Baltimore Showcase - SEAF 2024
Opening Night! Friday, October 18, 2024 - 7:00 PM - MICA Falvey Hall Theatre
Sunday, October 20, 2024 - 4:00 PM - TU Van Bokkelen Hall Theatre
Runtime = 72 minutes
Go to this Eventbrite Ticket Link
On the Eventbrite site - Select either Friday or Sunday for your chosen date. Then click the orange tickets button and find this specific event to reserve a seat for this screening at either MICA or Towson.
$12 for individual tickets / $80 for all-access festival pass (gets you into all screenings/events of the festival)
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The Baltimore Showcase is back with 26 films from animators and students from right here in Charm City!
Sparkly poop, a dancing rooster, perils of immigration, scissors, dinner table chat, hermetic philosphy, history of the blue planet, lambs on fire, art snobs, scraped graffiti, fire, sea glass, plucked hair, urban legend AI, human dna, tv head, toddler exploration, drawing comes to life, scrapbooking, floating underwater, cyanotypes, a big hole, journey through the mind, interpreting an eclipse, ones and zeroes, and a swamp thing. Q&A with animators after the screening!
CRUMBS
Director - Thomas Alice Woronowicz
Time - 4:55
CRUMBS is an experimental animated narrative about love, loss, and transformation through environmental relationships. After a pair of creatures is separated by death, they still find themselves reunited in spirit as their bodies nourish new life.
STRUT
Director - Lynn Tomlinson
Time - 2:57
Lynn Tomlinson led an animation workshop with 12 participants in July, 2023 for the Casa da Animação, in Porto, Portugal. Workshop participants tried a number of techniques to animate loops of and a rooster, which is a symbol of Portugal. The sequences were put together to a bouncy jazz piece by the Baltimore band Bedlam Brass. What do these images and the music all have in common? The answer is the title, STRUT! 
I Had Nothing
Director - Elyse Kelly
Time - 2:45
To protect the woman she loves, V is forced to flee her homeland of Congo. She embarks on the dangerous journey to the U.S., only to be cruelly stripped of the few belongings that she carries. Finding safety shouldn’t come at the cost of losing everything.  A commissioned short for ACLU Arizona.
Cut &
Director - Di Liang
Time - 1:48
Cut & is a visual thesis on scissors as a metaphor for personal feelings of disconnection and doubt. Scissors have always intrigued me as imagery representing the meaning of cutting a connection. However, the act of cutting is also about crafting new connections in art. When cutting a string into two pieces, the two pieces can then be tied to a new string, thus creating a new connection. Scissors then become a tool for re-imagination.  The animation consists of five scenes: Cutting the Unknown, Life Clock, Becoming Blind, Resilience, and Born a Swallow.
How Was Your Day?
Director - Najja Akinwole
Time - 4:32
How was Your Day? This is a typical question in the Applebottom household during their usual family dinners. With their mouths full of Mommy’s delicious jellied food and plates heavy with a steamy clown meat steak, join them for a bit of idle chit chat. Be a fly on the wall for their ridiculous conversations and ask yourself, what will they say next?  
Magus Incognito
Director - Jim Doran
Time - 1:17
"The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding"  -The Kybalion   The Kybalion, a book about ancient Hermetic philosophy, was published in 1908. The original author(s) were listed as "The Three Initiates," and there is a compelling theory that William Walker Atkinson is the real author. Atkinson sometimes published under the pseudonym Magus Incognito. This 77 second animation is inspired by The Kybalion and its author.
Tempus
Director - Carter Gray
Time - 2:37
A brief journey through Earth's history.​
Memento Debes Mūtāto
Director - Ashton Taylor
Time - 0:54
An experimental looping animation exploring the insect-like metamorphosis of a lamb.
The Gallery
Director - Marina Abreu Souza
Time - 4:22
An aspiring artist decides to sneak into a contemporary art gallery to put his own artwork up. However, unable to overcome anxiety and insecurity that comes with exposing his work. He goes through self-discovery journey in a fantastical painting world full of surreal South American flora, fauna and folklore combined with Greek art and myth.   In this reflective short about the pressure of the art world and how it affects young artists, we follow our protagonist as they explore this land, their insecurities, and their own perception of art itself. 
SKRFF
Director - Corrie Francis Parks & Daniel Nuderscher
Time - 7:00
Public graffiti walls carry decades of hidden cultural and political history within their layers of spray paint. SKRFF_ology began as an investigative excavation of the public walls around Vienna. Treating the wall like both an archeological site and a sgraffito sculpture, the artists activate the layers of the past with stopmotion animation. The resulting animation invites the viewer into an overwhelming sensory experience that can be viewed from an aesthetic frame of reference or a philosophical one. Unraveling the past seems a necessary endeavor (both as society and as individuals) to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again, but the act of digging in raises the question of whether the past can ever be remembered clearly in all its complexity.
