Lighthouse Film Club: What Is Animation?

Is animation art? Is animation entertainment? Is it a need? Is it a way out of the world? Or a way into new worlds? Or a way into our own minds? Is animation a lonely road? Is animation a team effort? Is it a craft? is it an industrial endeavour? Is it a lot of work? Is it the absolutely most complicated way of making a movie? Is it the most important thing to do? Does it prevent madness or does it provoke it? Does it come from a unique vision or a corporate vision? Does it have a purpose? Is it pure motion or is it enacted story? Is it tedious? Is it fun? Can you live with it? Can you live without it? How many more questions of these are you willing to read? How many more questions am I willing to write? Is animation in the frames? Is it in between? Maybe neither? Is cinema animation? Is animation…

— Matias Poggini, 2D Animator

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

Filmmaker Mami Sunada follows Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata over the course of a year as with Studio Ghibli

Dir: Mami Sunada
2 hs

Short film: McLaren’s Negatives

Excerpts from various Norman McLaren’s interviews that outline his approach to animation.

Magia Russica

Magia Russica is an Israeli-Russian documentary film, written, directed and produced by Yonathan and Masha Zur. It depicts the untold story of Russian animation in Soviet times.

Dir: Yonathan & Masha Zu
1h 36m

Persistence of Vision

Animator Richard Williams spent years working on his masterpiece ‘The thief and the Cobbler’ , only to have it torn away as it reached completion.

Dir: Kevin Schreck
1h 23m

Monster Road

Documentary feature exploring the wildly fantastic universe of Seattle’s legendary, reclusive clay animator Bruce Bickford.

Dir: Brett Ingram
1h 20m