Animation is a perfect medium for allegory, fables, and metaphors. Animation makes it a lot easier to portray animals and inanimate objects doing human things, or other really far-out ideas, than live action. Five Minutes Each, screening September 9th, is a classic allegorical tale. The plight of the artist, as some of Brainwash’s moviemakers are well aware, is a constant struggle to achieve even five minutes in the sun for their unique and individual ideas. Fascinatingly, Five Minutes Each uses the pattern of planned obsolescence of technology as a metaphor for the creative process. Here’s a “Making of” video:

More animated shorts are featured after the jump:

Of Frogs and Gods is another allegorical piece; this one is set in a frog pond. The unexpected arrival of objects from the sky ends up creating societal divisions that have perhaps predictable consequences. It’s fun and serious at the same time. Check out the movie’s Facebook page here.

We are proud to present Clean is Good, an experimental non-narrative short film out of Mexico. It’s an amazingly intricate animated short, with many creative combinations of drawing and live-action shots. It’s hard to describe — just watch the trailer here:

Finally, we are screening Spirit of the Bluebird, another innovative animated short, which uses stop-action footage of paintings on a fence and garage. Artist Jesse Gouchey paints a large scale animation of a bluebird in flight as a remembrance for Aboriginal mother and grandmother Gloria Black Plume, a 1999 murder victim. The beauty and freedom of the bluebird’s motion is contrasted with remembrances of Gloria’s surviving family members, who give an emotional glimpse of a woman lost to violence and the injustice of the legal system. Here’s the trailer:

Check out our program to find out which nights these great shorts are screening. If you’re an animation fan, buy tickets today!

Other animation to be shown includes:

• Sunset to Sunset by Kent Hayward, about a walk across LA (that’s right – a WALK in LA!)
• and the aforementioned Demiurge, both Friday night, Aug. 13th.

On Saturday, Aug. 14th, even more great animation includes:

• The fantastic The Magnitude of the Continental Divides by Christopher Coleman;
• Phillip the Safety Egg by Mike Owens (looks straight out of Adult Swim);
• The Empress by Lyle Pisio (an Absolute MUST SEE for all animation connoisseurs);
• Billionaire by Antonio Figueroa, about a game cataloging the roots of our economic collapse;
• Frank DanCoolo: Paranormal Drug Dealer by Andrew Jones, not an animated movie per se, but featuring notable CGI while Frank and the world’s best reporter, Holly Malone, hallucinate;
• and finally Goodnight Harvey, with some animation bidding a less than fond farewell to a formerly beloved childhood Muppets — sorry, “Muppos” — icon.

So bring a friend, bring a chair to enjoy the movies and see you there!