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AFI DOCS 2021: Animated Short Films
Animation aficionados will appreciate the Short Film Competition section at AFI DOCS 2021. Introducing filmmakers, who have set the interrotron aside and picked up their paintbrushes to present fascinating real-life stories, each employing their own fantastic animation style, these short documentaries are also gorgeous art films!
THE BROTHER (LE FRÈRE)
USA Premiere
Suffering from an illness that causes body paralysis, Kais dreams he is the hero of his favorite anime, along with his brothers, Fehd the bodybuilder and Zaïd the ninja. SCREENS AS PART OF SHORTS PROGRAM 1 – Buy Ticket
INVISIBLE MONSTERS AND TOMATO SOUP
A batch of mushy sourdough. Two radioactive lizards. Three cans of Campbell’s tomato soup. When COVID-19 lockdowns began in 2020, people around the world began reporting more vivid dreams. SCREENS AS PART OF SHORTS PROGRAM 1 – Buy Ticket
THE ONE WHO CROSSED THE SEA (DER ÜBERS MEER KAM)
In a makeshift boat, a GDR refugee escapes to West Germany. His newfound freedom is disorienting, and it is only later, with a growing nationalist movement, that he begins to feel at home. SCREENS AS PART OF SHORTS PROGRAM 3 – Buy Ticket
S P A C E S (M E Z E R Y)
North American Premiere
A multi-textured animated exploration of memory as a container of identity, based on the personal story of the filmmaker and her brother who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. SCREENS AS PART OF SHORTS PROGRAM 4 – Buy Ticket
SOUVENIR SOUVENIR
An account of filmmaker Bastien Dubois’ multiple unsuccessful attempts to initiate a dialogue with his grandfather, who had been a soldier in the French-Algerian war. SCREENS AS PART OF SHORTS PROGRAM 3 – Buy Ticket
THE TRAIN STATION
USA Premiere
In this beautifully animated documentary short, filmmaker Lyana Patrick narrates her family’s powerful story of love and survival at Lejac Indian Residential School. SCREENS AS PART OF SHORTS PROGRAM 4 – Buy Ticket
World Premiere
Created by Chris Nee and executive produced by Nee, Kenya Barris, and Barack and Michelle Obama, WE THE PEOPLE covers a range of basic U.S. civic lessons in not-so-basic ways. Set to original songs performed by Janelle Monáe, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Brandi Carlile, Cordae, Bebe Rexha, Kyle and inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, each episode showcases a groundbreaking mix of animated styles. WE THE PEOPLE promises to be a vibrant call to action for everyone to rethink civics as a living and breathing thing, and to reframe their understanding of what government and citizenship mean in a modern world.
This world premiere special event will explore the expansion of the non-fiction form of filmmaking and the healing the nation through a celebration of civics and cinema with a conversation moderated by The Washington Post’s Managing Editor for Diversity and Inclusion, Krissah Thompson – Buy Ticket
Learn more about the film festival at DOCS. AFI.com.
