Hello,
I was wondering if anyone here could help me identify an animated short film that I taped off the Independent Film Channel sometime in the late 90s. The animation's in what I'd call a woodblock style, in black and white with touches of red at certain points and it's about death taking a sick child away.
It starts with a figure in a hooded robe, death, walking in a forest. Death's face dissolves into skeleton and then fades back to normal. He comes to a cottage; his hand, resting on a tree trunk, dissolves to bone and then back to flesh again. Through a window there's a mother holding a sick child. Death appears at the door looking like a bearded old man and holds out his hand like a beggar. The mother puts the child down and goes to a pot of soup. When she turns around the child is gone, and she runs out but the man and the child are nowhere to be seen. The rest of the film is the mother pursuing death.
It's kind of long to describe the entire thing. At one point she comes to a mass of branches and the small branches coming off it look like finger bones; they start reaching and making a rustling sound. The mother bends closer to hear what they're saying and they scratch her. The scratches are red in an otherwise black and white frame. After the branches scratch her they blossom into red roses, creating a trail of red roses which she follows.
The mother follows death to the edge of an iced over lake. As death walks over the lake there's a shot of death's skeletal feet and the cracks forming in the ice on each step. The mother steps on the ice and her foot goes through. She kneels at the edge and puts her hands on the ice and the surface forms a million cracks and dissolves. The mother cries until her eyes fall out of her head into her hands. Her eyes are green, another point of color in the black and white. The eyes fall out of her hands into the water where they cause ripples that get bigger until they wash the mother into the lake where she's swirled across to the other side.
When she's washed up on the other side she crawls out of the water and grabs onto a rock on the beach which turns into an old woman. The mother puts her head on the old woman's lap and the old woman runs her fingers through the mother's hair, which comes off in her hand. The old woman takes the hair and puts it on her own head like a wig and takes the mother's hand, leading her up the beach and along a rocky mountain trail to the opening of a cave.
The blind mother feels her way into the cave and we see her hands as outline feeling along in the darkness until they stop at something. What she's stopped at is gradually revealed: Death's skull, she's feeling along the eye socket. She feels down to the opening in death's robe, reaches in and finds the child and wrestles it away from him. She rocks the child with no hair and no eyes.
Death reaches into his robe and produces the mother's eyes and puts them back in her face. The mother looks at him and his skull dissolves into a regular person face. He holds up his finger in a gesture that means he wants to make a point. Reaching into his robe again, he produces a mirror. The mother goes toward it and then steps back. Death turns the mirror away from her and they look at each other. She reaches toward the mirror and he turns it back toward her.
She sees an image of herself holding the child. Then the child stands up and steps forward growing older until she's an adult. The adult child begins to cry blood tears.
The mother wails and then gives the child back to death, who smiles gently at her for a moment and then carries the child down a staircase to a river, where he gets into a boat and takes the child away.
Anybody recognize this? I'd really like to know what this is called and who made it.
I was wondering if anyone here could help me identify an animated short film that I taped off the Independent Film Channel sometime in the late 90s. The animation's in what I'd call a woodblock style, in black and white with touches of red at certain points and it's about death taking a sick child away.
It starts with a figure in a hooded robe, death, walking in a forest. Death's face dissolves into skeleton and then fades back to normal. He comes to a cottage; his hand, resting on a tree trunk, dissolves to bone and then back to flesh again. Through a window there's a mother holding a sick child. Death appears at the door looking like a bearded old man and holds out his hand like a beggar. The mother puts the child down and goes to a pot of soup. When she turns around the child is gone, and she runs out but the man and the child are nowhere to be seen. The rest of the film is the mother pursuing death.
It's kind of long to describe the entire thing. At one point she comes to a mass of branches and the small branches coming off it look like finger bones; they start reaching and making a rustling sound. The mother bends closer to hear what they're saying and they scratch her. The scratches are red in an otherwise black and white frame. After the branches scratch her they blossom into red roses, creating a trail of red roses which she follows.
The mother follows death to the edge of an iced over lake. As death walks over the lake there's a shot of death's skeletal feet and the cracks forming in the ice on each step. The mother steps on the ice and her foot goes through. She kneels at the edge and puts her hands on the ice and the surface forms a million cracks and dissolves. The mother cries until her eyes fall out of her head into her hands. Her eyes are green, another point of color in the black and white. The eyes fall out of her hands into the water where they cause ripples that get bigger until they wash the mother into the lake where she's swirled across to the other side.
When she's washed up on the other side she crawls out of the water and grabs onto a rock on the beach which turns into an old woman. The mother puts her head on the old woman's lap and the old woman runs her fingers through the mother's hair, which comes off in her hand. The old woman takes the hair and puts it on her own head like a wig and takes the mother's hand, leading her up the beach and along a rocky mountain trail to the opening of a cave.
The blind mother feels her way into the cave and we see her hands as outline feeling along in the darkness until they stop at something. What she's stopped at is gradually revealed: Death's skull, she's feeling along the eye socket. She feels down to the opening in death's robe, reaches in and finds the child and wrestles it away from him. She rocks the child with no hair and no eyes.
Death reaches into his robe and produces the mother's eyes and puts them back in her face. The mother looks at him and his skull dissolves into a regular person face. He holds up his finger in a gesture that means he wants to make a point. Reaching into his robe again, he produces a mirror. The mother goes toward it and then steps back. Death turns the mirror away from her and they look at each other. She reaches toward the mirror and he turns it back toward her.
She sees an image of herself holding the child. Then the child stands up and steps forward growing older until she's an adult. The adult child begins to cry blood tears.
The mother wails and then gives the child back to death, who smiles gently at her for a moment and then carries the child down a staircase to a river, where he gets into a boat and takes the child away.
Anybody recognize this? I'd really like to know what this is called and who made it.