Balablok
Bretislav Pojar, 1972, 7 min 32 s
Bretislav Pojar's animated short explores the human phenomenon of resorting to violence over reason. The cubes live happily amongst themselves until one of them encounters a ball. War erupts and they fight until they all become the same again – this time in the form of hexagons. All is right in the world until one of them stumbles upon a triangle… Winner of the 1973 Grand Prix du Festival for Short Film at the International Film Festival in Cannes.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/balablok_english/

http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=10784

Asthma Tech
Jonathan Ng, 2006, 7 min 9 s
Filmmaker Jonathan Ng turns the notion of otherness on its head in his semi-autobiographical animated short about young, whimsical, asthmatic Winston. As a result of his illness, Winston is unable to participate in the everyday activities of his peers and classmates. But thanks to his artistic ability and one particularly rainy afternoon, Winston learns that his imagination has the power to bridge gaps, transform and empower. Part of the Talespinners 2 collection.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/asthma_tech/

http://films.nfb.ca/talespinners-2/films.php?fid=9

citizen harald

Hugh Foulds, 1971, 8 min 37 s
In this animated short, one man attempts to bring about changes in his community through participation with fellow citizens and local government.
http://nfb.ca/film/citizen_harold/

Tim Tom

Romain Segaud.2002

Julian Antonisz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Antonisz





(look at his educational children animation!)

some examples of educational/ informational animation on various issues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwp-rmvpLno
Comment from youtube user "sharpshotzanimation"on July 16, 2008
"10 seconds is a story of what can be done in 10 seconds good and bad. It uses a focus on the positive things that can be done to boost "feeling big" rather than picking up a knife or gun." Outlaw Yutez -- City of Bristol Academy

10 Seconds is the winning entry for the Guns and Knives category of the Sharp Shotz Animation Competition 2007/8, it was written by the Outlaw Yutez from City Academy Bristol. The team assisted Georgina Reynolds an animation student from the University of the West of England in the making of the film.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4x-u-qusns
Comment from youtube user: sharpshotzanimation onJuly 16, 2008
(less info)
Nine Lives tells the story of a girl who at first refuses her friends offer of some drugs, but in a twist of fate witnesses a cat being run over and ...

"when she sees it come back to life she feels that anyone and anything can come back to life, that encourages her to take drugs....." Brizzle -- Fairfield High School

Nine Lives is the winning entry for the Drugs category of the Sharp Shotz Animation Competition 2007/8, it was written by Brizzle from Fairfield High School, Bristol. The team assisted Tom Malins an animation student from the University of the West of England in the making of the film.

Camur by Dervis Zaim

just a nice idea I could adopt (nothing to do with conflict....

Comment from youtube user "monsterdistributes" : This series, including the original Oscar-nominated short, from Brown Bag Films is based upon the 1960s recordings of young children telling Bible stories in a classroom to their schoolteacher. When a film crew arrives at an inner city Dublin National School to record the children, the result is a warm, funny and spontaneous animated documentary, featuring young children telling the story of John the Baptist, The birth of Jesus, the Crucifixion, Saint Patrick and others. Give Up Yer Aul Sins combines simple humour with clever
animation to create films with a timeless quality and appeal to a family audience. Give Up Yer Aul Sins has screened in almost 50 film festivals, including The Galway Film Fleadh (where it won Best Animation), Cork Film Festival (Best Irish and Best International Animation), Cartoons on Bay (Special Award for Original Idea), NewYork Comedy Festival, Boston Irish Film Festival, Aspen Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS-MPYM6yHI

-how about using Sevgul Uludag's stories to create animation while using the same technique of voice over by the people who actually leaved them (recorder while interviewed)?

http://www.brownbagfilms.com/

hussien chalayan's film on Cyprus

http://www.i-dmagazine.com/worldwide/hussien_chalayan.htm

2003 July Temporal Meditations – short film directed by Hussein Chalayan, screened at Pitti Uomo, Florence
Palais du Tokyo, Paris

Peace Day animation: A fly's journey with a pepper shaker

comment by youtubeuser "PeaceDaySept21"
September 20, 2008If only every bad thing could stop for at least a day...

