We have just come back from Norwich animation Festival.
Norwich was not as close as we first thought.6 hours of driving .Thanks to Caroline for all the driving.
And yes, the city is really the city of castles as it is mentioned in guides and luckily by chasing the castles you can find your way to 3 venues of festival. I was mostly hanging around play house and puppet theatre with all those puppets hanging on the walls and roof. Just like any festival I am suffering the post –festival syndrome: pain in my legs, red eyes … and of course the same question buzzing in my mind: What was the whole festival about? Was it really what it meant to be?
Norwich was not supposed to be a commercial festival. That’s for sure. The title of festival “Re-Vision” brings some expectations. It seems that we are going to see other approaches to animation. The retrospective programs present the work of animators who have in someway introduced new dimensions to animation. It was a good chance for me to see the works of animators I had read about or had seen few films from them. But at the same time, watching just one series of competition section short films ,I was completely shocked by some of the selected works. There is such a thin line between being alternative and crap and Festivals in this sense have a great responsibility because they can make trends, they can really be influential and encourage a specific way of filmmaking and discourage other ways.
But after all, these are the common pros and cons of festivals and at the end ,there are the good works that stick in your mind.
It was great to see the works of Igor Kovalyov (Hen and his wife),Piit Parn,Koji Yamamura, Run Wrake (Rabbit).In Absentia (Quays) was just breath taking.
I should write briefly for each of these works .I will return to them later.

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