Death and Danger In Venezuela
Unrest in the Ukraine dominates the headlines but, as the Caracas-based Totuma crew and Irene Ramírez make clear in this new infographic poster, the unrelenting political chaos and violence in Venezuela has rendered their homeland one of the most dangerous on the planet with 24,763 homicides in 2013 or one murder every 20 minutes.
Totuma CD Hubert Reinfeild: “As designers and visual communicators we have to make something, so we did this poster and a sculpture to try capturing the essence of (at least one) of the reasons young Venezuelan students are protesting and dying.
“Between 1999 and 2013 there have been 200,509 violent deaths in Venezuela. In comparison, in the Iraq War there where 189,000 casualties (this is data from March 2003 to February 2013).
“In Venezuela there’s no official war, but every 20 minutes someone gets murdered. They aren’t just numbers, on the last month and a half thirteen people have died in a even worst scenario, if that’s possible, by the government forces.
“Until the actual government (or the next one) equally values the life off ALL venezuelans (regardless of their political views), we’ll have a nation divided by hate and we’ll carry over our shoulders and conciseness the sad title of being one of the most dangerous countries in the world.”
Poster: Irene Ramírez, adapted by Totuma. [Read more]
Le Couch Gag dans Francais par Sylvain Chomet
Three-time Oscar-nominated director/animator Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville, L’illusionniste, The Old Lady and the Pigeons) and London animation force th1ng responded to Matt Groening’s invite to create a Simpson’s couch gag with this appropriately over-the-top Gaulish interpretation. Previous guest couch [Read more]
Franck Dion “Monsieur COK”
Almost seven years after it first stormed onto the festival circuit, French director/illustrator Franck Dion‘s inventive and stylish animated short “Monsieur COK” still brings smiles despite its melancholy subject and palette. The film keeps your attention for almost 10 minutes with snappy pacing, intriguing character [Read more]
Job, Joris & Marieke March to “The Daily Drumbeat”
Inventive and minimalist character work keeps Utrecht studio Job, Joris & Marieke on our must-watch list. Like this music video for instance: a monochrome romp with dark undercurrents for fellow Dutchman Job Roggeveen and his collaborative musical project called Happy Camper. “The Daily Drumbeat is a sunny song [Read more]
Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting: “Last Hijack” Trailer
Best known for the polarizing film projects “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly,” American director/producer Tommy Pallotta mixes fantasy-fueled animation sequences into his new feature doc (co-directed with Dutch new-media producer Femke Wolting) called the LAST HIJACK, “a true tale of survival in Somalia told from the pirate’s perspective.”
[Read more]
Andy Martin “Selfie” Short for Pictoplasma
Strange Beast director/animator Andy Martin worries about you. Specifically, he worries about the possible side effects of your auto-portraiture obsession (beyond the obvious problem that nobody looks good shot up close with a wide angle lens). “Selfie” was created for the Pictoplasma #Characterselfie project. [Read more]
