Instructions: Open box. Unfold board. To begin play, place any shape on the board and interact with it with your hands. A series of forms will unfold. They may seem familiar or suggest a hidden order. Try to influence the shapes, or sit back and let them arise naturally. Do not be concerned with winning. Forming Game is played for creative fun. The result of several months of interplay between animation filmmaker Malcolm Sutherland and composer and...

An advanced race of giant lobsters from outer space land on Earth "sunny side up," but no one knows why. An utter failure of communication with these galactic crustaceans catapults the world towards Armageddon bisque! World peace is at stake! What can save us? A little straight talk, perhaps? With tongue planted firmly in cheek, director and writer Janet Perlman untwines the classic 1950s B-movie motif to weave a thoroughly madcap, animated parable...

Madame Tutli-Putli boards the night train, weighed down by all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past. She travels alone, facing both the kindness and menace of strangers. As day descends into dark, she finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure. Adrift between real and imagined worlds, Madame Tutli-Putli confronts her demons and is drawn into an undertow of mystery and suspense. The National Film Board of Canada presents...

Every human being has asked the questions: who am I, what is my purpose, why am I here? The answers are in the sustaining allegories of myths that have been passed from generation to generation. With gorgeous stop-motion animation by the creators of The dark crystal and Labyrinth and stimulating interviews with Deepak Chopra and other spiritual leaders, Mythic Journeys reveals the power of myth to transform lives into journeys. With the voices of...

Seraphim "Joe" Fortes, born in the West Indies, became one of Vancouver's most beloved citizens. Using a colourful blend of music, poetry, cut-out and computer animation, this film celebrates Joe's life. For more than thirty years, Joe Fortes swam in English Bay. He was a self-appointed lifeguard at first, but he became so famous that the city of Vancouver finally rewarded him with a salary for doing what he loved best. He taught thousands of people...

Lipsett Diaries is a descent into the maelstrom of anguish that tormented famed Canadian experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett, who died prematurely at age 49. Taking the form of a diary, this animated film by Theodore Ushev charts the meanderings of psychological distress, with clashes of images and sounds evoking the loneliness of the artist’s childhood, his frenzied creations and his dizzying descent into depression and madness. Drawing, as Lipsett...

Uncle Bob is getting up in years, but manages quite well, thank you. Then an unexpected illness changes everything. Suddenly he's scooped out of his safe and familiar surroundings and deposited inside the foreign and chaotic world of the hospital. Here the once self-reliant Uncle Bob becomes vulnerable and dependent. Uncle Bob's hospital stay is fraught with difficulties. Day in day out he is inundated by a constant barrage of intruders, from the...

Five early fantasy and trick films--including a previously-unseen trick film by Georges Méliès, hand-colored films from Segundo de Chomon and Gaston Velle, and astonishing stop-motion animation from 1911.

Their crimes resemble high-octane Hollywood action movies: a sports car speeds through a Dubai shopping mall, crashing into the windows of a Graff jewelry store. Masked, gun-wielding men jump out of the car, and stuff fistfuls of diamonds into their satchels before screeching off. In London, they took all of three minutes to make off with {dollar}30 million in diamonds. They are captured – not in person, but on surveillance tapes that record their...

Can we trace the chain of events that lead to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter? The narrator of The Danish Poet considers these questions as we follow Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet the famous writer, Sigrid Undset. As Kasper's quest for inspiration unfolds, it appears that a spell of bad weather, an angry dog, slippery barn planks, a careless postman, hungry...