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LIAF 2007

All screenings take place at the Curzon Soho unless otherwise stated.

Tuesday 21 August
7pm International Programme 1
9pm International Programme 2

Wednesday 22 August

7pm International Programme 3
9pm International Programme 4

Thursday 23 August
5pm Siggraph – A history of computer generated animation
7pm International Programme 5
9pm International Programme 6
(Long shorts)


Friday 24 August
5pm International Programme 8 (Abstract animation)
7pm International Programme 7
(Digital panorama)

7pm Bizarre animation
(Screening at the HORSE HOSPITAL)

9pm International Programme 9
(Hand painted panorama)

9pm International Programme 1 (Repeat screening) –
(screening at the RENOIR CINEMA)


Saturday 25 August
1pm Animated Documentaries
2pm Kids session
(Screening at the RIO CINEMA, Dalston)

3pm Masters of Polish Animation 1
5pm Masterclass and screening:
Craig Welch

6pm International Programme 2 (Repeat screening) –
(screening at the RENOIR CINEMA)
7pm Estonian panorama 1 (short films)
9pm British panorama

Sunday 26 August
3pm Masters of Polish Animation 2
5pm Estonian panorama 2 (Parnography - Priit Parn special)
7pm THE BEST OF THE FESTIVAL
9pm THE BEST OF THE FESTIVAL (repeat screening)


Masters of Polish animation 2
Sunday 26 Aug 3pm

See also Masters of Polish animation 1
Saturday 25 August 3pm

 

Polish animation holds a very special position in the hearts of all fans of classic animation. Put simply, Polish animation is superb. Any list of ‘best ever’ animators is going to have a strong contingent from Poland embedded in it. Indeed, animation has been created in Poland from the earliest days of cinema with the examples dating back to pre-1920s. Poles were also among the first to utilise animation for making commercials with examples of those works to be found in the 1930s.

Animation historian Giannalberto Bendazzi describes the themes of Polish as animation as a “sense of absurdity, surrealism and anguished settings”. All true but to this could also be added a love of complex, adult fairytales and a willingness to take the best from western and eastern visual influences.

The names of the finest Polish animators stand high on any list of master animators. Zofia Oraczewska, Jan Lenica, Jerzy Kucia, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Piotr Dumala. Walerian Borowczyk and Ladislaw Starewicz produced some of the finest animated films ever screened.

Recently, the Pompidou Centre in Paris curated an enormous collection of Polish Masters and these two programs owe a great deal to that fine inspiration. We also owe a very large “Thank You” to Marlena Lukasiak of the Polish Cultural Institute in London and Helena Dametka of Filmoteka Narodowa in Warsaw. This collection is but a glimpse of an incredible community of animators creating a strong, robust, challenging, superb body of truly original work – but what a glimpse.

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