21 de Septiembre: Dia Mundial de la Paz
September 21: International Day of Peace

www.internationaldayofpeace.org

Tatanka Animation Studio
www.tatanka.com.ar

My comment: Using humor and the "impossible" to create a plot of an "ideal" world without being too banal.

One Tin Soldier - Coven - 1970s Cartoon version

Comment by youtube user "celesta920
June 27, 2008"

Animated by John Wilson, Fine Arts Films. Basically a song about peace, One Tin Soldier, a song from the 1960s, become popular in 1970-71 as it was featured at the very end of the movie, Billy Jack. I added this to bring attention to where I found it, on OofusTwillip's channel who has a treasure of 14 other rare 1970s cartoon music videos for that era. Link here:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos...
A wikipedia article on the history of this song here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Tin_...

Helen Victoria Haynes World Peace Cartoon

Comment by youtube user "eddythebug"
November 21, 2007
This is my cartoon for the Helen Victoria Haynes World Peace Storyboard and Animation Competition. Hope you enjoy!

My comment :

Beautiful idea: visually presents the idea that peace can be achieved when trying to see through the others eyes.

Disney '42 - Stop That Tank!

comment by thelostdisney
May 08, 2008

This film, made for Canada, begins with an interesting cartoon showing Hitler (depicted as a ranting madman speaking in phony German) and an armada of tanks trying to invade a peaceful-looking village, only to be fought off by a barrage of gunfire from anti-tank guns, so much so that it sends Hitler to Hell. The rest of this short is a dry and technical explanation and description of the Boys Anti-Tank Rifle. Just like the previous short, animation is limited.

SOVIET ANTI NAZI CARTOON

Soviet Anti Nazi Cartoon
Uploaded by DwightFrye. - News videos hot off the press.

found on :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x106hn_soviet-anti-nazi-cartoon_news

Make Mine Freedom (1948)

Comment by youtube user "AnimationStation" on the June 06, 2006

:Fun and Facts About America, John Sutherland Productions. Creative Commons license: Public Domain. This Cold War-era cartoon uses humor to tout the dangers of Communism and the benefits of capitalism. For more great vintage animation check out www.animationstation.info and subscribe to our podcast.

capitalist perspective on soviet cold war animation

Soviet Cold War Cartoon
Uploaded by DwightFrye. - Up-to-the minute news videos.

From http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x105yt_soviet-cold-war-cartoon_news

Escalation - A Film by Ward Kimball, 1968

comment by youtube user "WardKimball"
February 09, 2007
1968 film by Ward Kimball protesting LBJ's escalation of the war in Viet Nam. Look familiar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PZBtWNxlQs

on Waed Kimball (wikipedia link) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Kimball

also comment on Escaleation by cartoon brew user "Jerry" :

Escalation by Ward Kimball made this film independently from the Disney Studio in 1968. It is the only independent short ever made by one of Disney’s Nine Old Men. He screened it at film festivals, college campuses and personally gave 16mm copies to friends and liberal-minded fans. The film below may be considered NSFW depending on where you work.

and,

comment by "TINKER BELL" on the blog "The Sacred Tree of the Aracuan Bird" :
Okay, I post this, not because I completely understand all of the symbolism in how it relates to Vietnam and the times, but because it is a film by Ward Kimball that was just posted on YouTube the other day. If you visit the page it's on you will see quite a few comments about it. I am going to assume that in the coming days this will generate much talk on a lot of Disney websites.
Please use caution as this file contains some explicit material.
I'd really like to know what all of you think about this piece. Please leave a comment if you feel moved to do so! :D
Posted by Tinker Bell at 12:27 AM

the last homecoming

the last homecoming website link

An Interview with Panicos Chrysanthou By: Sheridan Lambert at the Magazine Arteri2007 issue01

My comment: apologize for the inverted colors...

