Film Archive

Jahr

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Animation Night 2023
Filmstill 1976: Search for Life – Installation
1976: Search for Life – Installation
Tess Martin
The documentary video for the installation version of the short film “1976: Search for Life” takes us to Mars. There, a small television set shows a very personal story.
Filmstill 1976: Search for Life – Installation

1976: Search for Life – Installation

1976: Search for Life – Installation
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Documentary Film
Netherlands
2023
11 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

The documentary video for the installation version of the short film “1976: Search for Life” takes us to Mars. There – between huge boulders and in the red light of our sibling planet – we find a small television set. With headphones and in an intimate atmosphere, Tess Martin shares a very personal memory of an important historical event with us.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill Ginevra
Ginevra
Tess Martin
A young woman is strangled. The mother’s moving dirge – based on a poem by Percy Shelley – accompanies us as her daughter Ginevra is laid out and resurrects.
Filmstill Ginevra

Ginevra

Ginevra
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Animated Film
USA,
Netherlands
2017
4 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

The rising sun reveals a gruesome crime. In the orange-red dawn, between the dunes and the rippling sea, a young woman is strangled to death. The victim’s neck is marked by the deep imprints of her murderer’s hands. The mother’s moving dirge – based on a poem by Percy Shelley – accompanies us as her daughter Ginevra is laid out and resurrects.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Producer
Max Rothman
Sound Design
Jeremy Lloyd-Styles
Score
Jeremy Lloyd-Styles
Animation
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill How to Make a Phonotrope Video with Drawn Animation
How to Make a Phonotrope Video with Drawn Animation
Tess Martin
Tess Martin introduces us to a technique for producing animation loops: Make a drawing, take a rotating disc, connect it to a camera – and your phonotrope is ready.
Filmstill How to Make a Phonotrope Video with Drawn Animation

How to Make a Phonotrope Video with Drawn Animation

How to Make a Phonotrope Video with Drawn Animation
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Documentary Film
Netherlands
2019
8 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

A device that can create the illusion of movement can be built by coupling the speed of a rotating disc to the recording frame rate of a camera. This so-called phonotrope is a contemporary version of the phenakistiscope. In her how-to video, Tess Martin explains how this technique works and how it was used in her film “Orbit.”

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Cinematographer
Tess Martin, Oana Clitan
Producer
Tess Martin
Score
Podington Bear
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill Mario
Mario
Tess Martin
A macabre, hypnotic children’s song about Mario the soldier and his disappointed love announces a brutal murder. Images of memories flow into each other and make us shiver.
Filmstill Mario

Mario

Mario
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Animated Film
Netherlands,
USA
2014
3 minutes
Italian
Subtitles: 
English

A macabre Italian children’s song tells the story of Mario, a soldier who returns from war and must learn that his girlfriend has left him for another man. Mario decides to kill her. The film picks up on the ambivalent mood of the song and reinforces its vibration in the space between blithe children’s game and brutal murder.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Producer
Tess Martin
Score
Jason Staczek
Animation
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill Orbit
Orbit
Tess Martin
Drawings on rotating discs guide us through the cycle of life on earth, make us feel the rhythm of nature and tell of the origins of the moving image.
Filmstill Orbit

Orbit

Orbit
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Animated Film
Netherlands
2019
7 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

As we watch individual details and their interplay as a whole, presented on rotating discs, we get a spark of insight into the interactions of flora and fauna on earth and the elemental power of our central star, the sun. Temporality, rhythm and the functioning of film are hinted at. A look at the origins of life and the moving image.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Cinematographer
Matija Pekić
Score
Jason Staczek
Animation
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill Still Life with Woman, Tea and Letter
Still Life with Woman, Tea and Letter
Tess Martin
A photo placed between several other objects on a kitchen table comes to life and opens a window through space and time to the outside.
Filmstill Still Life with Woman, Tea and Letter

Still Life with Woman, Tea and Letter

Still Life with Woman, Tea and Letter
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Animated Film
Netherlands
2022
3 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

A kitchen table with several objects on it stands still. But time provides movement. A candle burns down rapidly, a photo draped on the table comes to life. It shows a young woman making a cup of tea. Old hands approach the table to touch the letter lying there. Life on the photo stands still.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Script
Tess Martin
Cinematographer
Matija Pekić
Producer
Denis Vaslin, Fleur Knopperts
Sound Design
Jorick Bronius
Score
Jorick Bronius
Animation
Tess Martin, Marike Verbiest
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill The Lost Mariner
The Lost Mariner
Tess Martin
Jimmie, an aged sailor with impaired memory, has become unmoored in time. He gets lost in the waves of the decades between his former and present selves.
Filmstill The Lost Mariner

The Lost Mariner

The Lost Mariner
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Animated Film
Netherlands
2014
6 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

Without a working memory, the former sailor Jimmie is unmoored in time. Fragments of his former life and his younger self appear like islands on the horizon, glide by, disappear in the depths. The older Jimmie does not recognise himself and is frightened by the “strangers.” He gets lost in space and sinks into the empty background.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Cinematographer
Thijs van Gasteren
Score
Jason Staczek
Animation
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill The Whale Story
The Whale Story
Tess Martin
During a brief encounter, a real connection seems to develop between a whale and a diver. But then the whale disappears again in the depths of the ocean.
Filmstill The Whale Story

The Whale Story

The Whale Story
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Animated Film
USA,
Netherlands
2012
4 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

A diver encounters an injured whale. He decides to help the animal and gets a friendly look of thanks. For the space of a few seconds, the border between the two species seems permeable. The whale disappears in the depths of the ocean and leaves the diver wondering whether this was all just a projection of human hopes.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Score
Spencer Thun
Animation
Tess Martin, Webster Crowell, Stefan Gruber, Britta Johnson, Amanda Moore
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill Voice
Voice
Tess Martin
A dull underwater world floods a bright white hospital corridor. In this scenario, the main character tells the story of her rape and how she lost her voice.
Filmstill Voice

Voice

Voice
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Animated Film
Netherlands
2019
3 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

A dull underwater world filled with eerie creatures floods a bright white hospital corridor. This scenario sets the stage for a tale about an abused woman. After the rape, she finds herself not only confronted with the standardised examinations, her boyfriend’s horror and the alienation from herself: She has also lost her voice.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Producer
Tess Martin
Score
Jason Staczek
Animation
Tess Martin