- Description:
- DVD - Region free. viewing copy. 1 videodisc of 1.
color.
fullscreen. sound.
- Notes:
- This collection of award-winning animated films was created by independent filmmaker Karen Aqua (1954-2011). Populated with figures "spawned from a mating between Matisse cutouts and carvings on Incan tombs," these films explore transformation (both internal and external), journeys, myth, and the human spirit. - Microcinema Int’l.
Titles
+ Penetralia
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 4 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1976
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- A person’s internal journey to the penetralia, the innermost place.
+ Heavenly Bodies
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 3 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1980
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- An astronomical love story.
+ Vis-Á-Vis
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 12 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1987
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- An autobiographical fantasy, depicting the duality of an individual torn by conflicting desires. A reflection of the reconciliation between work and the creative imagination.
+ Yours for the Taking
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 7 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1984
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- A three-legged cup embarks on a journey, filling itself with images and impressions of its surroundings.
+ Nine Lives
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 7 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1987
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- A fortune teller’s cards lead the viewer on a journey through time and collective memory, using the metaphor of a cat’s multiple lives.
+ Kakania
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 4 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1989
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- A striking blend of music and image, contrasting the tension and chaos of modern urban life with the ritualized order of tribal societies.
+ Perpetual Motion
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 5 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1992
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- A shrine to ritualized time. This film celebrates the cyclical nature of time, and the symbols and rites which have been created to mark and honor its passage.
+ Ground Zero / Sacred Ground
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 9 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 1997
- Language:
- English text
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- In south-central New Mexico, an ancient Native American rock art site lies 35 miles from the detonation site of the world’s first atomic bomb. The juxtaposition of these sites points to the striking contrast between the two worlds which created them: one which reveres and lives in harmony with the natural world, and one which, in striving to control the forces of nature, has created a means for its destruction.
+ afterlife
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen; Espinas, James; de Jesús Rodriguez, Dinorah
- Running Time:
- Short. 4 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 2001
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
+ Andaluz
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen; Priestley, Joanna
- Running Time:
- Short. 6 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 2004
- Language:
- Spanish
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- A traveler’s love letter to Andalucía, this animated film is an homage to the culture, landscape, and architecture of southern Spain. The film explores details of the natural world in relation to the four elements, and suggests the close relationship between people and the land which they inhabit.
+ Sensorium
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen; Field, Ken
- Running Time:
- Short. 5 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 2007
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- A hand-drawn experimental animation exploring the relationship between music and image. Inspired by dance gestures and movements found in nature such as water and tide pools, the film is a study of sound/motion synthesis. An alphabet of abstract animated and musical gestures combine in various configurations to create a lush visual rhythm.
+ Twist of Fate
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 9 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 2009
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- This 35mm experimental animated film explores the transformative experience of being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. This expressionistic piece captures impressions of such an experience: upheaval, uncertainty, a sense of physical intrusion, and loss of control. Exploring this emotional and physical landscape, the film visualizes an internal world inside the body, imagined on a cellular level.
+ Taxonomy
- Director:
- Aqua, Karen
- Running Time:
- Short. 4 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- USA
- Year:
- 2011
- Genre:
- Animation, Female Directors
- Notes:
- The animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms reside in a state of constant flux, reflecting a world of transience, mutability, and impermanence. Through the metaphor of transformation, this film explores the themes of malleability, instability, and interconnectedness.