Dove of Peace and Deer Hunter Video

(comment by youtube subscriber "RingTales" , June 26, 2008: Free iPhone app: http://www.ringtales.com/iPhoneNY

by Leo Cullum and Sam Gross

Animated New Yorker Cartoons. Peace Talks sour and hunters become the hunted.

"Shoooo!"

"Does the NRA know about this?"
Category: Entertainment
Tags: New Yorker RingTales Cullum Gross war peace general hunting deer tanks weapons battle comedy humor satire animation )

My comment: even though this is a very successful animation (in my opinion of course regarding the artistic/technical skills and context, I would rather distance myself from becoming political in this sense since it could potentially offend? so do i forget about just peace for the sake of peace???

(comment by youtube subscriber "zimaroulis" on the February 12, 2008:
A small animation project. Department of Cultural Studies & Communication Original music by Konstantinos Tsitsas a.k.a. ForTune Quote by Jimmy Hendrix)

My comment: This animator uses cliche-like aphorisms such as "when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace" and a very simple in visual context animation of three peace symbols to communicate. I believe that his attempt is unsuccessful due to his luck of depth of context and artistic insight.

Cartoon Conflict

(comment from youtube subscriber "xerowalsh"May 15, 2007: My 2005 entry to a Winsor & Newton set Art and Design Competition based on Conflict, with a very open brief.)

My comment: For a very short cartoon instant this animator managed to show a popular conflict resoluton tactic: that of exterminating the opponent. This could work as it is with a witty title such as "conflict transformation" maybe?

Despereaux- Anyone else see the Israeli- ...

1. Despereaux- Anyone else see the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict embedded here? | Dec 21, 2008 6:30 pm PT
I loved Despereaux and saw many, many references to the conflict in the Middle East, most obviously in the star of David on Princess Pea's pendant but in many other more subtle ways. The message was beautiful if dreamy-eyed "the only thing stronger than grief is forgiveness" My family and I cried a bit, perhaps being too sentimental because it's the first night of Hanukkah but I thought it was such a beautiful message for kids and adults. The people, mice, and even rats were not inherently evil but products of their history, of cycles of violence and retribution. I wasn't looking for anything but a cute movie, and I don't normally see political or religious topics in every film, but did anyone else notice these themes??

from blogger "nerudamia"
Level 2
2 Dollars
Posts: 1
1. Despereaux- Anyone else see the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict embedded here? | Dec 21, 2008 6:30 pm PT

http://www.movietome.com/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=775264

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/23/waltz.bashir/index.html
updated 2:51 p.m. EDT, Fri May 23, 2008
Mideast conflict forces animation to grow up

\By Peter Sorel-Cameron
For CNN

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Everyone has their childhood favorite: whether it is the hand-drawn beauty of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs;" or the modern, computer-generated genius of "Shrek." Cartoons have always been a family staple in the movie industry.


"Waltz with Bashir" explores the effects of trauma experienced during war.

In 2002, however, the Academy Awards took a major step in legitimizing animated feature films, by giving "Shrek" the inaugural "Best Animated Feature" award. Since then several animations have sought to break new ground in mainstream film and help this traditionally childish genre to grow up.

This year's Cannes Film Festival sees "Waltz with Bashir," a brutal and unforgiving animated documentary movie, drawing a lot of attention from audiences and critics alike.

Based on a conversation between the director and an old friend of his, the film explores their shared experiences in the Israeli army and their part in the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982.

In the film, a character sharing the director's first name visits former Israeli army colleagues to piece together the details of a three-day mission which he cannot remember.

The journey leads to the harrowing reality of Sabra and Shatila, where an estimated 700 to 3,500 Palestinian refugees were killed or injured. Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was sacked as then defense minister for his role in the incident.

From this brief plot outline, it is clear the film is not one for the family.

