A block of short animated films about taste and relationships (with food). To crumble, to break, to shatter – stories starting from saltiness in the mouth, through salty tears, to salty water bodies. Taste both literally and metaphorically. Salty physically and emotionally. Desire and intensified craving.
Food, Michaela Mihalyi, Czech Republic, 2017, 1’25
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There are different kinds of food.
Meal on the plate, Chenglin Xie, United States, 2022, 7’
You are what you eat. In a world where people start to look like the thing they eat most, you can take this quite literally. When a newcomer arrives, the visible consequences turn the world upside down.
Dinner for few, Athanassios Vakalis, United States/Greece, 2014, 10’
“Dinner For Few” is an allegorical depiction of our society. During dinner, "the system” feeds the few who consume all the resources while the rest survive on scraps. Inevitably, the struggle for what remains leads to a catastrophic change. The offspring of this transition turns out not to be a sign of hope, but the spitting image of the parents.
Your Own Bullshit, Daria Kopiec, Poland, 2020, 6’25”
There's nothing better than dinner with family, although it seems like a looped script that repeats itself infinitely. Also, except food, you have to swallow the words of your loved ones. Sometimes they're bitter. Sometimes they're so repetitive they make you want to puke. Perfectly repeated for many long years.
One human family, food for all, Denizcan Yuzgul, Czech Republic, 2017, 1’09”
Based on an ancient story about hunger and sharing, this animated video is part of Caritas’ “One Human Family, Food for All” campaign. The “allegory of the spoons” teaches us that when we struggle to feed only ourselves, everyone goes hungry. But when we focus on our neighbour’s hunger, we discover there are ways to feed everyone.
Ain’t no fish, Mike Cash, Tom Gasek, United Kingdom, 2014, 4’
Ain’t No Fish’ is a short stop motion animated film featuring a bunch of hungry Arctic seals singing along to the music and lyrics of Sigman and Russell as performed by Hoagy Carmichael. It’s an ‘easy-go-lucky’ song about fishing and why ‘Some Days There Just Ain’t No Fish’. As the animated seals sing along to the show tune it’s slowly revealed in the background why there ‘Ain’t No Fish.’ Despite the upbeat attitude of the seals the garbage and oil industry that pervades the sea provides the answer…
Food, Siqi Song, Stany Zjednoczone, 2015, 3’
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FOOD is an animated documentary that features interviews with a wide variety of eaters from around the world. Ranging from vegetarians, vegans, pescetarians to some seriously dedicated carnivores, the conversation raises many substantial issues about the environment and modern life. By pairing real interviews with stop-motion animation, the film presents a group of “edible characters” discussing themselves.
Brunch, Marnik Loysen, United Kingdom, 2021, 5’26”
A young millennial just wants to eat his avocado on toast in peace.
Krab, Piotr Chmielewski, Poland, 2022, 9’
In this film we are taking a perspective of the crab and through his eyes and ears we are able to discover worlds that he lives in. Animals are our silent companions; they have witnessed the greatest achievements and most horrible failures of humankind. They live their lives parallel to ours – they are our food, our tools or, in the best case, we just don’t notice them. What will happen if we try to take their perspective? How events that we all know from history lessons may look like through the eyes of the animals who witnessed it?
In the beginning was water , Kasia Zimnoch, Paweł Kleszczewski, Poland, 2021, 19’03”
„In The Beginning Was Water” is an animated movie which is our interpretation of Irish legends about origin of Shannon River and the myth about Salmon of Knowledge (Irl. bradán feasa). The plot is built through symbolic events, archetypal themes, in particular related to the element of water. The script was inspired by Mircea Eliade's book "Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy". Femininity expressed in the symbolism of water is the leitmotif of the story.
Sexi sushi, Calleen Koh, Amanda Teo, Singapore, 2020, 3’07”
Life on a conveyor belt seems great for Sushi and his Topping friends. But as he begins to contemplate his existence, Sushi wonders if there’s more to life than pimping himself out to savage consumers.
Ewelina Leszczynska - Film scholar, curator of film events in Poland and Iceland. Director of the Warsaw Animation Film Festival, with its 6th edition scheduled for November 2024. Director of Be Polar - a festival of films from the North, with its 4th edition in spring 2024. Co-founder and Board Member of the Ex Anima Foundation, which aims to promote animated film and cinema engaged in environmental and human rights issues. For the past two years, she has worked as the Culture and CSR Manager at Platige Image Studio. For ten years, she was associated with the Warsaw Film Festival, working in the Programming Department (FINA). An enthusiast of travels to the North, she has been living mainly in Iceland for the last two years, where she promotes short animations and nature films. In her free time, she enjoys skiing and cross-country running. She creates candles from soy wax, which she decorates with moss and lichen, , and is also learning woodturning. This allows her to maintain a balance between creative work on the computer and hands-on activities.
