Three short animated films from the National Film Board of Canada have landed on the docket of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, set for Jan. 21-31 in Park City, Utah.
The three films as described by the NFB are:
‘ Cordell Barker’s Runaway, which world premiered in Cannes, is the director’s third film with the NFB. His films The Cat Came Back (1988) and Strange Invaders (2001) won 30 international awards and received Academy Award nominations. In his prescient new short, Barker asks what would happen if the world were a driverless train thundering recklessly over bumpy tracks.
‘ Bruce Alcock’s Vive la Rose, puts into images the words of a plaintive song about lost love. When illness takes the woman he loves, a simple man sings to her in a last farewell. Co-produced by the NFB and Global Mechanic, Alcock’s film is based on a version of the 18th-century song by the late Newfoundland musician Emile Benoit.
‘ Rains is a meditation on everyday life and our relationship with nature, as seen by David Coquard-Dassault, whose simple pencil drawings capture all the subtleties of scenes and actions. As a sudden downpour lashes the city, everybody seeks shelter. Just for a moment, time stands still. Human activity almost grinds to a halt. Some wait in a bus shelter, others are set on going out, if their umbrellas will open. Wiser, the birds wait out the storm. When the rain stops, the bubble bursts and life goes on.
