The Ongoing Development Continues, Slowly

2014 can be credited with bringing a style smorgasbord of animation techniques into Slovak animation, it moved Slovak post-revolution cinematography a little bit closer
to a full-length animated film, it advanced in the area of marketing strategies and
it also continued to erode the borders between traditional narrative procedures and psychologising themes with broader overlaps. However, after 2013’s promising start in less traditional short film distribution, 2014 went into reverse.

The release of new professional animated films in cinemas has become something of a tradition thanks to the Association of Slovak Film Clubs. In 2014, two challenging projects in terms of money and time, supported by the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, were screened prior to full-length films. First, Joanna Kożuch’s Fongopolis had its première. The author relied on her experience with pixilation, so typical
for her generation, and on the clearly visible pencil- drawn lines which in the total animation of her previous, student film Game (Hra) depicted allegorical war scenes. In Fongopolis Joanna Kożuch not only combines, in a collage form, animation techniques based on a graphic stylisation of hand-drawn animation and on photo-realism, but also adds various graphical styles of visual smog to them. The very topical theme of information overload and the ensuing stress and distracted attention is thus already solidly entrenched at the mise-en-scène stage. Whilst, in the previous film made by feel me film Snow (Sneh, 2013), Ivana Šebestová’s heroine almost lost herself fatally in her inside and had to get out of herself in order to rescue herself, the violinist in Fongopolis finds a solid point in himself from which he is able to change the surrounding world. Joanna Kożuch’s film has already won several awards, for instance at festivals in Poland and Maribor.

The younger generation is represented by the second film in distribution, Nina. The creative duo Ové Pictures also builds on their previous experience, this time with animation from paper cut-outs in space (graduation film by Veronika Obertová, Viliam, 2009), wherein they move this technique to a new level. Spatial (embossed) puppets and objects which are traditionally animated on the surface are rendered unusual by scenes animated on a special cylinder. By turning this, the camera and characters may wander endlessly across the country. Veronika Obertová and Michaela Čopíková do not deviate thematically from their work, hence they also do not stand out at this level from the female stream already formed by authors in the 1990s. Partner relations and the psychologisation of characters are the determining factors for them; here, in the case of Ové Pictures, they are relieved and enlivened by pleasant humour. However, other dominant themes are added to the partnership theme in every film. In Nina it is the theme of fear which appeared in several other student films last year. It is fear that man is capable of fighting against on his own, albeit needing inspiration or a strong motivation to do so. In the film made by Ové Pictures, Ondro and Nina motivate each other. The film’s marketing was not very extensive but adequate for a narrower fan base. Those who came to the première open to the general public could take the slogan of the film away with them, for instance on bags made by Ové Pictures.

Another animated film appeared in fixed and mobile cinemas – outside of the dominant generational context of the Studio of Animation at the
Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts. Documentary filmmaker Vladislava Plančíková, following international trends in animation, made her début with a full-length documentary animated film about Slovak-Hungarian relations Felvidek: Caught in Between (Felvidék – Horná zem). The collage film with several animation techniques has already won awards at home and abroad.

We are still awaiting a purely animated full-length film but, as the marketing of Heart of a Tower (Srdce veže, Peter Budinský and Patrik Pašš) indicates and especially the campaign to LokalFilmis (InOut Stu- dio) with several trailers have shown, the period of waiting is getting shorter. The première of the film with characters from the television and later Internet project Local TV (Lokal TV) has been announced for 2015.

In 2013, we witnessed several attempts to solve the problem of the distribution of short, animated films. However, the blocks Slovak Shorts and Grasshoppers (Kobylky) did not continue into the following year due to low attendance rates. The filling of the VoD platform with animated films also ceased. From this perspective, 2014 was a disappointment. Therefore, the presentation of further new animated films remained to be borne on the shoulders of film festivals.

Last year, Fest Anča brought a new competition selection of Slovak animated films – ten films made in 2012 to 2014 competed for the Anča Slovak Award; Fongopolis won. As for those films that have not yet been released into broader distribution, the student film NonStop made by Silvia Senešiová is worthy of mention. Caricatured torn-off arms and legs are typical for the youngest generation at the Academy of Performing Arts and they are rapidly becoming an exhausted mannerism. In this film, the physical destruction is directly linked with a death threat which is also supported by the horror stylisation of the film. Death is not autotelic here, it is not an attraction, but it points out the hidden connection between consumerism and humanism.

The Film Europe distribution company made its selection from Slovak films at Fest Anča for the first time. It granted its Di Award to the entertainment – educational film The Story of a Tornado (Ako vzniká tornádo) and at the end of 2014 the company released the film in cinemas and on the Film Europe TV Channel.

The competition at the Áčko Student Film Festival presented new talents and their very varied, manifold production in terms of techniques and styles. A wide number of films even presented non-traditional techniques such as rotoscoping or motion pictures in the domestic context.

Recently we have been experiencing a gradual revival in productions for children. At the end of 2013, the series Mimi and Lisa (Mimi a Líza, Katarína Kerekesová) was successfully premièred on TV. The heroines of the series became not only a part of the Slovak media space, but also of households with small children. The demand for domestic production for children is talked about as a barren land that has absorbed Mimi and Lisa in the form of a book, TV series and DVD. In addition to a new season of Mimi and Lisa, other bedtime stories supported by the AVF and RTVS are also in production now; this year even the long-term project If I Only Had a Screw Loose! (Mať tak o koliesko viac!, My Studio) with 52 episodes should be concluded.

2014 did not result in any revolutionary changes or awards for still “fresh” films, but it does not suggest stagnation either. Animation in Slovakia is slowly developing and burgeoning in all directions.

Eva Šošková
PHOTO: Fongopolis, Association of Slovak Film Clubs