The East comes to Chinon Pt 2: Glorious Animation

There was one piece of animation scheduled in the festival this year, with two showings. As it turned out there was a surprise addition yesterday afternoon.  Both were just superb.
As I mentioned in Part 1, the animations were shown as part of the partnership with Fontevraud Abbey, which for the last eight years has given particular support to animation projects, encouraging directors and designers, through master-classes and forums.

The participation at the Chinon film festival is for a second year. But in fact the spread of venues covers a much wider area of the Centre and Poitou-Charentes as well as the Pays-de-la-Loire. Throughout October different animateurs will have their work shown publicly in Angers, Bourgeuil, Loudun, Poitiers, Thouars, Tours, Tours Nord and Saumur. Chinon of course is the beginning of the run.

Flocon de neige - The Snowflake was quite magical. Created by Natalia Chernysheva, it tells the story of a little boy in Africa who has received a letter. You first see him running back excitedly to his home, which is quite isolated and near to the African bush. Once inside he opens it up and discovers a large snowflake - something he has never seen before.The link is to the trailer, which gives as it should a great idea of the quality of the work. Flocon de neige is close to six minutes long. Where the trailer ends is where the little boy's dream begins, with all the animals being covered in snow, and coming back to his hut to get warm by the fire. It ends with a colourful bird who the boy rescued, leaving a golden wing feather inside the hut, which the boy then puts into an envelope and sends back. Natalia Chernysheva was at Chinon on yesterday afternoon to explain a little about her work. Here's another gorgeous piece of work.

Gloria Victoria - the surprise showing, was one of the most superb animations we've ever seen. I was nervous about putting in the link as it really needs to be seen on a big screen and the opening is dark. But then it opens up.  I'm not sure if the full impact will come across on computer screens. Regardless, Gloria Victoria is a powerful anti-war animation, which was produced in Montreal through the Canadian Film Board. Huge cheers to them for supporting such talent. The link is to the full length version which runs at just under seven minutes.

Bravo to all!