MONTREAL'S STOP MOTION FILM FESTIVAL (OCT 29 - 31)

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If James Cameron and his Navi friends are to be believed, 3D computer animation is the only way of the future. But if you enjoyed The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox to name just a few, you’re already a big fan of stop motion animation and should clearly be checking out the festival devoted to it this weekend…

This year marks the second edition of Montreal’s Stop Motion Film Festival, which takes place October 29-31 down at Concordia University, where the fest’s head honcho Erik Goulet is a professor. Stop-motion is the incredibly pain-staking animation technique where movement is created by photographing an object then moving it a ridiculously small amount then photographing it again, then repeating and repeating and repeating. This technique has been around since the early 20^th century and while advancements in technology may have brought those stupid Navi into our lives, there’s no replacing the totally unique aesthetic that stop-motion brings to the screen. Here are some things going on that you should try to check out…

OPENING NIGHT: The fest kicks off with a Master Class with the renowned Barry Purves, who will talk about his craft and screen some of his masterpieces, including the one above which is called Next and amazingly runs through the complete works of Shakespeare in just over five minutes.

October 29, 7:30 pm

LA FAMILLE SAC À PAPIER: Saturday afternoon is a perfect time to take the family down to check out the world premiere of this Montreal-produced tale of a wonderfully dysfunctional family (the best kind of families, in my opinion). And feel free to stick around and chat with the film’s director and production team after.

October 30, 4:00 pm

AT-AT day afternoon from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

PATRICK BOIVIN: Head down to Concordia the next day to get to know Patrick Boivin a bit better. Boivin is an internationally respected stop motion animator and director from Québec, who is as well known for his cult classic series Phylactère Cola as he is for his short videos have become viral video sensations (I’ve been obsessed with one above for a while without even catching that it was his. It might be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen). Since Boivin is self-taught, this screening and Q&A session may very be the fest’s best.

October 31, 4:00 pm

STRAIGHT SCREENINGS: But maybe you want to just see some animation. In that case, consider stopping in at 1pm and 7:30pm on both Saturday and Sunday to see more than 60 films from over 15 countries

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