The Hidden Face of Colombian Animation
The history of Colombian animation is still young. It is possible to say that in our country animation as an artistic expression started in 1986 with ”The Passenger of the Night” by Carlos Santa, artist and animator of big importance. After this first film, Santa was able to strongly articulate a unique language by combining the styles of a wide range of artists and art forms in various stages of his animations. By proposing a type of animation based on philosophical underpinnings, he influenced an evolving generation of other Colombian animators.
There are few distribution opportunities and limited economical support, but this has fortunately been changing thanks to new government laws to support filmmaking and the economic support that allows participation in international festivals. Due to the absence of animation schools, many young people decide to study and work abroad. For this reason, many Colombian artists around the world have established a strong network of communication to combine their ideas with those of the locals they encounter. This resulted in a unique collaborative history full of shades and contrast, which is quite possible to appreciate in the internet platform Moebius Animación, thanks to the remarkable work by Juan Camilo González and Cecilia Traslaviña, who collected the pieces of the dispersed puzzle of the Colombian Animation.
However there is a common background to our animations: the social conflict in the country lasting for more than 50 years; because in addition to the urban violence that is common to other Latin American countries, Colombia has been experiencing a deep-rooted armed conflict that has seen many transformations over the past 5 decades. Many generations of Colombian people have grown up in it, some of them as direct victims and others as indirect ones. In the contemporary Colombian animation we can see some aesthetic and narrative characteristics similar to animations from other regions under tough social circumstances (e.g. animation from the Eastern European countries under the Soviet control). This is precisely what the animations selected for Animateka have in common, the conflict seen in its real cruelty or in symbolic interpretations.
- Laura Victoria Delgado, 2014.
Semaphore
Under the three lights of a Colombian stoplight, a beautiful circus act becomes a terrifying freak show.
The Dark Forest
“Although Santa doesn´t recreate the hell, but its outskirts, the images of the latter make us afraid of what is coming: after death comes a tunnel, and afterwards is the entrance to hell. But this is where The Dark Forest ends.” – Víctor Vega
Holy Souls, Patients Souls
As every year, Dormida commemorates the death of her father bringing flowers to his grave. This time a series of incidents impacts this ritual and confronts her with her deeper emotions, thus prompting a real mourning.
Troya, Memories of a Toy
"Inside of a dark and gloomy room, I’m looking at a woman´s dead body that I can´t recognize. I’m gazing at the lying body on the bed, trying to discover its identity and origin, I start to see the hardest moments of violence that transgressed her life and her relative´s life. And it slowly leads me to find in her deathbed our sad national reality."
Apartments
Fausto is walking in a desert, and he finds an old building. He jumps from the roof, trying to kill himself but instead of falling down he "falls up". Then he goes around the apartments and he meets the people who live inside. When he finishes the travel, he is surprised by a strange revelation.
White Hand
This animation is about the native Colombian indigenous people: Minga. It is about the meeting of occidental people and native South American cultures still living in our continent.
Meat
Carne is an aesthetical journey, where the paths of painting and the audiovisual image converge. Carlos Gómez presents a unique animation from a personal view and perspective.
Forgetter Mechanism
The image of a man trapped inside a pendulum depicts life as a vertiginous journey.
Chez Eux
Chez eux (fr: in their house) In the middle of the forest, a house. In middle of the outside darkness, a night. A house in the middle of the silence of the night. There is a light far away, an unknown activity, a ritual. An unknown place. How dangerous can the ways be that lead there? How dangerous can a light be, bigger and bigger in middle of the trees? Or the gleam of an eye that is looking from far away?
Recognize
ReconoceR is a palindrome word in Spanish that means “to recognize”. The film is an abstract summary of the history of violence in Colombia, playing back and forth in an exercise to recognize its complexity. It is the first film within a series to be paired with the music composition “In Abyssus HumanÆ ConscientiÆ” by Colombian composer Rodolfo Acosta.
Golden Paws
Collective rotoscope made by the participants to the 3rd Academic Animation Conference “Animation as Social Tool”. It recalls an important anecdote of the contemporary Colombian history.
Phantasmagoria
»A short animation in seven and a half minutes, created without screenplay, beginning with the development of pendular movement, where the actions are related with that movement. To this effect I used different animation techniques, such as painting, cut out or drawing in sand.« C.S.
Fabricia
Fabricia enters an abandoned building and her presence seems to give life to the place. But soon she discovers the space is dominated by strange machines that trap her inside. She will only gain freedom through the power of her unique imagination.
YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
The never-ceasing repetition of polite gestures. A micro-universe is created in 4 sets of 11 pieces of paper with hand drawn animated cycles.