Two Faces

1968
Sound
4m

An abstract poetic tale that tells both one and a thousand stories of love and loss, by a designer on The Beatles Yellow Submarine film

If you can read a face like a book, then here it is a book of poetry. Loose brushstrokes sketch a series of portraits of two faces, one male and one female, whilst the verse on the soundtrack tells the tale of both one and a thousand relationships. Alison de Vere was responsible for both the text and images, and the film was released in the same year she worked as a designer on the animated Beatles feature, Yellow Submarine (1968).

Though she had worked in the animation industry since the early 1950s, this was Alison's first independent short. Almost a decade later her second, Café Bar (1975) brought here considerable festival attention, followed by Mr Pascal (1979) and her masterpiece The Black Dog (1987).

The Animator's Art

Free from commercial restraints, animators explore their art

After WWII, animation was increasingly recognised as a vital art form in its own right. Commercial work put food on their plates, but animators longed for creative freedom, and many production companies and determined animators created independent works in between paid gigs. Unshackled from commercial concerns, the resulting films were often daring in their pursuit of abstraction or personal expression. Meanwhile, many artists from other media have found that animation adds a vital new dimension to their work. But while such films were celebrated in their community they were rarely shown more widely. This collection showcases often hard-to-see examples of the animator's art at its purest and most individual.