Lightbox: Oscar-winning NFB director Chris Landreth
In the latest episode of our video series Lightbox, Chris Landreth speaks with Skwigly at the Annecy Animation Festival about his latest film Subconscious Password, which received much acclaim following its 2013 release. Produced for the National Film Board of Canada, the film uses Landreth’s trademark uncanny, self-dubbed “Psychorealism” approach to CG animation, established in prior films such as The Spine and the Oscar-Winning Ryan (an animated documentary based on Landreth’s interactions with fellow filmmaker Ryan Larkin).
Subconscious Password tells of a potentially awkward encounter at a party where Charles (played by Landreth in pixilation) struggles to remember the name of his acquaintance John (played by Courage, the Cowardly Dog creator John R. Dilworth). We follow Charles’s internal struggle as his subconscious plays out the dilemma as though it were an episode of the gameshow Password. Interspersed throughout the film are all manner of different animation techniques and ingeniously recycled footage as Charles calls upon key figures and influences from popular culture and his own life to help him remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc8G7qVVSZY
Amongst its accolades, Subconscious Password won the main short film Cristal at Annecy 2013 and will be screening at this year’s Bristol Encounters Short Film Festival as part of their Competition and Animation Highlights screenings. You can find out about the upcoming 20th edition of Encounters and look at the animation programme on their official website.
To hear more from the interview with Chris Landreth check out episode 15 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast.
Interview conducted by Steve Henderson at the 2013 Annecy Animation Festival
Presented and edited by Ben Mitchell
Footage courtesy of The NFB
Special thanks to Nadine Viau and Christine Noël