From Fire
Director - Evren Karl Bilgihan
Time - 1:37
Journey from an ancient spark that helped ignited a key part of human invention through to our modern age.
Life of Seaglass
Director - Sofia Gomez
Time - 3:15
A paper cut-out stop-motion film that explores the personal transformation a relationship can create even if brief. The film follows a glass shard being swept into the ocean, crossing paths with a curious lone Atlantic Herring, accidentally left behind from their school. Their bond grows as they explore the wonders of the seafloor together, an experience that transforms the mundane piece of glass into an enchanting sea gem. But in the end, they have to part ways, as sea glass is destined to resurface again for humans to enjoy.  
The Beautiful Pain of Trichotillomania
Director - Mariel Chavez-Barragan
Time - 0:30
A short 30 Second film that explains the pain but beauty of what the condition Trichotillomania can bring to a person. 
The Dance of the Nain Rouge
Director - Eric Millikin
Time - 3:00
“The Dance of the Nain Rouge” is an experimental decolonial Detroit demonology deepfake dream dance documentary, based on the legend of the Nain Rouge (“Red Dwarf") of Detroit. According to folklore and urban legend, the Nain Rouge is a supernatural shape-shifting native being who was brutally attacked by xenophobic colonists and has since been seen dancing as an omen of successful rebellions by the oppressed, having reportedly been seen before events such as the victory of Chief Pontiac at the Battle of Bloody Run in 1763 and the 1967 Detroit Rebellion against racism and police brutality. Besides short stature and redness, the Nain Rouge is known for dance, metamorphosis, and cross-species collaboration, having according to “Myths and Legends of Our Own Lands” (1896) “directed the dance of black cats” and “had power to change shape.”  The video, soundtrack, and voiceover are all created with custom artificial intelligence systems, programmed and trained on a hacked-up second-hand Macbook laptop to minimize environmental destruction and maximize class warfare. 
Earthlings
Director - Tima Aflitunov
Time - 1:57
The world is divided in hate over religion, nationality, skin color, beliefs, political views, sexuality, etc...But in reality, we are all Earthlings, we are made of things that make up our Universe.
Dead Air
Director - Kiki Brennan
Time - 1:41
A stop motion animated film about the feeling of being overwhelmed.
Anima Mundi
Director - Zoe Friedman
Time - 4:54
Animals, nature, objects, and toys become alive as a toddler wanders through different environments.  Made as a collaboration between the artist and her child, all frames have been drawn on with markers and watercolors.  Music by Stephen Santillan.  
The Doodle Prince
Director - Tamara Simonis
Time - 2:27
A creative girl name Andy creates an original character named "Prince Blueberry" when she was little. However, now older, she puts him away in her closet. In an effort to not become forgotten, Prince Blueberry comes to life and tries to reconnect with the artist who made him. 
Filling in Your Scrapbook
Director - Haley Trenise Wear
Time - 3:00
After finding an empty scrapbook my great grandmother made, I decided to fill it in honor of her using stop motion animation, and paper puppets.
Where You Are
Director - Ian McDermott, David Klinger
Time - 1:53
"Where You Are" is a music video for a song by Baltimore musician David Klinger, otherwise known as "Forgetter".  The video is a collaborative effort, combining David's hand-painted watercolor images with DC artist Ian McDermott's videography and digital processing. 
Mama
Director - Nadia Nazar
Time - 3:09
Mama delves into the places and memories of a mother and daughter’s relationship. Set in their homeland in Kerala, India - acts of care and tension fill the space in between. Cyanotype blues and pink walls tell a story of what was, and what still can be.
HOLE
Director - Sophia Sala
Time - 2:03
"Hole" is about a bucket of paint, a void, and a cow.
The Other Face
Director - Vanessa Daelemans
Time - 2:34
​"The Other Face" follows a figure as she experiences a moment of self reflection and a journey through her mind. Viewer interpretation is encouraged!
The Eclipse
Director - Laurence Arcadias & Robin Corbet
Time - 1:48
On April 8th, 2024, during an American Astronomical Society meeting in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, scientists gathered to observe a total eclipse of the sun.  This film was animated by astronomers during a  workshop just before the eclipse, using the first film of an eclipse made by magician Nevil Maskelyne in 1900.
NB
Director - Parker Keisling
Time - 2:22
A non-binary short film. Follow the story through ones and zeros.
Swamp Angels
Director - Emily Kobert
Time - 5:00
A girl made of swamp finds a human friend to play with. As they grow closer, the boundaries of each other blur together.