Animated Genesis

1952
Sound
22m

Arachnophobes beware! This colourful allegorical abstraction of life from creation to near destruction casts greed as a giant spider

What are you more scared of, nuclear bombs or giant spiders? This allegorical tale takes on the mighty task of squeezing life from creation to its near destruction in 20 minutes. The shadow of greed appears in the form of a giant spider, taking advances in machines to enslave mankind and the discovery of the atom to threaten it with destruction.

Peter Foldes came to Britain from Hungary in the late 1940s and produced backgrounds for The Magic Canvas (1948) by fellow countryman John Halas. This film was made with his British wife Joan on 16mm Kodachrome, but after it was shown to Sir Alexander Korda he paid for it to be blown up to 35mm Technicolor film for a wider release. After following this film up with the even more apocalyptic A Short Vision (1956), Peter went on to work in Paris and Canada and made some pioneering use of computer animation.

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.