North American Animated Film – Puppets Tell Their Stories

Adult and teen audiences, 13 years +

🎟️  Tickets for March 4th at 9 p.m.

The show you had in mind is sold out? Try your luck at the door!
Arrive early. If reserved tickets are cancelled at the last minute, we will gladly to put them up for sale.

 

Selection of short films without words, in English, French, Inuktitut, or Spanish (with English or French subtitles)

 

Festival Stop Motion Montréal is delighted to showcase a selection of stop motion films by emerging and established independent filmmakers from Canada, the United States and Mexico. Sample the rich flavours of the North American continent through these works that explore history, tradition, and social criticism.

 

Running time: 55 minutes

 

SELECTED FILMS:

 

Angakusajaujuq: Shaman Apprentice – Zacharias Kunuk (Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada 2021)

Animated adaptation of a traditional Inuit story from the North Baffin region. A young shaman must face her first test: a trip underground to visit Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community member has become ill. Facing dark spirits and physical challenges, she must trust her mentor’s teachings and learn to control her fear.

Zacharias Kunuk’s film is among 15 semi-finalists for an 2022 Oscar in the Animated Short Film category.

It has been nominated for a 2022 Canadian Screen Award in the Animated Short Film category.

 

Quick Fix – Alexandra Lemay (Montréal 2020)

Quick Fix is a stop-motion/live-action hybrid that explores the comedic parallels between our throwaway habits and serial dating. This bittersweet love affair follows a coffee cup who becomes smitten by his drinker, only to realize she may not be as loyal as he assumed.

 

The Girl with the Rivet Gun – Anne de Marre, Danielle Ash and Kirsten Kelly (USA 2020)

An unconventional animated documentary short based on the adventures of three real-life “Rosie the Riveters” from WWII-Esther Horne, Susan Taylor King and Mildred Crow Sargent. These three women came of age in a country united by war but struggling with divisions of gender, economics, and race.

 

Tio – Juan Medina (Mexico 2021)

Martín is a cocky teenager who, on his first day of work in the mines, meets Old Andrés. The elder explains the importance of ancestral rituals and teaches the boy about respect towards Tío, the demon god who guards the mines. Martín’s insolence and disbelief in front of Tío provoke grave consequences. The presentation of this film has been made possible thanks to IMCINE collaboration.

 

Cat Calls – Anna Berezowsky and Laura Stewart (Montréal 2020)

Catcalls explore street harassment using cats, dogs, and real sentences that humans say to other humans.

Photos

Photos: Zacharias Kunuk; Alexandra Lemay; Anne de Marre, Danielle Ash and Kirsten Kelly; Juan Medina; Anna Berezowsky and Laura Stewart.

Company

Founded in 2009, Festival Stop Motion Montréal (FSMM) is the world’s first festival dedicated to showcasing films animated exclusively using stop motion techniques. FSMM aims to foster the development of this amazing technique that creates the illusion of movement with objects or figurines that would otherwise be inanimate. In a digital revolution age, stop motion is experiencing a resurgence. The technique brings back hand made cinema, the texture of tangible materials, and the fantasy world made possible by stop motion animation.