Editor

Montreal – November 26 to December 2, 2004 at 3:05 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Cinéma Parallèle (Ex-Centris), the National Film Board of Canada presents MINDTRAVEL, a programme of eight shorts from animation’s greatest filmmakers. Featured are eight films and as many countries to pique the appetite of viewers intent on travel and discovery.

MINDTRAVEL includes quality works by Montréal award-winning filmmakers Michèle Cournoyer, Jacques Drouin and Craig Welch. Also featured are such renowned animators as George Schwizgebel from Switzerland and Leif Marcussen from Denmark. Using varied techniques, the eight filmmakers guide MINDTRAVEL into wonderlands inspired by Canada’s Arctic, Persia, Hong Kong and Bali. Also revealed are the rich landscapes of their inners worlds. Between them, these films have won over fifteen international awards attesting to the diversity and professionalism of the animation coming out of the NFB. This programme precedes the release of a DVD scheduled for June 2005.

Michèle Cournoyer’s Accordéon/Accordeon strikes deep into the psyche. It blends hallucination and surrealism into a powerhouse of a film that was shown at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival in the Official Competition Category. (2004, 6 min., ink drawings)

• Georges Schwizgebel’s L’Homme sans ombre is an adaptation of Adelbert von Chamisso’s fantastical tale L’étrange histoire de Peter Schlemihl (1814) inspired by Faust. The film’s outstanding virtuosity attracted awards at festivals in Zagreb, Hiroshima and Valladolid. (9 min. 50 sec., animated drawing and various techniques)

Made on board the Sedna IV, Nicolas Brault’s Їlot/Iset is an ode to the Far North and its people. It shifts between magic realism and figurative abstraction. (2003, 7 min. 2 sec., computer animation)

• Jacques Drouin’s Empreintes/Imprints infuses his desires and intuition onto the pinscreen. He engages in a hand-to-hand embrace with his favourite instrument. Final work by a remarkable member of the Canadian animation scene. (2004, 6 min. 3 sec., pinscreen)

• In Bleu comme un coup de feu/Blue Like a Gunshot, Massoud Raouf transposes the emotional power of a Persian poem about human barbarity onto the screen. (2003, 5 min. 31 sec., drawings on paper) Winner of the 2004 Jutra Award for Best Animation Film (2003, 5 min., 31 sec., drawings on paper)

Welcome to Kentucky by Craig Welch is a map of the human soul. A visual poem that invites the audience to lose themselves in its singular beauty. (2004, 12 min. drawings on paper and cello)

• Serge Clément’s Parfum de lumière/Fragrant Light explores the delicious differences between East and West. Between the photographic and the filmic images. Between the inner and the outer realms. (2002, 6 min., photo animation)

• Angeli is about dreams. Spun out of imagery and music, they are the wishes of people immobilized in hospital. Angeli won a Special Mention at the prestigious World Animation Festival in Zagreb. (2002, 14 min. 15 sec., computer animation)