Horror Show
Anna Malpas (The Moscow Times, Thursday, January 25, 2007)
The horrors are only computer-generated, but the organizers of «Alternative Animation,» a program of dark animated films, aren’t taking any chances — only viewers aged 14 and up will be allowed into Wednesday’s screening at Fitil cinema.
The screening, to be followed by a discussion session with the filmmakers, will mark the big-screen premiere of most of the shorts. Almost all of them were made using Flash, an animation program typically used to create playful animation sections for web sites. These films, however, contain disturbing depictions of murder and disembowelment.
Pavel Muntyan, the curator of «Alternative Animation,» is also the creator of two of its films, «The Head — The Leg» and «Gazebo,» although he made the latter jointly with another artist, Yelena Volk. A web site that he founded, Koms.ru, showcases films made with Flash in the genre of «philosophical horror.»
Flash makes films «faster to produce,» Muntyan said. But if the film lasts more than 10 minutes, its sound and graphics suffer in quality. For that reason, filmmakers often move on to bigger things. Volk, his collaborator on «Gazebo,» has vowed to stop using Flash, he said.
The highly stylized films are far from schlock horror. In one, «The White, The Black» by Andrei Bakhurin, two men play chess while the viewer sees the pieces as living people fighting on the board. Hinting at the war in Chechnya, some of the black pieces are shown as veiled Muslim women, while another is a bearded figure wielding a gun.
Nevertheless, Muntyan believes that the ban on young viewers makes sense. «One film includes obscenities, and several have elements of violence,» he noted. The curator described one film, Nikolai Belov’s «School for Voyeurs,» as the closest to a classic horror movie. It features a character pulling flesh off its face and popping out an eyeball.
Many of the films lack dialogue; instead, they feature hip soundtracks by Russian bands such as Moscow Grooves Institute and Ghost Reflection. Muntyan’s film «The Head — The Leg» is set to a song written by Leonid Fyodorov, leader of the rock band Auktsyon.
The lack of dialogue is intentional, Muntyan said. «It’s so that the animated films become international.» Indeed, his «The Head — The Leg,» which features a creature pulling out its organs, has English subtitles to explain the song lyrics. One of the other filmmakers is a Russian emigre living in the United States.
That’s not to say the films are commercial, Muntyan said. «It’s not a way to make a living.» He said a DVD of the films available on Koms.ru had only sold around 700 copies in two years.
He hopes to release a second DVD in October, which will include recent films plus footage of animation festivals and interviews with the filmmakers. This time, Muntyan plans to make the DVD available in online bookstores, at branches of the OGI cafe chain and at the Kitaisky Lyotchik nightclub.
«Alternative Animation» plays Wed. at 8 p.m. at Fitil, located at 12 Frunzenskaya Naberezhnaya. Metro Park Kultury. Tel. 246-8448.
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