NARRATIVE SHORTS WE WATCHED AND LOVED AT OIAF 2016
October 6, 2016
Cut-out animation brings to life a story that is both disturbing and weird, and perfectly captures the experience of drunk driving. A badger lies motionless on a local road. A police patrol approaches the body in the dark. They soon realize that the animal is not dead; the badger is dead drunk! When the police attempt to drag the creature off the road, he wakes up and things take a strange turn…http://www.awn.com/animationworld/narrative-shorts-we-watched-and-loved-oiaf-2016
Four Great Shorts from the Ottawa International Animation Festival, By Amid Amidi
10/04/2016
A surreal story that is perfectly matched with a surreal cut-out style that transfers uncomfortably familiar human characteristics onto a badger.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/four-great-shorts-ottawa-international-animation-festival-143324.html
Eternal Hunting Grounds, Nighthawk Win at DOKLeipzig
06 November 2016
“Honorary mention in the International Competition (Short Film) was given to Špela Čadež and her hallucinatory Night Hawk, for its fresh and visually imaginative take on a true story about a drunk badger.”
http://www.zippyframes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2629%3Aeternal-hunting-grounds-nighthawk-win-at-dokleipzig&catid=23&Itemid=100008
Animated Trips 2016: Part I, by Olga Bobrowska
07 January 2017
Regarding Špela Čadež’s Nighthawk it is though possible to state that the Slovenian artist was driven by the need to create a work that would be completely different from her previous films and so we are confronted with dark, non-judgemental and utterly sad story of addiction and humiliation. Nothing much happens in Nighthawk, yet after 8 minutes projection the emotions are risen high.
A badger intoxicated with pears drives madly into the night, argues with an imaginary passenger, almost dies on the road and has to be moved away by policemen’s shovel. Čadež openly referred to Yuri Norstein’s cut-out (another counterpoint to her previous films made in puppet technique) and realized the film on the old multiplane table.
Misty unreal settings evoke tale of self-destruction and contempt where in the end the viewer finds compassion instead of redemption. The aesthetics is based on graduation of d arkness, the badger with a repulsive red nose remains the central figure and his positioning mostly dictates the editing. Dialogues are either drunk’s gibberish or trivial conversations of random passers by. Simplicity is an effect of complex and challenging filmmaking and only this impressive reduction is able to bare and transmit painful and manifold drama.
http://www.zippyframes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2661%3Aanimated-trips-2016-part-i&catid=23&Itemid=100008
Animateka 2016 – Jour 6 : une fin en apothéose ! by Nicolas Thys
2016-12-10
http://revue24images.com/blogues-article-detail/3169
‘Blind Vaysha’ and ‘Nighthawk’ Top Industry Survey of 2016’s Best Animated Shorts
By Amid Amidi, 12/29/2016
Zippy Frames, a solid European resource that covers animation festivals and films, surveyed an esteemed group of 28 industry professionals, including festival programmers, academics, and filmmakers (among them Tomm Moore, Konstantin Bronzit, and Sarah Saidan), about their favorite animated shorts of 2016.
Each particpant was asked to list three independent animation shorts that impressed/impacted them during 2016 (films that started their festival run in 2015 were also eligible). Two films tied for first place, with six votes apiece: Theodore Ushev’s Blind Vaysha (Canada/France) and Špela Čadež’s Nighthawk (Slovenia/Croatia). Rounding out the top five were Alberto Vázquez’s Decorado, Marta Pajek’s Impossible Figures and Other Stories II, and Réka Bucsi’s Love.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/blind-vaysha-nighthawk-top-industry-survey-2016s-best-animated-shorts-147093.html
Blind Vaysha, Nighthawk Top 2016 Animation Shorts
Monday, 26 December
28 animation professionals, from Tomm Moore (Secret of Kells) to Konstantin Bronzit (Lavatory- Lovestory) to up-and-coming animation directors loke Sarah Saidan (Beach Flags), festival programmers and academics, were all invited to give their view.
Maroš Brojo (Fest Anča): Mesmerizing demonstration of how traditional animation can still be incredibly stunning.
Igor Prassel (Animateka): a masterful antropomorphic depiction of alcoholism through the use of multiplane cut-out animation.
http://www.zippyframes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2658:blind-vaysha-nighthawk-top-2016-animation-shorts&catid=144:shorts&Itemid=100094
The best indie animation of 2016
6 January 2017
Nighthawk, Špela Čadež, Slovenia
If Charles Bukowski scripted Bullit with a badger, the result might look something like Nighthawk, a blistering, squirming tragedy trailing an alcoholic whizzing blurrily through bending roads in the black of night. If you’re thinking about ditching booze, watching this blunt depiction of an alcohol abuser might hasten the process.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-sound-magazine/best-animation-2016
