“(Re)Cycle” – TRT 1:50 mins
Toronto Animated Image Society (TAIS) put out a Request for Proposal regarding the 2011 Nuit Blanche festival with the theme of “The Elements”. Half a dozen experimental shorts would run on the One Stop Media Network’s TTC subway monitors (in association with Art 4 Commuters, The Ontario Arts Council, and The Toronto Arts Council) through the night, though, necessarily, silent and in a very narrow aspect ratio.
“(Re)Cycle” (now in a more standard aspect ratio w/sound) strove to draw attention to our dependency on the connections between the elements in our world by integrating them into BOTH the content and the media choices.
* * *
FIRE (and life) begins with a lightning strike then bubbling magma at the centre of the Earth told through scratching 35 mm film. Light from our modern “captured-fire” (electricity) shines through to illuminate the magma tunneling upwards through the …
EARTH. Under-lit sand animation shows us the layers of the mantle. Fossils (actual & sculpted) are passed, pressure building to a volcanic eruption of ash into the …
AIR where the ash cloud dissipates into steam portrayed by sifted sugar then blown clear. The wind stirs a maple tree, taking the keys (collected after “helicopter-ing” down) through the sky where seagulls pass on their way to the seaside. When the gulls target a school of flying fish skimming by, they dive to take us under the …
WATER. Lubricant splashes and we enter a world populated by watercolour paper puppets carrying us deeper. When a passing whale’s tail stirs up a phosphorescent wake, in the return to scratch-on-film, we see the mysterious lights of the deep ocean where life began.
We’ve returned to the strange and unpredictable fires of the Earth’s core.
* * *
It’s my hope that, by illustrating the ways in which all of life is connected in our world, we will be more greatly inspired to protect it and think twice about what we throw into the mix.
Lynn Dana Wilton is an animating Jill-of-all-trades who trained in classical at Sheridan College, has worked commercially in stop-motion (mostly television series & specials), and likes experimental techniques (frequently with TAIS, the Toronto Animated Image Society). “(Re)Cycle” has screened at: International Short Film Festival (Mauritius) 2014, CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) w/TAIS (Toronto, Canada) 2014, Dawson City International Short Film Festival (Yukon, Canada) w/TAIS 2014, Shuto Con “Women In Animation – The Short Films” (Michigan, U.S.A.) 2014, ICE (Improvisational Concert Ensemble) w/soundtrack improvised live (Waterloo, Canada) 2013, Filmo Corto Festival (Lima, Peru) w/TAIS 2013, Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival (Palmerston North, New Zealand) 2013, Halifax Independent Film Festival (Halifax, Canada) w/TAIS 2013, Byron Bay International Film Festival (Byron Bay, Australia) 2013, Animation With Love 3/Carbon Arc (Halifax), SoDak Animation Festival (Brookings, South Dakota, U.S.A.), NSI Online Film Festival (Canada), TAAFI – Toronto Animated Arts Festival International (Toronto), TAIS International Showcase 2012 – Toronto Animated Image Society (Toronto) and (silent, alternate aspect ratio) Nuit Blanche Festival 2011 (Toronto).
17 Days Video Series 
Pingback: Response to Days 1-5 | KevonWyllieAwesomeArt