Even so the movie has caught the imagination of Cannes audiences, and has been included in the Official Selection. There is even speculation it could take the top honor, a feat no animated film has yet achieved.
Follow CNN's full Cannes coverage

For a project of its relatively small size -- the production team consisted of a modest 18 people -- it is amazing that "Waltz" has made it to these dizzying heights.

"I'm still pretty much trying to figure out everything that has happened with the film in the last five days since world premiere of the film here," director Ari Folman told CNN in an interview behind the scenes of the festival.

The making of "Waltz" took a total of four years and included heavy research by Folman. After producing a script, he shot a live action version of the film in a studio and then animated it, using the original version as a reference point for the final movie.

But if they already had a film made, why give himself the extra workload of converting it to animation?

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"If you think about all the elements in the film you would figure it's: memory; lost memory; conscience; subconscious; dreams; hallucinations; drugs; war; death; nightmares. And if you want to go from one dimension to another dimension really with a lot of freedom, for me, the best way to do it would be to draw it," he said.

The movie is far more than a simple documentary account of the Middle East conflict: Flashbacks to war zones, dream sequences and moments where the unreal creeps into an apparently ordinary interview are dotted through the film, emphasizing the personal angle the director has been able to lend to the project.

"The film was kind of a therapeutic process," he told us. "While making the film I was recovering lost pieces of my memory in going to meet people who told me who we were and what we did together."

"In terms of facts it made me learn more about myself, but in terms of psychological manner I would say it made me connect better with what I had been, with what I used to be like when I was 19-years old."

In the movie, we follow Folman's journey to reclaim his past, and witness the affects of recovering memories from a highly traumatic experience.

More than just device for the director to exorcise the demons of his war experience, the film also carries an unambiguous message about the horrors of war.

"If you look at anti-war movies in the eyes of 16- or 15-year old guys they would say 'yes, war is terrible, but then again there is a lot of bravery and man friendship and being cool when you're there' -- and they say 'yes, it's terrible but I want to be one of those guys on the screen.' And I hope when young people watch my film they'll say 'I definitely don't want to be one of those guys.'"

This is definitely more than the run of the mill cartoon. And as such its inclusion in the Cannes Official Selection is justified and it would be a very worthy winner of this year's Palme d'Or, making it the first animated feature to win an award at the festival.

With this film, Folman and his team have proven the versatility and the artistic integrity of animation, adding a weight and seriousness to a medium more often associated with child-like fantasies. E-mail to a friend | Mixx it | Share

http://www.akamas-film.com/en_thefilm.shtml

AKAMAS: the movie


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


AKAMAS, Synopsis


OMERIS, a Turkish Cypriot boy, grows up with Greek Cypriots during the innocent years of his homeland. He has been taught that human beings have no differences, thought they call themselves Greek or Turk, Muslim or Christian. When he falls in love with a Greek Cypriot girl, he realizes that the world around is not as he expected. But the game of love is often painful: He has to find a way to win the girl's love. Later, he discovers that, what is natural for the rest of the world – to be together with the person one loves – for him turns out to be an adventure. He has to fight against the absurdity of fanaticism that invades his personal life and tries to crush it.




AKAMAS, Directors brief comment on the film

The story moves in a cycle, that is a process of knowledge. "Akamas" is a symbol. It is a peninsula, unique in natural beauty.
Panicos Chrysanthou

This unites the main characters of the film, when Cyprus is still living in the period of its innocence. But for them, having been forced to live there without the company of friends, it is a place of exile. Their dream is to find happiness living among other people. When they achieve this, they discover that exile can exist even among people. And this exile is the bitterest.




