How does the graphic gesture in animated film manifest itself, what specific eco-system are we talking about when we refer to line and movement? Aline Helmcke invites us to think about drawing for film and simultaneously celebrates the sensual act of drawing: whether with light or sand-like material or classic drawing tools, on paper or blank film, in associative scribbles or structuring lines. And so lines turn into insects, a whole flock of dots, a pattern of lines, an industrial landscape … only to dissolve back into lines once more. Fleetingly, imagery and meaning emerge from simple elements. The intuition of the drawing process and the planning exercise of drawn animation, the restlessly wondering human eye and the unrelenting camera eye freezing time, they all whir around each other in this intelligent and luscious cinematic essay.

André Eckardt

“Are we still in normal life or is this emergency life?” asks Tom, one of the protagonists. A flood separates a life in two – one before and one after. In this work we encounter people affected by the 2022 floods in eastern Australia, as they recall the moments in which everything changed. Described through miniature rooms, the piece recreates lost objects and spaces, rooms formed of memories. Beautifully and consciously crafted, the piece invokes a creative approach that radiates care, for participating collaborators, for audiences, and in the making process.

The project, centered on a virtual reality experience and including augmented reality components as well as workshops, was created in collaboration with people affected by the flooding. As the project continues to grow, it becomes a living archive of restoration, reviving lost objects. Like ducklings reappearing after a flood, life – albeit changed – does go on.

Dana Melaver