Tindrum

Multi Media project

“What does the hangman think about when he goes home at night from work?”

Inspired by the 1922 Carl Sandburg poem of the same title, acclaimed artists and filmmakers Michelle and Uri Kranot have created a multi-media project, that has three distinct and singular outputs: Exploring themes of acknowledgement and participation across mediums.

• The Hangman at Home – an animated short film (world premiere at the Krakow Film Festival – 2021)
• The Hangman at Home – VR – a single-user immersive experience (world premiere at the Venice Biennale – 2020)
• We Are at Home – a multi-user VR performance / installation (world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival – 2021)

About

With their latest project, Michelle and Uri Kranot continue to explore the frontiers of immersive art and moving images, using multi-platform storytelling to create interactive worlds.

Both The Hangman at Home – VR single-user immersive experience and the We Are at Home multi-user VR installation present a captivating, poetic habitat that transcends the medium and prompts users to question the consequences of our actions and inaction. The experience expands on the notion of witnessing and observation, by going further to ask about implication and responsibility. It is a beautiful, delicate, and contemporary call for awakening.

The animation is hand-painted frame-by-frame with acrylic, a technique that allows for a rich though subtle examination of characters, gestures, and behaviours. The series of “living paintings” shines a light on private, domestic spaces, which are positioned within a clever, fragmented narrative.

Though all the components of this multi-media project deal with the theme of acknowledgement; the two VR experiences are separate and independent from The Hangman at Home animated short. They are an interactive call for participation and discovery, and a non-linear journey through changing environments. When offered as an immersive scenography and installation for a group of participants, the project expands to become an event ­– the We Are at Home multi-user VR installation, which allows audience members to meet both in VR and outside it, and to engage with multiple layers of narrative and striking imagery.

English Press kit
French Press kit

“Riot: by definition a violent disruption of the existing order.”

A dazzling, poetic and political audiovisual trip on the notion of the individual vs. the historic.
This earnest, impressionistic project presents iconic images that simultaneously celebrate beauty and warn of the violence facing us in this volatile time.

A performance commissioned by Klangforum Wien, the Vienna Contemporary Music Orchestra the film is a looping audio visual installation as well. The work appears in the anthology feature film the Happiness Machine.

The project is based on archive materials which depict The July Revolt of 1927 (Wiener Justizpalastbrand): Socialist workers from the outskirts of Vienna assemble in front of the Palace of Justice to voice their anger over the corrupt justice system. 89 people are killed by armed police on horseback. More than 600 people are seriously injured. The angry crowd storms the Palace of Justice: files are set on fire and soon flames blaze from the windows of the Palace. The 15th July uprising will prove to be a fateful day: a prelude of what will eventually lead to civil war.

Music by Iris ter Schiphorst: Iris is awarded composer and musician, based in Berlin and in Vienna. Her list of works covers all genres, including major orchestral works premiered by renowned orchestras internationally. The animation film is a rhythmic, poetic surge, comparing us, our lives, and our very humanness to burning papers in the breeze. Images of papers flying through the broken windows of the burning palace are juxtaposed with images of the crowds as they convene and disperse. The music charges these powerful images with vividness and color. We are driven by the idea of documentation and “truth” and experiment with the artistic form and its uncanny distortion using the repetitive, stylized abstractions of events unfolding.

The project was initiated by Klangforum Wien (The Vienna contemporary music orchestra), in the context of ‘Economy for the Common Good’ and is created to be a live audio-visual performance and presented as a film projection, video installation and short film. The film is a part of the ANIDOX:YOUTH Project, in collaboration with Animated Learning Lab, engaging young people in the production of the animation.

A virtual moment of extinction

A commission and collaboration with The Guardian Virtual Reality team, Songbird is a fairytale with a dark heart. You will be transported to the island of Kauai in 1984 and into a painted replica of a lush cloud forest filled with colourful birds. Here, you are invited to search for the last known ʻōʻō, an iconic black bird with yellow leg feathers and a beautiful song, a bird whose existence has been threatened to the point of extinction.

Making of: Blog by Morten Andersen, Technical director

The installation is supported by VIVE and produced in collaboration with Carte Blanche and The Animation Workshop / VIA University College

Multi Media project: Film and VR installation

In the cold outskirts of town, something is about to happen. A crowd of people has assembled to witness a spectacle…

Nothing Happens is a short film and cinematic VR experience which questions the role of the spectator, by inviting the individual to participate in an event. VR allows us to choose our perspective, allows us to dwell on the details and absorb the unique atmosphere. The project explores a new kind of narrative, a new way of being in a painting, a work of art that is truly comprehensive and immersive. Nothing Happens offers a new way of looking. It is about spectatorship, about watching and being watched. It is about being present.

