In Between the Lines

A matchbox collection unites a lonely woman and her cat.

In the village of Dodoba, the frog Garo is murdered. A red toad, who is found next to the corpse, is responsible for the terrible crime. At the trial, he tries to defend himself, but the villagers do not believe in the innocence of the strange outsider.

Russian stop motion animation depicting the court of the Duke and Duchess as they mock and abuse the titular hero.

Silent cartoon.

Two rival robotics companies in the future release their latest creations at a robotics convention, claiming each to be the latest and greatest in technological advances. Mega Stellar Company's release is a robot boy named Romie-O, while Super Solar Cybernetics has released a girl robot named Julie-8. Unforeseen to each of the company's creators, is how each of the advanced robots soon falls in love with the other.

A nowhere man swimming with the Nowhere Stream seeks meaning in the virtual world and fails.When he gets a second chance, he finds that the answer was closer than initially expected.

Waiting to board the train, an old lady just wants to eat her cookies in peace, but hijinks ensue when a teenager on the platform next to her seems intent on sharing them, too.

Children are mysteriously falling ill at an orphanage. Candy Boy, the most valiant of the orphans, investigates, but the arrival of a new boarder complicates his inquiries.

Zoo animals embark on a journey by train

This is a classing Jordan animation, primarily in B/W, with touches of color. Actually, the engraved art work was film on color negative, so that subtle variations in tone are recorded. The mood--enhanced by John Davis' original music--is dream-like. It is both lyric and crackling, producing a kind of anticipatory tension. The scenes, in the usual Jordan manner, follow the surreal principle of placing objects and people where the ought not to be, and making movements that in the waking world are impossible. Each scene is a kind of drama from another world.

In the vestibule of a hospital room, a young boy waits to see his dying mother. The clamor and spiralling movements of bodies around him intensify, forming a grotesque circus—a cacophonous circle that pushes the child back, depriving him of one final touch of his mother's hand. Using rotoscoped drawings suggestive of charcoal sketches, as well as 3D and object animation techniques, The Circus compels viewing with its unsettling realism. Colour is employed metaphorically to subtly express the promise and the memory of maternal affection. Nicolas Brault's highly personal film, suffused with poetic modesty, casts a poignantly sincere gaze on the heartbreak of a child facing the fearful, mysterious experience of his mother's death.