Here are 10 of the best animated documentary films we have screened at the London International Animation Festival over the years - big audience favourites with a few of our own personal choices. Together they form a compelling argument that animation can help the documentary form push boundaries and pose a network of challenging, existential questions.
Doors: 8.30pm [programme starts at 9pm]
Tickets: £8 [£6 concession]
We have always had a special passion around here for documentary animation. LIAF probably shows more of this kind of work than any other generalist animation festival. It can be surprising to encounter resistance to the idea that there could even be such a thing as documentary animation. Surprising not just because animation is an obvious way to tell any kind of story but because documentary animation has been around from the earliest days of cinema. Just check out Winsor McCay’s 12- minute short ‘The Sinking of the Lusitania’ made in 1918.
Here are 10 of the best animated documentary films we have screened at LIAF over the years - big audience favourites with a few of our own personal choices.Together they form a compelling argument that animation can help the documentary form push boundaries and pose a network of challenging, existential questions.
Me and My Moulton | A seven-year-old girl asks her hopelessly unconventional parents for a bicycle. But what kind of bike can you expect from a father who sports the only moustache in
town and a mother who makes dresses out of curtain fabric? A charming look at
adult obliviousness to childhood desires and the difficulty of being honest with your
loved ones. [Canada/Norway 2014 Dir: Torill Kove 14’00]
In Dreams | A group of people swap their heads to help illustrate their most recurrent or
memorable dreams. [UK 2011 Dir: Samuel Blain 3’00]
The Velvet Underground played at my High School | On December 12th 1965 The Velvet Underground played their first concert in a New Jersey high school. They were the opening act and played three songs for an audience of 15 year-old students. Most of the audience walked out after the first song. Those that stayed were never the same again. [USA 2018 Dir: Anthony Jannelli and Robert Pietri 7’50]
Abuelas | In a small apartment in Buenos Aires, an old woman eagerly awaits the birth of her grandchild and all the joys of becoming a grandmother. However, horrific circumstances means she will be forced to wait over 30 years. [UK 2011 Dir: Afarain Eghbal 9’15]
Bike Trip | Two bikers travel 500 miles to ask a question about beer. [USA 2016 Dir: Tom Schroeder 10’35]
Bloomers | The story of a lingerie factory in Manchester. Workers recount the history of Headen & Quarmby, UK manufacturing, and traditions of making. [UK 2019 Dir: Samantha Moore 9’35]
Pitch Black Panacea | An attempt to cure a pair of strangers of their lazy eyes leads to introspection, emotional realisations, and a whole lot of hallucinations. [UK 2020 Dir: Tom Hardiman 7’20]
Lies | Three perfectly true stories about lying. We get to meet the burglar who, when found out, claims to be a moonlighting accountant, the small boy who confesses to a theft he didn’t commit and the woman whose whole life has been one long series of lies. [Sweden 2008 Dir: Jonas Odell 13’30]
Old Man | Animated to snippets of phone conversations with helter-skelter serial killer Charles Manson, this reaffirms his ‘down to the bone’ madness. [USA 2012 Dir: Leah Shore 5’45]
I Met the Walrus | In 1969 a fourteen-year-old Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape machine, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto to record an interview that contains the distillation of the musician’s message of peaceful protest. It went unheard for 40 years. [Canada 2007 Dir: Josh Raskin 5’15]