AKAMAS, Director's biography

Panicos Chrysanthou was born in Kythrea, Cyprus at 15th of August 1951. He studied literature and philoshophy at the University of Athens. He worked in Cyprus as a Film Critic, Curator of the Nicosia Film Club and the Cyprus Film Archive and as a director of the art cinema "Studio" in Nicosia. In 1987 he had the chance to make his first film.
from AKAMAS: the movie


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


AKAMAS, Synopsis


OMERIS, a Turkish Cypriot boy, grows up with Greek Cypriots during the innocent years of his homeland. He has been taught that human beings have no differences, thought they call themselves Greek or Turk, Muslim or Christian. When he falls in love with a Greek Cypriot girl, he realizes that the world around is not as he expected. But the game of love is often painful: He has to find a way to win the girl's love. Later, he discovers that, what is natural for the rest of the world – to be together with the person one loves – for him turns out to be an adventure. He has to fight against the absurdity of fanaticism that invades his personal life and tries to crush it.




AKAMAS, Directors brief comment on the film

The story moves in a cycle, that is a process of knowledge. "Akamas" is a symbol. It is a peninsula, unique in natural beauty.
Panicos Chrysanthou

This unites the main characters of the film, when Cyprus is still living in the period of its innocence. But for them, having been forced to live there without the company of friends, it is a place of exile. Their dream is to find happiness living among other people. When they achieve this, they discover that exile can exist even among people. And this exile is the bitterest.




AKAMAS, Director's biography

Panicos Chrysanthou was born in Kythrea, Cyprus at 15th of August 1951. He studied literature and philoshophy at the University of Athens. He worked in Cyprus as a Film Critic, Curator of the Nicosia Film Club and the Cyprus Film Archive and as a director of the art cinema "Studio" in Nicosia. In 1987 he had the chance to make his first film.


copyright © www.akamas-film.com | akamas-film@cytanet.com.cy

Peace on Earth

Peace on Earth is a 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon short subject directed by Hugh Harman, about a post-apocalyptic world populated by animals. (description by youtube user 9MDV9 on 16 January 2007)

My comment:

This is what will happen if people continue to fight each other... Use of fear for the future to prevent current conflicts

Конфликт Conflict Soviet Animation

(by Garri Bardin, 1983)

My comments:

See how Bardin uses abstraction and metaphors to emphasize the act of conflict and not the specific histories.

shark tale

Shark Tale is a 2004 CGI comedy produced by DreamWorks Animation. In the story, a young fish (voiced by Will Smith) falsely claims to have killed the son of a shark mob boss to win favor with the mob boss' enemies and advance his own community standing. The movie additionally features the voices of Jack Black, Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese, and Robert De Niro. Its original title was Sharkslayer, but the producers thought that this might provoke a degree of misunderstanding among the target audience of the film, children and families. Shark Tale is also one of the first three feature-length films to be made into a Game Boy Advance Video. It was released into theaters on October 1, 2004. Although the film was a commercial success it was a critical flop, especially when compared to the critically acclaimed Finding Nemo, a film with a similar theme, which also completely outshone Shark Tale commercially.(from wikipedia)



My comments: A conflict transformation story between sharks and smaller fishes. The link between the two is Lennie, a shark that does not fulfill the shark stereotype, since he is vegetarian. Even though I personally enjoyed the animation, it is said to be a disaster, since it was released soon after Nemo, and was compared with it. Strong racial stereotypes. (italian mafia, typical african american representation. Nevertheless, I don't get the impression that it is meant in a negative way. So, when are stereotypes negative and when are they positive? Can stereotypes be positive at all? Can they be regarded as part of a culture? I suppose this is something the people affected by them (=stereotypes) can answer. Immediate answer: Stereotypes that create hierarchical structures of high and low cultures and better / worse people are always negative. So? Then why is there grating in universities? Why should there be hierarchies at all in any part of life? - Preferably there shouldn't be. Then how about hierarchies of values? Maybe the world should function within ethical prescription. But ethical prescriptions created by whom?

Welcome to Sarajevo

Welcome to Sarajevo is a British war film from 1997. It is directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is by Frank Cottrell Boyce and is based on the book Natasha's Story by Michael Nicholson.

