It’s only a background for the next scene in my animation, but I’m quite happy with how this turned out. Four separate layers.
Now, I just need to animate the water and a walking lobster. So many legs. Whelp.
August 2025 studio update.
indie animation
Sacred Geometry
A rotating dodecahedron that I just completed for my current animation project. For Plato, the dodecahedron symbolised “Cosmic Harmony”. It is a three-dimensional representation of the symmetry of the pentagon and the “Golden Ratio”, that occurs organically throughout the natural world.
Ouroboros (2023)
Ouroboros spins a loose narrative of joy, grief, death and rebirth, all told through looping images printed on physical animation devices known as phonotropes. Much like the ouroboros, a symbolic snake that devours its own tail, everything in life is a loop.
This short film captures my ongoing fascination with physical animation devices known as phonotropes — a contemporary update on the 19th-century pre-cinema device, the zoetrope — which uses a record turntable and a video camera to capture the magic of the animated loops. Created during the various pandemic lockdowns and shot entirely on my smartphone, this short film visualizes perpetual cycles of beginnings, endings, and the inevitable reset of the loop.
AWARDS:
Best North American Animation, Female Eye Film Festival 2023.(https://thehollywoodtimes.today/awards-torontos-female-eye-film-festival-2023/)
Directed & animated by Jennifer Linton
Music by Zev Farber
©2023 Papercut Pictures. All rights reserved.
OUROBOROS screening at Oberhausen, April 28th, 2023.
Delighted to have ‘Ouroboros’ included in the Distributors’ Screening from Vtape & CFMDC at the 69th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany. The distributors’ screenings are out-of-competition screenings where “12 international distributors of artist and avant-garde films present selections from their current catalogues”. Screening will be Friday 28 April 2023; 19:45. Thank you to Vtape in Toronto for including my film in this program.
World Premiere of “OUROBOROS”
OUROBOROS is having its world premiere in Germany at the Internationale Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg (Regensburg International Short Film Week), March 16-26, 2023. My film opens the PARTYFILME program, so let’s drop that needle.
“Ouroboros”, a new short film by Jennifer Linton
SYNOPSIS
Ouroboros spins a loose narrative of joy, grief, death and rebirth, all told through looping images printed on physical animation devices known as phonotropes. Much like the titular ouroboros, a symbolic snake that devours its own tail, everything in life is a loop.
After three years — two of which were significantly hindered by my concussion and subsequent recovery, in addition to a global pandemic and various lockdowns — my phonotrope project has finally reached its conclusion with the release of a 6-minute experimental animated short film featuring four different phonotropes and original music created by my frequent collaborator, Zev Farber. The film is currently being submitted to various film festivals worldwide, and will be released online thereafter.
Ouroboros captures my ongoing fascination with physical animation devices known as phonotropes — a contemporary update on the 19th-century pre-cinema device, the zoetrope — which uses a record turntable and a video camera to capture the magic of the animated loops. Created during the various pandemic lockdowns and shot entirely on my smartphone, this short film visualizes perpetual cycles of beginnings, endings, and the inevitable reset of the loop.
Ottawa International Animation Festival 2019
Was delighted to have had the opportunity to visit the “biggest animation festival in North America”, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, late last month when they selected my short film Wunderkammer to screen in the Canadian Panorama program block. I was particularly delighted to see a still from my film act as the poster image for the entire program block (see photo above). I asked a random stranger to photograph me sitting under the monitor as we waited for the first screening.
The festival itself is fantastic, and well worth the visit for filmmakers and fans of animation alike. I credit this festival for selecting films that experiment and push the medium farther than most mainstream animation is willing to venture. There were a number of surprise “discoveries” for me at OIAF2019, and I plan to return for future incarnations of the festival.
Many thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts for funding my travel to the festival.
May festival update 2019
Hi Darklings,
Quick update as to what’s happening in the world of all things papercut: Papercut Pictures and Papercut Puppets.
Firstly, my latest animated short Wunderkammer will screen May 11th at the Anifilm 2019 international animation festival in Třeboň, Czech Republic in the non-competitive programming block “Midnight Animation: Body”. This feels like a stylistic homecoming for this project, since it was inspired (in part) by Czech paper cutout animation, most notably the work of Jiří Trnka Studio in Prague (who created the feature-length cutout animation film Fantastic Planet).
In June, Wunderkammer screens on Thursday, June 6th at the granddaddy of North American underground film festivals, the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Lastly, I continue to add to the paper puppets in my Etsy shop. Check in at regular intervals for the latest additions.
Festival updates (Spring 2019)
Hi there, gentle readers. March has proven a busy month for my short animated film Wunderkammer. It has screened (or will screen, at the time of writing) at three film festivals: the Boston Underground Film Festival, the Midwest Weirdfest (great name!), and the Las Palmas International Film Festival in the Canary Islands, Spain.
Sadly, my teaching commitments + costs of travel have prevented me from attending these festivals, but below are some screen captures from the festival web sites plus a nice little mention in a blog review from BUFF. Gotta love those naughty Victorians.
December 2018 update
Hello darklings. As we approach the quiet dark of the Winter Solstice, I have two pieces of news to share with you. Firstly, I was thrilled to have my short animated film Wunderkammer featured on the Cult of Weird web site. Fans of this compendium of all-things odd and weird are the perfect audience for this project.
Second, Wunderkammer will have its world festival premiere at the Medusa Underground Film Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 11-13, 2019. Here’s the description of the festival from their web site:
The Medusa Underground Film Festival is a three day event in Las Vegas, NV showcasing underground/strange and unusual films created by women. Dreamt up by filmmakers for filmmakers, the goal behind the fest is to provide a space where everyone can watch each other’s movies together, get inspired and network.
Not sure what is considered “underground”? We accept all genres and if it’s strange, experimental, cult, genre mashup…or is just all around hard to define, you’re probably in the right place.
Yep, that definitely sounds like what I do. Can’t wait. I’m slotted into the Erotic Block. I anticipate questions, many questions.
Lady Lazarus 