Really nice review in Gefle Dagblad

Gefle Dagblad published a really nice review of The Weapon, after having visited our screening earlier this week, where they also did a short interview with Sandra. Here is a transcript of the interview in English:

Well-made Weapon

The artist and animator Johan Löfström have arranged short film evenings at Kulturkiosken since last autumn. Johan’s main interest is the creative craft of ”real” animations in clay and paper. He talks enthusiastically about animation workshops that will hopefully happen in the future. He is also networking internationally (look this way, municipality of Gävle!), collaborating with animation schools in Vancouver and Zagreb among other places, screening films from these. Everything is managed on a zero budget, good contacts and lots of time and effort makes it work, in the premises of IDKA.

Now, end of season in a full screening house, at the premiere of the puppet film The Weapon. Only those truly devoted maniacs are into animation, and this film’s slightly mad history of origin is worth an article in itself.

The short story: the creators moved from Stockholm to Sandviken, rented a cheap apartment and recorded the film in their living room. They planned for one year but it turned into three years of low budget life, oddjobs and at times 24 hour work with the film. They did not know much before starting either, most of the knowledge came from books and the internet. It was a hard and creative challenge, which made the whole thing very rewarding. Soon they got in contact with IDKA and Film Gävleborg who have both given a tremendous support.

Everything except the puppets’ skeletons is home made: puppets, sets, music, sound, everything. The trio also stress that the project would have been harded to go through with in Stockholm, where business talk and the struggle for attention get in the way. Our praises to Gävleborg!

The film is a mix of science fiction, French talkative films of the 60’s, and puppet animation. It takes place on the space station Minerva, where the three astronauts Lorenzo, Augustine and Lydia work. New orders are deployed, the weapon on board is to be armed. During the film’s 25 minutes, large questions of responsibility, alienation, power and lack thereof are discussed. The future looks like the past, despite of all the technology, man is still tiny in the vast star-filled darkness. A clever story with a twist at the end. Everything is very well-made, the puppets are expressive with big eyes and their grotesque mouths well in sync with the speech. The atmospheric music is sparsely used. Another source of atmosphere and presence are the small details, like a chess board, water pouring from the tap, tears, fried eggs and laced sheets. Kitchen design and radio in brown wood, as if straight from the 60’s, as is the feeling of isolated terrace houses. The film is soon to be release on Pirate Bay and DVD, payment is voluntary.

The evening started out with 15 minutes of mixed short films: computer-game-like skeleton fights, western with failed escapes, comical children’s film, a graffiti-painting godess at Rådhustorget, furious psychedelia and a beautifully handdrawn animation in black and white 70’s style. All of the films were made by students at the Creative Computer Graphics programme at Gävle university.

Article by Camilla Dal

This entry was posted in Press Coverage. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
  • Still confused? Don't hesitate to send us an e-mail if you have any questions. Additional contact information can be found here.