic channel for bringing new perspectives and helping us to understand and maintain a dialogue with the global environment in our times.
When he is not curating animation programs, he is writing about animation or making videos about animation or producing animation shorts or watching animation or just having fun in the alternative animated realities. Very boring.
