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Perception (18)
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CumulusMaya Ersan 2007 1 minThis short animation film is a multi–layered story of an accumulation of encounters between black clouds.
Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship. -
Crazy, QuiltDonald McWilliams 1997 27 minThis film is part of a series of television programs including interviews with the directors of short animated films as well as the films themselves. This video includes 2 animated shorts: Quilt (by Gayle Thomas), an animated tribute to patchwork quilting and Scant Sanity (by John Weldon), an exploration into the nature of the mind and reality in which a person seeking job counseling receives psychiatric treatment instead, thereupon becoming convinced of the reality of his own internal world.
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eyeViviane Elnécavé 1972 8 minEyes may be the windows of the soul, but when the gaze is directed outward they become much more than organs for perceiving the world, they become also an instrument of involvement in all of life's drama. In this highly imaginative animation film, one disembodied eye (one is all it takes) embarks on life's adventures, entering into and disengaging from all the many passions, vicissitudes and conflicts that beset one's course.
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The End of TimePeter Mettler 2012 1 h 53 minVisionary filmmaker Peter Mettler takes on the elusive subject of time, and once again seeks to film the unfilmable on a journey that takes him to a particle accelerator in Switzerland and lava flows in Hawaii, disintegrating inner-city Detroit and a Hindu funeral rite near the place of Buddha’s enlightenment. Mettler dares to dream the movie of the future while also immersing us in the wonder of the everyday.
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EdgeCode: Sayonara Super 8Pia Yona Massie 2006 5 minPia Yona Massie's Sayonara Super 8 uses personal archival footage to ask questions about the fragile nature of memory, human relationships and the foibles of the medium itself.
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Listen, You'll See...Gaston Sarault 1983 6 minAn animation film that illustrates how closely eye and ear are linked, and how one acts on the other. The film is divided into three sections--game, conflict and flirtation--that repeat themselves without seeming to do so. This illusion is created by the sound track, which varies and colours the action. A film without words.
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M.C. Escher: Sky and Water 1Gayle Thomas 1998 3 minThis short animation mixes traditional and computer animation to explore one of M.C. Escher's most famous works, the woodcut Sky and Water I (1938). Accompanied by a stunning soundtrack, this mesmerizing film playfully explores and deconstructs the optical illusion within one of the Dutch artist's most recognizable pieces. This film has no dialogue.
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MamoriKarl Lemieux 2010 7 minMamori transports us into a black-and-white universe of fluid shapes, dappled and striated with shadows and light, where the texture of the visuals and of the celluloid itself have been transformed through the filmmaker’s artistry. The raw material of images and sounds was captured in the Amazon rainforest by filmmaker Karl Lemieux and avant-garde composer Francisco López, a specialist in field recordings. Re-filming the photographs on 16 mm stock, then developing the film stock itself and digitally editing the whole, Lemieux transmutes the raw images and accompanying sounds into an intense sensory experience at the outer limits of representation and abstraction. Fragmented musical phrases filter through the soundtrack, evoking in our imagination the clamour of the tropical rainforest in this remote Amazonian location called Mamori.
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The Puzzle of PainArthur Lipsett 1965 12 minThe perception of pain is modified by our past experiences, our expectations and our emotional attitudes. In this film Dr. Ronald Melzack of McGill University discusses the psychological phenomena of pain and their underlying neurophysical mechanisms.
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Perceptual LearningArthur Lipsett 1965 11 minThis film contains three demonstrations by Dr. D.C. Donderi, showing the importance of experience in determining what we see. Each illustrates a recent development in visual perception.
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Roy G BivDale Hayward 2007 1 minIn this short animation film Dale Hayward brings to life his watercolour on paper.
Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship. -
Scant SanityJohn Weldon 1996 11 minThis animated short might possibly be the trippiest of John Weldon’s (The Log Driver’s Waltz) films. It follows the psychedelic adventures of one young man who thinks he’s in a career counselling appointment but actually ends up an unwitting participant in a psychological experiment. What follows is 11 minutes of surreal encounters, morphing characters and musical journeys through different hallucinogenic scenarios.
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SwimsKelly Sommerfeld 2006 2 minIn this animated short a figure floats in landscapes and spaces without a ground plane. There is only water. The reflected skies are endless and mirrored interiors are doubled in height. This film explores experiences within environments that are recognizable but surreal.
Produced as part of the third edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship. -
A Sense of TouchDon White 1983 6 minThe evocative images in this film stimulate associations between visual and tactile information. Vivid close-ups of sensuous activities such as licking a popsicle, stroking a beard and walking barefoot in the grass encourage the viewer to explore the tactile properties of objects using different parts of the body. The sound track consists of music without words, which provides pacing and highlights the nature of different sensory experiences.
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UnblendingMichelle Ku 2024 1 minFor people living with structural dissociation, falling asleep can be a challenge—a time when multiple contradictory thoughts conspire to keep you awake. Drawing on her experience with somatic healing, Michelle Ku puts these thoughts to rest in a few vivid minutes of hand-painted animation.
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What Is... a Door?Don White 1999 4 minWhat is... a Door? is an eye-opening visual journey through the hidden secrets and familiar sights and sounds of doors. Film without words.
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White NoiseSimon Beaulieu 2019 1 h 17 minA reflection on the fate of humanity in the Anthropocene epoch, White Noise is a roller-coaster of a film, a whirlwind of sounds and images. The fourth feature-length work by Simon Beaulieu, this film essay plunges viewers into a subjective sensory adventure—a direct physical encounter with the information overload of daily life. White Noise transforms the imminent collapse of our civilization into a visceral aesthetic experience.
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XO RAD MagicalChristopher Gilbert Grant 2019 1 minXO Rad Magical is a personal lyrical poem about the daily struggle of living with schizophrenia. This psychedelic and hypnotic film shows that there is beauty in the brains of those who are at war with themselves. Produced as part of the 12th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
