Discovering the new and the old

I was reading an article in the Animation Magazine about the recent Annecy Film festival for this year and found out about lots of new animators, directors and animations shorts. Blind Vaysha by Theodore Usher in particular really stood out to me. Not only was I drawn to the old Bulgarian tale but also I loved the traditional style of the animation. What I thought at first must have been beautifully and painstakingly carved out by hand was actually done with a Wacom Cintiq tablet. I thought that was genius! Bringing the charm of the past into the present by mimicking traditional linocut techniques using digital drawings.

Screen shots from Blind Vaysha

While watching a couple other short animation films online, I also came across Hipopotamy (2014) and Franz Kafka (1992) by Piotr Dumala which reminded me a little of Blind Vaysha. There were similarities I could see in the layering and the marks of the images. However, Dumala actually does carve the images by hand and animates the movements by scratching fine details on to plasterboards with a needle.
Hipopotamy is definitely not a 'feel good' short animation. While I think most of Dumala's animations tend to have a ominous feel about them, Hipopotamy is truly haunting.

I still can't get over how amazing it is how effective short animations can be at getting under your skin or getting you to feel so much in such little time.

The animation was based on a nature film on hippos.

I think the repetition in the film and the reusing the same character for both genders somehow strangely dehumanises them. 

Very strange and very mesmerising to watch.