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Begone Dull Care
Begone Dull Care (Norman McLaren & Evelyn Lambart, 1949)

    Begone Dull Care

    Evelyn Lambart, Norman McLaren, Canada, 1949, 8’

    A vivid interpretation of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio. Begone Dull Care brings a wild piece of music to life with abstract expressionist animation. It captures the energy of the piece in visual form. Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted colours, shapes, and transformations directly onto their filmstrip, impossible to simulate with digital tools. 

    Bio Norman McLaren

    Norman McLaren (1914-1987) was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was a pioneer in a number of areas, including drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation, and graphical sound. His awards included an Oscar for Best Documentary in 1952 for Neighbours, a Silver Bear for best short documentary at the 1956 Berlin International Film Festival, and a 1969 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film for Pas de deux.

    I want to tell the viewer about my inner feelings, but I don’t want to tell the viewer about my inner thoughts and opinions—you know, intellectualising. In Begone Dull Care, I’m telling them how I feel about that music.

    Norman McLaren
    401
    • This film was #78 in the “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025
      voted by Tam Dan Vu, Juan Barquin, Per Fikse, Pavel Horáček
    animation experimental avant-garde

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    Cyclepaths

    Anton Cla, Belgium, 2023, 12’

    On the outskirts of the city, the new modern buildings are silent, and the motorway bridge drones. Birds are circling in the sky, and a young man, concealed by his hoodie, is riding his e-scooter along a park path. The only irritating element is the rifle over his shoulder. Cyclepaths conveys a mood of high alert, even though the disaster has, in fact, already happened.

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    Old Child

    Elettra Bisogno, Hazem Alqaddi, Belgium, Palestine, 2019, 16’

    Old Child depicts the fragmented story of Hazem, who had to flee Gaza. Throughout this stream-of-consciousness montage of dreams and reminiscences, he searches for order but also for the beauty he left behind.

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    Swollen Stigma

    Sarah Pucill, United Kingdom, 1998, 21’

    Swollen Stigma is a visual, surrealistic narrative about a woman travelling both literally and psychically through several rooms. Memories, or fantasies, of another woman, fill her imagination. The film proposes lesbian imagery, and its shifting points of view jump between the protagonist, fantasy spaces, and her lover, making an internal world leak into what is external.

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    Downside Up

    Tony Hill, United Kingdom, 1984, 18’

    With a single camera movement, this film explores humankind’s relationship to the ground. The viewpoint continuously changes. Places, objects, people, and events come in and out of focus. These observations gradually speed up and reveal a double-sided ground, flipping like a tossed coin, which then slows again to oscillate around the Earth’s edge.

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