Cartoons Underground 2014
Cartoons underground is back in 2014!
Singapore’s first underground animation festival is back!
Visual Effects Society (VES) and VES Education Committee presents Cartoons Underground showreel showdown, where selected participants will present their showreel to leaders in the industry, including Marchand Jooste (The Chronicles of Narnia, Avatar), Dayne Cowan (Batman Begins, Batman Ultimatum) and Chung Yin Ping (Disney’s My Friend’ Tigger and Pooh)
In the evening, grab a beer and a fistful of popcorn as award-winning animated films from Annecy, Cannes and Hiroshima Animation Festivals make their debut in Singapore. Get ready for heart palpitating scenes and plots that will drive you the edge of reality while hanging out with the creators themselves!
Featuring animated short films and music videos by Dahee Jeong, Mark Wee, Lei Lei, Tran Nguyen Tuan Anh, Daisy Jacobs and more. (Full program list here)
Cartoons Underground Presents
Film Selection
2014
Choir Tour
Edmunds Jansons (Latvia)
Synopsis: A world-famous boys’ choir goes on a tour. In the hands of their severe conductor they are an obedient musical instrument. But left alone without supervision, they are just playful children. Once in Seoul the conductor is accidentally trapped in the elevator, and the boys are left alone.
Biography: Edmunds Jansons works as animation film director and graphic designer in his studio Atom Art. His eight animation films have been screened all over the world. Edmunds has graduated Master of Animation at 2012. He also is recognized children’s book illustrator.
The Bigger Picture
Daisy Jacobs (United Kingdom)
Synopsis: The Bigger Picture is an animated short about two brothers struggling to care for their elderly mother. Jovial, loving Richard flees as soon as anything practical needs to be done; dutiful Nick does everything he can for his mother while seething with resentment; and Mother is not going to make it easy for either of them. With wit and warmth, we see the brothers endeavour to deal with a situation that one day faces all of us – what shall we do with our parents?
Biography: Daisy Jacobs studied Illustration and Character Animation at Central St Martin’s, and has just graduated from an MA in Animation Direction at the National Film and Television School.
Wonder
Mirai Mizue (Japan)
Synopsis: Cells? Microbes? Or Extraterrestrials? Cling and separate. Grow and shrink… The romping, joyful, non-stop movement of ‘something’ mysterious brings us happiness, euphoria and hope. Wonder is the latest animated film by promising director Mirai Mizue. His experimental project, a collection of 1 second animations consisting of 24 hand-drawings made everyday for 365 days since April 1st, 2012, is here completed! Accompanied by the delightful music of Pascals that will excite all your senses.
Biography: Mirai Mizue was born in 1981 in Tokyo and studied animation at Tama Arts University from 2002. He is known by his affection towards cells in his non-narrative animation films. His films have been nominated in some major animation festivals like Annecy, Zagreb, Ottawa and Hiroshima. Devour Dinner won the Second Prize in Animadrid. In SICAF he made a commissioned film from the festival in 2009 and was a member of Selection Committees in 2010. As an illustrator, he provides his drawings to some Japanese novelists. He is also a member of Japan Animation Association and a teacher in O-HARA school.
Downtown
Kapie (Vietnam)
Synopsis: Downtown is about a man who talks to himself and goes downtown. The town then turns upside down and everything is a frown. The man escapes and talks to the world.
Biography: Kapie is a visual artist based in Danang. He is currently studying Digital Animation and Visual Developments at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
This is not a time to lie
LeiLei (China)
Biography: Lei Lei is an up-and-coming 28-year-old multimedia Chinese animation artist with his hands on graphic design, illustration, short cartoon, graffiti and music. In 2009, he received a master’s degree in animation from Tsinghua University. In 2010, his film This is LOVE was shown at the Ottawa International Animation Festival and awarded The 2010 Best Narrative Short. In 2013, his film Recycled was selected by Annecy festival and awarded the Grand Prix non-narrative shorts at Holland International Animation Film Festival. In 2014, he is the Jury of Zagreb and Holland international animation festivals. Lei Lei was the winner of 2014 asian cultural council grant.
The Animals
Mark Wee (Singapore)
Synopsis: Influenced by the German Expressionist movement of the early 1900s and the silhouette animated films by Lotte Reiniger, The Animals is a paper cutout stopmotion animation that is adapted from the life of Joseph Merrick, the historically famed Elephant Man who walked the streets of Victorian England, exhibiting himself in freak shows. Abused and despised by society for his horrific appearance, Merrick is at his wit’s end when things take a serendipitous turn.
Biography: Mark graduated in 2014 with a BFA from the Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media in Singapore. He is now pursuing his Masters in Animation Arts and is planning for his next short film project.
365
The Brothers McLeod (United Kingdom)
Synopsis: One Year. One Film. One Second a Day. One second of animation every day for the 365 days of the year 2013. No storyline, script or storyboard. The ideas come from things read, seen or experienced on the day, with a little artistic license for good measure.
Biography: The BAFTA award winning Brothers McLeod are illustrator-animator Greg and writer Myles. They have worked with a whole pile of folks, like Hit, Entertainment One, Disney, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Aardman, Royal Shakespeare Company and plenty more.
Man on the Chair
Dahee Jeong (South Korea)
Synopsis:
Man on the chair is tormented and constantly doubts his very own existence. It is just merely a picture that I created… Could I also be an image crafted by others?
Biography: Dahee Jeong received a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication at Hongik University in Seoul. She went to Paris in 2008 and got a Master’s degree in Animation at Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs. She directed several short animation films for her school works and also directed Le temps de l’arbre for her final project in 2012.
Rating Advisory
International Competition 1: Look at Us | 30 mins | Rating: M18 – Some Sexual Scenes and Nudity
Singapore Student Animation: Adventure Time! | 31 mins | Rating: PG
International Competition 2: Focus on Women in Animation | 31 mins | Rating M18 – Mature Content
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[…] Wee is one of the eight storytellers that will be showing his animated film at Cartoons Underground. The Animals is a paper cut-out stop-motion animation that is adapted from the life of Joseph […]