22nd Calgary Underground Film Festival

April 17-27, 2025 Globe Cinema

13th CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival

November 19-23, 2025 Globe Cinema

SHORTS: GIRAF CURATED ANIMATED DOCS

Canada, United States, Germany / Czech Republic, U.K, Italy, France, 2018-2020: 74 minutes
Archives 2020
ModernQueerHeros

description

Sometimes the best way to capture reality is to draw it yourself. These non-fiction shorts show inner struggles, forgotten history, modern heroes and childhood memories with the creative flair you only get from animation. This package was curated by the GIRAF Animation Festival presented by Quickdraw, which streams online from November 19-29.

Shorts screened:

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TOYHOOD

(Animation / Comedy / Female Filmmaker / Mockumentary)

A stop-motion mockumentary about toys and the children they "work" with. Made loosely in response to Brexit, TOYHOOD combines stop-motion and toy-like puppets with unscripted interviews from internationals living in Britain today.
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BEYOND NOH

(Animation / Documentary / Experimental)

BEYOND NOH rhythmically animates 3,475 individual masks from all over the world, beginning with the distinctive masks of the Japanese Noh theater and continuing on a cultural journey through ritual, performance, utility, and politics.
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IN THE SHADOW OF THE PINES

(Animation / Documentary / Female Filmmaker)

Inspired by the filmmaker’s own upbringing with her immigrant dad, IN THE SHADOW OF THE PINES explores difficult father-daughter relationships.
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BLOOMERS

(Animation / Documentary / Female Filmmaker)

Animated fabric brings the story of a lingerie factory in Manchester to life.
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MODERN QUEER HEROES

(LGBTQ+ / Female Filmmaker / Activist / Documentary / Animation / Animation)

Who are the queer heroes walking amongst us now or in recent times? A celebration of LGBTQ+ figures who have helped push forward culture and society.
sentinels

STORIES IN PLACE: DESERT ISLAND COMICS

(Animation / Documentary)

Inspired by Desert Island Comics, the iconic Brooklyn shop now indefinitely closed, this cut paper animation speaks to the connective power of comic books.
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LA GRANDE ONDA

(Animation / Crime / Documentary)

Told through the life and death of a common man, LA GRANDE ONDA explores one of the most brutal and powerful criminal organizations in the world: Italy's the 'Ndrangheta mafia.
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ALL HER DYING LOVERS

(Animation / Documentary / Female Filmmaker)

A nurse, a Nazi and a fish: an animated legend from WWII Czechoslovakia.
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APHASIA OR (IT FELL UPON MY MIND)

(Animation / Documentary / Experimental / Female Filmmaker)

Using hand-painted rotoscoping and digital animation, APHASIA OR (IT FELL UPON MY MIND) documents the voices of seven individuals living with aphasia.
make-it-soul

MAKE IT SOUL

(Animation / Documentary / Music)

In Chicago 1965 the Regal Theater hosts James Brown and Solomon Burke, two monuments of Soul music. Backstage, everyone's under pressure, but in 1960s America, both men know their music has unexpected powers.

details

Animation / Documentary

74 minutes

Presenting Partners

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