From the humble hedgehog to the mighty polar bear, these short Panda Award nominated productions tell big stories!
M6NTHS
M6NTHS is a short, empathetic film about an animal in captivity, longing for the outside. An animal who shares with us the ability to dream, who has the intelligence to recognise himself in the mirror, who is curious, social and sensitive, and in whom we can clearly recognise a soul. An animal who can live up to ten years in the wild but only six months under our care. Without any shock effects, voice over or presenter, this visual film will change your view on pigs forever. It is the pig himself who invites you to see the world through his eyes...
United Kingdom, 12 mins
Eline Helena Film
Panda Award nomination: NHNZ Short Award
Churchill
Churchill is an experimental visual poem dedicated to the the town and polar bears of Churchill, Manitoba. While this film presents beautiful scenes of Churchill and its wildlife, the design of the piece remains unsettling, ambiguous and unresolved, mirroring the feelings of the filmmaker towards the subject and his work in natural-history film making. Natural-history films continue to be popular with mass audiences but the complex nature of the natural world and human-nature interactions remains difficult to capture within standard and marketable forms. Bold narratives may not always serve the long-term interests of the natural world, northern communities or discussions of climate change and other pressing issues. This piece was created as an experimental film attempting to expand the boundaries of nature films and incorporate the mystery that film-makers often encounter in the field.
Canada, 7 mins
Storm Films Inc.
Panda Award nomination: NHNZ Short Award
Blood Island
Deep in the heart of Liberia’s jungles, hundreds of chimpanzees were taken from the wild. Captured, bred, and infected with hepatitis, our closest animal relatives were to unlock the mysteries of human diseases. But what started in the 1970s as an ambitious medical experiment took deeper and darker turns through the decades. Gripping to the core, Blood Island tells the powerful story of the chimpanzees, their captors and the man still fighting to save them.
United Kingdom, 12 mins
Lindsey Parietti in association with the University of the West of England
Panda Award nominations: Icon Films Emerging Talent Award, NHNZ Short Award
Landscape of Consumption
The last half-century of exponential population growth combined with consumer-capitalism has vastly transformed the topography of our small green planet. The Landscape of Consumption depicts, through dramatic time-lapse photography, these manufactured environments and their perpetual processes of consumption. Via endless cityscapes and cathedral-like shopping malls, the film takes us on a mesmeric journey through our modern, almost dystopian, reality. Overall, 200,000 still images were created across 3 continents in 20 days to form this 10-minute short.
United Kingdom, 12 mins
Karl Davies
Panda Award nomination: Icon Films Emerging Talent Award
Hedgehog Close
Hedgehog Close is a charming stop-motion animation which shines a spotlight on the plight of the hedgehog in the UK. The film aims to engage a popular audience, and show them how they can help.
United Kingdom, 2 mins
Zest Productions
Panda Award nominations: Children’s Award, Terra Mater Factual Studios Impact Award
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