Synopsis

In 1992, ITN reporter Michael Henderson (Stephen Dillane) travels to Sarajevo, the besieged capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina or, in the words of a UN soldier, "the 14th worst place on earth". He meets American star journalist Jimmy Flynn (Woody Harrelson) on the chase for the most exciting stories and pictures. Their work permits them blunt and unobstructed views of the suffering of the people of Sarajevo. The situation changes when Henderson makes a report from an orphanage in which two hundred children live in desperate conditions.
With the help of American aid worker Nina (Marisa Tomei), Henderson tries to get the children into a shelter. At first, the getaway is threatened with failure when the bus with the children is stopped by Serbian militiamen and all the Muslim children are taken away. However, in the end, Henderson manages to smuggle the Bosniak girl, Emira (Emira Nušević), out of the country and adopts her.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Five Minutes of Heaven

Five Minutes of Heaven

Five Minutes of Heaven is a British/Irish television film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel from a script by Guy Hibbert. The first part reconstructs the killing of 19-year-old Jim Griffin by 17-year-old Alistair Little in 1975, and the second part depicts a fictional meeting between Little and Jim's brother Joe 33 years later.
The film won two awards at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It was broadcast on BBC Two on 5 April 2009, and will have an international theatrical release.(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )



watch it here:
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/travel_and_culture/watch/v182430303XKHCXys

or

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODM0MDY0MjQ=.html

The boxer

The Boxer is a 1997 film by Irish director Jim Sheridan. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson, the film centers on the life of a boxer and former Provisional IRA Volunteer, Danny Flynn, played by Day-Lewis, who has just been released from prison. He attempts to "go straight", starting a boxing club for young people in his neighborhood and trying to reconnect with an old flame, played by Watson, but his past always seems to be catching up with him.

waltz with bashir

http://waltzwithbashir.com/

Persepolis

(autobiographical animation)



[Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of precocious and outspoken nine year old Marjane that we see a people's hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power
- forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, she outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable.

As she gets older, Marjane's boldness causes her parents to worry over her
continued safety. And so, at age fourteen, they make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria. Vulnerable and alone in a strange land, she endures the typical ordeals of a teenager. In addition, Marjane has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Over time, she gains acceptance, and even experiences love, but after high school she finds herself alone and horribly homesick.

Though it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society, Marjane decides to return to Iran to be close to her family. After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, all the while continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.]
-text by youtube user "SonyPicturesClassics"]

William Kentridge

wikipedia info on William Kentridge

William Kentridge - Johannesburg (1989)

Johannesburg the Second Greatest City after Paris is the first in this series, and was made from twenty-five drawings. The sound-track includes music by Duke Ellington. It introduces the viewer to the characters central to most of Kentridge's subsequent films in the series. Soho Eckstein is a prosperous Johannesburg property developer, equally indifferent to the well-being of his workers and the emotional needs of his wife. He is portrayed frontally, wearing a pinstripe suit, sitting behind his desk where he guzzles food and drink, or stares bleakly at the destroyed terrain of the mining landscape. In contrast Felix Teitelbaum, Soho's alter-ego, appears nude, seen from behind, gazing into the landscape. His water-soaked, sexual fantasies of Mrs Eckstein contrast powerfully with the aridity of Soho's business, and with the faceless crowds of African miners who advance and retreat on the edges of Soho's world. The title of this film is ironic: the wasteland it depicts, in the land and in the emotional relationship between Soho and his wife, is the result of the growth of Soho's power, crudely analogous both to colonialism and to capitalism. Made just at the time when international pressure on South Africa to abolish apartheid had reached its greatest intensity, the film is a reminder that western societies were once built on similarly inhumane principles. Kentridge's multiple layers of complicity and responsibility allow for no simple readings.
(text added by youtube user "ead1529")


