Japanese Animation Scene - The CALF Collective (2012)

The first of two programs that open the window - at least a little - on what's going on in the young Japanese animation scene. The CALF Collective is a small group of young Japanese indie animators that decided to pool resources and take their work to the world under a single banner. It's worked extremely well with CALF screenings of one kind or another in a vast array of festivals around the world in the last 18 months. And now it's our turn to check out this group of Japanese indie animation trendsetters.

Featured in AIAF2012
Program Type: Films
Content Rating: Mature (M)
The Mechanism Of Spring
Atsushi Wada

Upside down turtles, rotating frog wheels and a deer sniffing a t-shirt. Spring is in the air.



Japan
Runtime: 4:12
Year: 2011
Consultation Room
Kei Oyama

A lonely moment in a consultation room - the indications are not good. But the news isn't made any better by turning it all into a macabre stage play.



Japan
Runtime: 8:44
Year: 2005
Playground
Mirai Mizue

A graceful collection of intricately created abstract creatures comes out to play.



Japan
Runtime: 3:49
Year: 2011
The Thaw
Kei Oyama

The slow journey towards thawing is part natural phenomena, part frightening inner battle.



Japan
Runtime: 6:45
Year: 2004
Beluga
Shin Hashimoto

A magnificently macabre, deliciously dark vision of the inner demons that race around the mind of a little match-seller condemned to the cold and dark.



Japan
Runtime: 5:27
Year: 2011
Jam
Mirai Mizue

The increasingly varied the sounds, the greater is the number of creatures.



Japan
Runtime: 2:37
Year: 2009
Hand Soap
Kei Oyama

Some moments take a lot more cleaning up after than others. Just as some moments are harder to explain than others.



Japan
Runtime: 15:50
Year: 2008
Steps
Tochka

An ingeniously simple idea brilliantly executed. The most fun you can have in a room with a few flashlights and some fake steps!



Japan
Runtime: 1:56
Year: 2010
Modern No.2
Mirai Mizue

An elegant, almost art-deco-ish piece of rolling geometrical imagery from the master of the form.



Japan
Runtime: 4:09
Year: 2011