SAAG Cinema: Best Of GIRAF18 With Quickdraw Animation

SAAG Cinema: Best Of GIRAF18 With Quickdraw Animation
Saturday, August 12, 2023
1:00 PM – 3:30 PM

The Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival (GIRAF) is coming to Lethbridge and the SAAG. GIRAF is a celebration of independent animation, a showcase of what’s being created in Canada and around the world curated by Calgary’s Quickdraw Animation Society. The Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin is delighted to partner with Quickdraw and Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society to share a selection of shorts from 2022’s GIRAF18. Join us on Saturday Aug. 12 for an afternoon of astounding, inventive, beautiful, mind-altering and unexpected animated films and a talk by one of the featured animators, Michelle Longpre.
Free with current Gallery or Quickdraw membership. General Gallery admission rates apply.

Adult | $10
Senior (65+) | $7
Youth (7-17) | $5
Child (0-6) | FREE

Purchase your tickets on EventBrite

Films
“The Vandal” – Grieving the Loss of a Love and Oneself (16 min), Eddie Alcazar, 2021
In “The Vandal,” a film by Eddie Alcazar presented by Darren Aronofsky, a man recovering from a lobotomy (Bill Duke) suddenly loses the love of his life, who was also his caregiver. The aftermath leads his mind into the incomprehensible.
Producers: Javier Lovato, Thomas Hildreth
Executive Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin, Sandy Haddad, Ted Robbins and Matthew Krul
Cast: Bill Duke, Baadja-Lyne Odums, Maurice Compte, Thomas Hildreth, Harry Goaz and Abbey Lee

Plantea Carnom (10 min), Michelle Longpre, 2022
‘Planeta Carnom’ is inspired by the terrible beauty of 19th century medical illustrations and the immense feeling captured by plein air landscape paintings. These, paired with filming techniques used by the famous ‘Planet Earth’ documentary series, this film journeys through our flesh world as a pioneer through new lands, both strange yet familiar.
Director, Producer: Michelle Longpre
Sound Design: Brock Geiger, Ryan Von Hagen

Terra Incognita (20 min), Pernille M. A. KJAER, Adrian DEXTER, 2021
On a mysterious island forgotten by time, immortal beings lead pre-civilized lives and spend their days in hedonistic lethargy until modern civilization arrives.
Production: Ikki Films / Insolence / Sun Creature
Project supported by the CNC-FAIA (development), the CNC – Program aid, Ciclic Région Centre-Val de Loire, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and South regions, Procirep, Angoa, Arte

Eyeshroom (8.5 min), Małgorzata Wowczak, 2022
The film tells the story of the creature – Eyeshroom. It has only one goal. It wants to reproduce and land in more and more new areas. It does it in a cruel and uncompromising way. The movie “Eyeshroom” is a horror movie set in a forest. It is also a story about the relationship between humans and nature.
Direction and animation: Małgorzata Wowczak
Music: Katherine Zyabluk
Sound: Jacek Feliks
Artistic Supervisor: Robert Sowa

Tomorrow Remains (2.5 min), Maedeh Mosaverzadeh, 2022
Plastic objects are now an inseparable part of our life. Recently with the Covid 19 pandemic the use of this material increased even more. Tomorrow Remains attempts to show the passage of seasons, life, and how single-use plastic objects leave their trace behind and become objects of tomorrow as we live our life.
Direction and animation: Maedeh Mosaverzadeh
Music and sound editing: Matthew Cardinal
Special thanks for IARP Mentor Heather Kai Smith
Produced through the Quickdraw Animation Society 2021 Intermediate Animation Production Residency, supported by Calgary arts development, Canada Council for the Arts, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Articulations with Michelle Longpre
Join us after the screening to meet artist Michelle Longpre, who will discuss her artistic practice and her film Plantea Carnom.
Michelle Longpre is an illustrator and animator with a Bachelor of Design from Alberta University of the Arts. She has been a freelance artist for years and has been creating custom illustrations and animations as well as refining her own personal projects. With the aid of grants from the Alberta Foundation of the Arts and Canada Council of the Arts she has spent the last three years developing and producing her film ‘Planeta Carnom’. During development she participated in the annual 2020 Quickdraw Lockdown Animation Challenge and her film ‘Searching’ received the ‘Jury Special Award for Outstanding Film’ award as well as runner up for ‘Audience Choice’ award.
Longpre’s work is inspired by the human form, humanity’s relationship with machine and nature, and the delicate patterns found within the world both macro and micro. She also has a comedic streak and enjoys making playful short comics documenting her trips through Canada and beyond. When she isn’t lost in a sketchbook, she can be found jogging with her dog or baking a loaf of sourdough bread.

This event was made possible through the generous support of the Alberta Media Arts Alliance.