William Kentridge - Monument (1990)
Monument is Kentridge's second film in the series and explores his feelings of ambivalence about the privileges and comforts of the white South African society into which he was born. It was made from a basis of eleven drawings and is accompanied by music composed by Edward Jordan. Soho Eckstein, wealthy real estate developer, here assumes the guise of civic benefactor and erects a monument to the black South African work force, from whose labour his wealth is derived. The monument is a huge statue of an anonymous African workman. During the ceremony of unveiling the monument, in the first half of the film, the statue comes to life. Slowed by the enormous burden on his shoulders, he makes his way across the outskirts of the city, before disappearing into the distant landscape. As both product and embodiment of nature, he represents the moral dilemma at the core of Soho's empire and, by analogy, that of the white South African élite. Soho may feel sufficient gratitude towards the anonymous multitudes labouring for his luxury to build a monument in tribute to their work, but if in this act of recognition they become human, he must acknowledge their suffering and his abuse of them. For Kentridge, abuse of the populace runs parallel to exploitation of the land, as the second half of the film makes clear by the proliferation of billboards, lamp posts, loud-speakers, microphones and other bleak geometric forms appearing throughout the gradually expanding urban landscape.
(text added by youtube user "ead1529")



William Kentridge - Mine (1991)
Mine is Kentridge's third film, although it is often shown by the artist as second in the series, before Monument (Tate T07483). It was made from eighteen drawings and is set to Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor, Opus 104. In it, Kentridge develops the analogy between landscape and mind begun in the earlier films. A journey into the mines provides a visual representation of a journey into the conscience of Kentridge's invented character, Soho Eckstein, the white South African property owner who exploits the resources of land and black human labour which are under his domain. Throughout the film the imagery shifts between the geological landscape underground inhabited by innumerable black miners and Soho's world of white luxury above ground. When Soho, breakfasting in bed, pushes down the plunger of his cafetière, its movement is transformed into a rapid descent through the tray, through the bed and into the mine-shaft. Here the miners' world of overwhelming misery is depicted in claustrophobic tunnels where they are trapped digging, drilling and sleeping, embedded in rock. Above ground, Soho sits at his desk in his customary pin-stripe suit and punches adding machines and cash registers, creating a flow of gold bars, exhausted miners, blasted landscapes and blocks of uniform housing. At the end of the film a tiny, live rhinoceros is carried up from underground to appear on Soho's desk. This, like the image of a Nigerian Ife head which appears at the beginning of the film, alludes to exoticising colonialist attitudes towards Africa and its people, which reduce human and animal resources to trinkets and symbols of wealth. It also refers to the ecological damage caused by industry, a theme common to this series of films.
(text added by youtube user "ead1529"


Sobriety, Obesity and Growing Old is the fourth film in the series. It was made from twenty-five drawings and features Dvorak's String Quartet in F, Opus 96, choral music of South Africa, and the M'appari aria from Martha by Friedrich von Flotow, sung by Enrico Caruso. It picks up the narrative and themes begun in Kentridge's first film, Johannesburg the Second Greatest City after Paris (Tate T07482), and follows the development of the relationships between his cast of invented characters, Soho Eckstein, his wife and her lover, Felix Teitelbaum. These relationships reflect, metaphorically, the changing political situation in South Africa at the time the film was made. Demonstrations and marches in opposition to the apartheid régime together with the governmental relaxation of most of the State of Emergency regulations and restrictions heralded the beginning of a change in the country's power structure (and white attitudes towards black African rights). Soho, a symbol of South African white power, develops the capacity for awareness, longing and love and the potential for guilt and repentance. This is played out through the loss of his wife to Felix (his emotional alter-ego) which climaxes, through the couple making love, in the crumbling of the buildings of Johannesburg as megaphones declare a state of emergency. Soho is left alone with a cat in a vast open landscape and the words 'HER ABSENCE FILLED THE WORLD'. In the final scene of the film Soho has had to recognise the magnitude of his grief and longing, and lies, still wearing the business suit which symbolises his social position, embracing his naked wife in the middle of a field, where they gradually become submerged under rising waters. Crowds of black protestors, who had appeared marching through a 1950s version of Johannesburg earlier in the film, have receded to a respectful distance as Soho has found a connection to his feelings and hence his land.
(text added by youtube user "ead1529")


