As long as Brainwash has been around, animated shorts have been a major component of the festival. Following in the footsteps of such illustrious titles as Thought Bubble, Scrimshander, Boxcartoon, The Collection, and far more than I can name here (or, for that matter, remember), several very special, very distinct, and very original animated shorts are part of the program on September 9th and 10th.

Animation is a perfect medium for allegory, fables, and metaphors. Animation makes it a lot easier to portray animals and inanimate objects doing human things, or other really far-out ideas, than live action. Five Minutes Each, screening September 9th, is a classic allegorical tale. The plight of the artist, as some of Brainwash’s moviemakers are well aware, is a constant struggle to achieve even five minutes in the sun for their unique and individual ideas. Fascinatingly, Five Minutes Each uses the pattern of planned obsolescence of technology as a metaphor for the creative process. Here’s a “Making of” video:

More animated shorts are featured after the jump:

Of Frogs and Gods is another allegorical piece; this one is set in a frog pond. The unexpected arrival of objects from the sky ends up creating societal divisions that have perhaps predictable consequences. It’s fun and serious at the same time. Check out the movie’s Facebook page here.

We are proud to present Clean is Good, an experimental non-narrative short film out of Mexico. It’s an amazingly intricate animated short, with many creative combinations of drawing and live-action shots. It’s hard to describe — just watch the trailer here:

Finally, we are screening Spirit of the Bluebird, another innovative animated short, which uses stop-action footage of paintings on a fence and garage. Artist Jesse Gouchey paints a large scale animation of a bluebird in flight as a remembrance for Aboriginal mother and grandmother Gloria Black Plume, a 1999 murder victim. The beauty and freedom of the bluebird’s motion is contrasted with remembrances of Gloria’s surviving family members, who give an emotional glimpse of a woman lost to violence and the injustice of the legal system. Here’s the trailer:

Check out our program to find out which nights these great shorts are screening. If you’re an animation fan, buy tickets today!