SPECIAL SCREENING: PSICONAUTAS. THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN
GLASGOW: Friday 26 January, CCA Glasgow, 7.30pm
EDINBURGH: Sunday 28 January, Summerhall, 7.30pm
“A Dark Animated Delight About Cute Animals, Hard Drugs, and Hope for the Future” (Indie Wire)
Guerrilla film collective Cinemaattic presents the special screening of Psiconautas, first feature by renowned Animator Alberto Vazquez. Alberto will join us in person along with Khris Cembe, animation director on all Vazquez’ shorts, for a Q&A after the film.
Psiconautas is the story of two teens, Birdboy and Dinky. They have survived the ecological disaster that devastated their island. Birdboy is deeply affected by the death of his father and eaten away by angst. Dinky decides to take off on a risky journey in the dark and hostile world and invites his bird friend to come along. Ecology, drug taking and adolescence echoes follows Alberto Vazquez first feature, nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the European Film Awards, as well as winning the Spanish Academy Best Animated Film Award.
It is the follow-up to writers’/directors’ short film, Birdboy, following the titular character, a shy outcast in a post-apocalyptic society, and Dinki, a teenage mouse runaway fleeing her desolate island home.
With his distinctive artistic style and dark humour, Alberto’s work articulates an innovative approach to translating the visual techniques and devices from his original comics into animated film which is unique in Spain. Vazquez and his team share a passion for creating striking work for adult audiences which dares, both through narrative structures and stylistic choices, to consistently challenge film- making orthodoxy.
THEY SAY
“the simple precision of the hand-drawn characters and of the watercolor world they inhabit provide visual coherence and establish an atmosphere of fascination as well as dread.” (The New York Times)
“Birdboy offers a feast of hallucinatory visual delights and astonishingly visceral horrors”(Slant magazine)
Cinemaattic specialises in pop-up film screenings, underground events and retrospectives on Spanish & Latin-American Cinema. Cinemaattic film nights rely heavily on social value, chitchat networking and people coming together for more than “just a film screening”.
Film identity
Original title: Psiconautas, the Forgotten Children
Directed by: Alberto VÁZQUEZ, Pedro RIVERO,
Director of Animation: Khris Cembe
Country: Spain, France
Year of production: 2015
Running time: 01 h 15 min 47 s