- Felix in Exile (1994) (south africa)
Felix in Exile is Kentridge's fifth film. It was made from forty drawings and is accompanied by music by Phillip Miller and Motsumi Makhene. It introduces a new character to the series: Nandi, an African woman, who appears at the beginning of the film making drawings of the landscape. She observes the land with surveyor's instruments, watching African bodies, with bleeding wounds, which melt into the landscape. She is recording the evidence of violence and massacre that is part of South Africa's recent history. Felix Teitelbaum, who features in Kentridge's first and fourth films as the humane and loving alter-ego to the ruthless capitalist white South African psyche, appears here semi-naked and alone in a foreign hotel room, brooding over Nandi's drawings of the damaged African landscape, which cover his suitcase and walls. Felix looks at himself in the mirror while shaving and Nandi appears to him. They are connected to one another, through the mirror, by a double-ended telescope and embrace, but Nandi is later shot and absorbed back into the ground like the bodies she was observing earlier. A flood of blue water in the hotel room, brought about by the process of painful remembering, symbolises tears of grief and loss and the Biblical flood which promises new life. Kentridge has commented: 'Felix in Exile was made at the time just before the first general election in South Africa, and questioned the way in which the people who had died on the journey to this new dispensation would be remembered'. In this film Nandi's drawing could be read as an attempt to construct a new national identity through the preservation, rather than erasure, of brutal and racist colonial memory.
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History of the Main Complaint is the sixth film in the series and is based on twenty-one drawings. It was made shortly after the establishment in South Africa of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It was set up to conduct a series of public hearings into abuses of human rights perpetrated during the apartheid era. The hearings, in which individuals told their stories of personal suffering, were held in order to make reparation for abuse and in the hope of creating reconciliation between peoples. The underlying theme of this film is a (self) recognition of white responsibility. This is played out through a 'medical' investigation into the body of Soho Eckstein, the white property-developing magnate and greedy-capitalist protagonist of most of the preceding films, which provides the starting point for a revelation of conscience.

In the beginning of the film Soho lies in a hospital bed in a coma. A Monteverdi madrigal plays on the soundtrack. Clone Sohos appear in pin-stripe suits to examine the recumbent body and penetrate it with stethoscopes. This activates the machinery of Soho's office desk (seen in earlier films) - paper punch, telephone, adding machine, ticker tape, rubber stamp, typewriter - suggesting a journey into the layers of memory which constitute the unconscious. The film cuts repeatedly between the clacking and ringing world inside Soho's body-mind and the view through a car windscreen as he drives along a night road. As his body is tested, the brutally violated bodies of black Africans appear at the side of the road. Red crosses appear at points of impact, on the victim's skull, and then on Soho's. Finally a figure runs across the road and is hit by Soho's car. As the body is flung up against the windscreen, Soho, in his hospital bed, awakens from his coma. He has discovered 'the weight keeping him unconscious' (Kentridge quoted in William Kentridge 1998, p.112) and, through its discovery, is restored to strength and power back at his office desk. However, this restoration is a return to a position which was shown, in an earlier film in the series, Mine 1991 (Tate T07484), to be one of abusive white authority and it is therefore not clear that he has made any moral progress. Kentridge has left this deliberately open-ended through the bowl of blue water (symbolising emotional connection and healing in his films) in Soho's hospital room, which remains untouched throughout the film. In the exploration of memory portrayed in this film Soho has not actually found the truth of his complaint (a complaint which is also a complaint against him). The investigation into the troubled, amnesiac, white South African psyche, explored by Kentridge in his films, has not yet been completed in life or in art. Tate T07481 provides a later development of Kentridge's themes.
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wikipedia info on William Kentridge

Attila '74 - The Rape of Cyprus

KAYIP OTOBUS - LOST BUS OF CYPRUS

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