Weekends

The selections in this year’s Animation Show of Shows (curated, as always, by Ron Diamond) tend to be more amusing than inspired; my favorite works in the program provided me with momentary delight rather than lasting astonishment. The most representative piece may be Business Meeting, a pencil-drawn short from Brazil that delivers an absurdist send-up of corporate conferences. Running a little under two minutes, Business Meeting presents a distinctive style, serves up some laughs, makes its point, then promptly ends. Less funny but no less terse is the German short Carlotta’s Face, which conveys in five minutes what it’s like to live with face-blindness. Codirectors Valentin Riedl (who’s also a neuroscientist) and Frédéric Schuld incorporate into their 2-D animation drawings made by a girl with this mental condition, and the images provide deeper insight than the poetic narration. Continue reading