Author: Alex Widdowson

  • ‘The Man Inside Mickey’ by Daniela Sherer, for the ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’ project

    ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’ is a blog focusing on collecting urban stories; these are then reworked into animation, illustration or song. The creators encourage visitors to the blog to leave a recorded message, on their skype address: dttsanimation or telephone: 020 3290 4348, describing a story, experience or thought. You may also simply email your tale…

  • ‘OwnerBuilt’ by Lawrence Andrews

    Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 the people of New Orleans slowly began to rebuild homes and lives while trying to process what their community had endured. Lawrence Andrews presents the theatrical retellings of related events by a local man referred to as ‘Noel’. The retelling of his memories are further influenced by…

  • ‘Rock Stories as told by Matt Pinfield: Arresting Nirvana’ by Jess Iglehart

    Jess Iglehart evokes the saturated vibrancy and graphic language of early nineties television to aid in the illustration of this rock and roll anecdote. Matt Pinfield, the MTV host, recalls an encounter with a sheriff of Aberdeen, a small town in Washington State. Pinfield recounts the cop explaining a claim to fame by digging out…

  • ‘The History of Typography’ by Ben Barrett-Forrest

    Ben Barrett-Forrest has constructed a charming introduction to the field of typography. This topic, which over the years has enthralled a certain type of graphic designer, has also left the rest of us puzzled as to what all the fuss was about. Forrest’s short educational film provides a carefully measured level of insight; not so…

  • Iki – See you soon (Iki – Bis bald) by Florian Maubach

    Florian Maubach documents his bicycle journey from Kassel, Germany, to the coast of Lithuania. In one minute twenty Maubach convinces us of his reverence for landscape, passion for adventure and artistic dynamism. The viewer adopts a satellite perspective while the surroundings immediately visible to the cyclist distort into a miniature globe. This frenetically changing sphere…

  • ‘I Met the Walrus’ by Josh Raskin

    ‘I Met the Walrus’ is the animated extension of an extraordinary interview that took place in 1969. A fourteen-year-old Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape machine, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto. The ‘Beatle’ rewarded the teenager’s pluckiness with an interview that contains the distillation of the musician’s message of peaceful protest.…

  • ‘A Brief History of the Internet’ by Melih Bilgil

    Melih Bilgil’s ‘A Brief History of the Internet’ employs a distinctly simple visual language to depict a series of complex communication and technology developments. We are hurtled through the historical contexts of various breakthroughs that collectively lead to the invention of the World Wide Web. This animation project was conceived as a vehicle for showcasing…

  • ‘The Meth Project’ animations by Studio AKA

    The Meth Project is a U.S.A. based anti-drugs campaign created in response to the ‘growing Meth epidemic’. It makes use of online and broadcast media in order to dissuade teenagers from ever trying methamphetamine. The highly addictive illicit drug is associated with depression, suicide, serious heart disease, amphetamine psychosis, and violent behaviour. Prolonged abuse of…

  • ‘The Whale Story’ by Tess Martin

    This is a story constructed from second-hand accounts of a phenomenal occurrence where a trapped whale seemed to express gratitude to its rescuers. The true account is condensed into the narrative of a single fisherman’s efforts to free the entangled creature. Scenes are painted and repainted on a wall in Seattle’s Cal Anderson Park. Most…

  • ‘Feeling My Way’ by Jonathan Hodgson

    Annabelle Honess Roe recently released the cover image of her new book, ‘Animated Documentary’ (published by Palgrave), on her ‘Animating Documentary’ blog. The image features a still from the film ‘Feeling My Way’ by Jonathan Hodgson. Honness Roe indicates the personal significance of this film when she writes that it ‘…first got me thinking about…