Awards and Exhibitions

• Venice Film Festival La Biennale di Venezia, Italy.
• Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria.
• Kunsthal Charlottenborg, CPH , Denmark.
• Prix André Martin for “Best French short film”, Annecy Int. Animation Festival, France.
• Prix Festival Connexion Région Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, Annecy International Animation Film Festival, France.
• Winner AFTRS International VR Competition, Adelaide Film Festival, Australia.
• The Lumen prize, UK.
• Prix immersion. Festival du nouveau cinéma , Canada.
• Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany.
• Today Art Museum Beijing, China.
• Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design, St Petersburg, Russia.
• Best Film, Kurzfilmfestival Köln, Germany.
• Best Film, Anibar Int. Animation festival,  Kosovo.
• Best International film, Odense film festival, Denmark.
• Best  film, Tofuzi Int. film festival, Georgia.
• Best Film , Banjalukanima film festival, Bosnia & Herzegovina.
• Anima award, The International Film Festival Etiuda&Anima, Poland.
• Special Mention, Fredrikstad Animation Festival, Norway.
• Honorable Mention, The Kuandu International Animation Festival, Taiwan.
• Special Mention, Animafest Cyprus.

A visual journey that challenges us to think about a universal belonging that doesn’t confine itself to a city, region or national boundary in an age where xenophobia, nationalism and intolerance are ubiquitous. How Long, Not Long is supported by the ANIDOX:RESIDENCY. In collaboration with Erik Gandini, FASAD Cine.

Awards and selections

• Fipresci Prize (The International Federation of Film Critics award): Annecy International Animation festival
• The silver spike award: 61ª Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid
• Special mention: Guanajuato Film Festival
• Special mention: Animafest Cyprus
• Special mention: Lille Short film festival

Black Tape explores the theme of domination.
In an entangled tango, the victim and victimizer dance, occupying the frame and the space between brushstrokes.

This film is based on news and documentary footage, exploring the implications of life under occupation. It is the second part of a trilogy starting with ‘White tape’ (2010).

Awards and selections

• Leeds Film Festival
• InterFilm Berlin
• Ottawa Animation Festival
• Seminici Valladolid
• Dok. Leipzig
• Odense Film Festival
• Giffoni Film festival

Hollow Land uses two-dimensional clay puppets that move within a rich environment created largely from cut-outs. It is a story about the eternal human search for a place to call home, a film that begins, as all such searches must, with the dream of utopia. Solomon and Berta are two seekers who arrive—their treasured bathtub improbably in tow – in a seemingly sun-washed land that promises respite from their many journeys. Just as the characters in Hollow Land bear the marks of their travels, so too do the puppets bear the physical imprints of their creators – a refreshing, immediate symbol of the power of human creativity and resilience.

Awards

• Oscar® Academy Award Shortlist, USA.
• Amnesty International Award, Giffoni Int. Film Festival, Italy.
• Nominated for the Canadian Academy Award, Canada.
• Best animation, Brooklyn film festival, NYC, USA.
• Synchro Award, Tricky Women, Vienna, Austria.
• Special Mention, Athens Animfest Int. Animation festival, Greece.
• Special Mention, Bristol Encounters, United Kingdom.
• Special Mention, Bradford Animation Festival, United Kingdom.
• Special Achievement, Anilogue Int. Animation Festival, Hungary.
• Special Mention, Cyprus Animation Festival, Cyprus.
• Special Mention, Jerusalem Film Festival, Israel.
• Best Independent Animation, Tel Aviv Animation Festival, Israel.
• Artists’ award, Varna Film Festival, Bulgaria.
• Best Animation Technique, Banjaluka int. Animated Film Festival, Bosnia.
• Best Animation, Animix ASIFA, Israel.

The Hollow Land Experience is a participatory, immersive and sensorial theatrical performance. Motivated by curiosity and playfulness, it is a collaboration with Carte Blanche regional theater With Sara Topsøe-Jensen and Sarah John. An experience where the audience become participants: They wear masks and costumes and are thrown into the world of Hollow Land. Based on 360° projections of animation from the short film, we created a new space and a new way to be together; as one of the characters, as part of the game – A poetic and moving social experiment with light, projections and sound.

White Tape explores the theme of boundaries; the frame, the space between brushstrokes and the implications of occupation. In cooperation with B’tzelem Human Rights NGO

During a heart transplant operation, as he struggles between life and death; Amos Klein returns to significant landmarks over the course of his life. His journey is a reflection on the moral corruption within Israeli society, providing insight into the historic and cultural context from which it stems.

Watch Trailer

Watch Film

Awards and selections

• The Silver Warsaw Phoenix at Jewish Motifs Film Festival 2009
• Best Animated Short-Film at Saint-Paul Trois Châteaux Film Festival – France 2009
• Best Short-Film at Festival Court Toujours Paris 2009
• 2nd award for best animation in Athens Animfest 2009
• Simone Gesmundo prize for best animation, Italy 2008
• Best animation, Grand Canaria film festival, Spain 2008
• Best independent animation film, Asifa Israel 2008
• Jury Special Mention at I’ve Seen Film Festival Italy 2008
• Best Cartoonia 5th Sedicicorto Film Festival Forli Italy 2008
• Best Music at Festival Tous Courts d’Aix en Provence 2008