Untitled

Title	Source	Abstract
My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts (1999, 10 min 03 sec) by Torill Kove	Tall Tales and True Stories (N); NFB	Torill Kove's grandmother often told her stories. One in particular revolved around ironing shirts for the King of Norway. And what if that intriguing detail was just the tip of the iceberg? Perhaps she also worked covertly in the Norwegian resistance... Maybe she even spearheaded a campaign to create an unprecedented brand of guerrilla warfare! Treating history as a fabric woven from personal stories, animator Torill Kove follows a thread of family history, embroidering it with playful twists along the way. In My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts, she imaginatively renders her grandmother's life and work in Oslo, especially during World War II. Sharp and whimsical, her story combines her grandmother's tales with historical events and fantasy, and shows how a cherished anecdote can come to acquire a mythical status. My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts is about an ordinary woman with a revolutionary instinct. With sharp humor it explores storytelling, myth-making and the important contributions that are possible through the most humble means. (Awards: Vancouver; Oscar nomination, Hollywood.)

Title	Source	Abstract
The Irises by Jacques Giraldeau, Suzanne Gervais (3 min. 37 sec.)	Animation Festival(F) NFB	Although when he was alive, Vincent Van Gogh hadn't enough money to pay for his art materials, a hundred years later his painting "The Irises" sold for an unprecedented sum at a New York auction. This animated short, excerpted from Jacques Giraldeau's 1989 film Le Tableau noir, takes a loving look at the masterwork. (Award: Montr?l.)
Icarus by Paul Bochner (1974, 7 min 42 sec )	Tales from the Dark Side; NFB	The Greek myth retold with film animation, accompanied by music for flute. Music, drawing, color and movement here follow a moving, classic restraint. Daedalus, inventor of many things, provides the wings to escape from Crete, but Icarus, his son, impetuously flies too close to the sun. In this film, artist and composer share equal pleasure in the telling, with a feeling the audience will share. A film without words. (Award: Oberhausen.)

Title	Source	Abstract
Caroline Leaf	The Art of the Animator (C)
The Street by Caroline Leaf (1976)(10:12)	Leonard Maltin (C); Frame by Frame
The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa by Caroline Leaf (1977, 9 min 42 sec)		A film based on Franz Kafka's short story The Metamorphosis, the story is told through the animation of beach sand on a piece of glass. An imaginative sound track and innovative artwork combine to recreate a Kafkaesque world of alienation and guilt. Sound film without words. (Nine awards, including Hong Kong; Columbus; San Antonio.)

Title	Source	Abstract
The Big Snit (1985, 9 min 49 sec ) by Richard Condie (Seventeen awards, including Treviso; Odense; Genie, Toronto; Oscar nomination, Hollywood.)	Frame by Frame (III, F); NFB	This wonderfully wacky animation film is a look at two simultaneous conflicts, the macrocosm of global nuclear war and the microcosm of a domestic quarrel, and how each conflict is resolved. Presented with warmth and unexpectedly off-the-wall humor, the film is open to a multitude of interpretations.
The Strings by Wendy Tilby (10:18)	Leonard Maltin (C); Frame by Frame
How Dinosaurs Learned to Fly by Munro Ferguson (1995, 5 min 58 sec ) NFB (Award: Oakland; Hyderabad.)	(N) AnimaFest 2	The dinosaurs were headed for trouble. They ate nothing but junk food. They never brushed their teeth. They stayed up all night long. And although they loved to jump off cliffs, they didn't like landing. The early mammals tried to warn them, "You'll all be extinct if you keep that up!" But the dinosaurs just laughed... and over time they evolved into birds.