Stories Sarah Tells

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

January 2003 •English

Long Tack Sam was an internationally renowned Chinese acrobat and magician. He overcame isolation, poverty, cultural and linguistic barriers, extreme racism and world wars to become one of the most successful vaudeville acts of his time. His showmanship was unrivalled, yet he refused to appear in movies because of the way Chinese were portrayed at the time. A celebration of the spirit of Long Tack Sam's magic and art, this richly textured first person road movie is an exhilarating testament to his legacy and a prismatic tour through the 20th Century. It all begins in a small village in China... https://www.nfb.ca/film/the_magical_life_of_long_tack_sam/

Mice, a small story

September 2018 •

The "Lord of the Rings" in 4 min. In a dark subway tunnel, a group of mice find a gold ring-pull that seems to have a mysterious effect on one of them. Not so far from them, an owl and his enslaved rats are watching. The owl sends his rats to get hold of this strange object.

HARLEM FRAGMENTS

Invalid date •English

Harlem Fragments is an Afro-futurist scrapbook storytelling of a Harlem Black family's beautiful destruction during the 2008 recession. A natural disaster so mesmerizing you can't look away from the tragedy. Based on true events- The film explores the haunting societal pressures of achieving the Black American dream, told in the POV of 10 year old TJ revisiting his family's home that's up for sale. By empowering this Black boy in this film with the agency to imagine, TJ, through his own journey, finds a way to process and come to terms with his family's divorce. It's important for every Black child out there enduring the same foreign emotions to know that it's okay to feel them, and affirm that there is a future trajectory forward out of the initial destruction.

1194D

September 2013 •English

1194D is originally a tweak of 115C8, one of the “Algorithmic Creature” series based on recursive triangle subdivision. The idea and complexity of the work started to go beyond the initial expectation after it was decided to experiment with multiple “creatures” co-existing within the environment.

Melbhattan

May 2013 •English

Melbhattan. Melbhattan is part homage, part pastiche of the opening sequence of Woody Allen's seminal 1979 film Manhattan. Melbhattan features more than sixty black and white tableaux of Melbourne each composed to mimic images in Allen's film.

Sita Sings the Blues

February 2008 •English

Utilizing the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, the epic Indian tale of exiled prince Ramayana and his bride Sita is mirrored by a spurned woman's contemporary personal life, and light-hearted but knowledgeable discussion of historical background by a trio of Indian shadow puppets.

Villa Madjo

November 2023 •French

Dorothy and Toto's Storytime: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Part 1

April 2021 •English

Take a ride with Dorothy and her best pal Toto as they share their favorite adventures in the magical land of Oz. It's Dorothy And Toto's Storytime: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz part 1.

It's The Same Story

September 2011 •Hindi

Two storytellers put forth their versions of the story of Shravan Kumar. The art for the film uses painted images from a wooden portable shrine called a Kaavad. The film is a collaborative work between traditional Kaavad storytellers and Kaavad artists from Rajasthan, together with the filmmaker. Combining lush animation with live-action, the film is an interpretation of two stories which are forever fused in the act of telling and retelling.

Liyana

July 2017 •English

A talented group of orphaned children in Swaziland create a fictional heroine and send her on a dangerous quest.

Dimensions

May 2016 •

A mathematical play on one repeated movement. It imparts a sense of possibilities: that something simple can produce complex and unexpected patterns. As with an atom, the variety of possibilities from a base movement is potentially infinite.

Crac

September 1980 •French

This short animation takes as its protagonist a wooden rocking chair that serves as a tool to delve in no more than 15 minutes on a journey through the history of Quebec in the last century.

Kubo and the Two Strings

August 2016 •English

Kubo mesmerizes the people in his village with his magical gift for spinning wild tales with origami. When he accidentally summons an evil spirit seeking vengeance, Kubo is forced to go on a quest to solve the mystery of his fallen samurai father and his mystical weaponry, as well as discover his own magical powers.

The Gold Ring

November 2011 •Basque

Father lost his wedding ring in the ocean once. Like all the sailors, he’d take it from his finger to put on a neck chain, not to lose the finger as the net went out.

Speed

August 2020 •English

SPEED is the result of an artificial intelligence transforming bin footage into something beautiful in order to free the planet from pixel pollution. By video recycling trash shots into video art using the latest algorithm technology, visual art may help to understand our limited resources on earth and how to use them in a respectful manner. Every day we produce millions of clips sharing them on social media without even noticing anymore how much pixel garbage we create. At the same time, we produce every day millions of tons of plastic waste, polluting our environment without even noticing it anymore. SPEED wants to be a symbol of change as we are running out of time.

Opalescence

September 2021 •English

A short visual experiment resembling the inside of an opal.

Paraguaçu

August 2022 •Portuguese

Music to My Ears

March 2014 •English

Vinyl Scratch, or DJ-Pon3, puts on her headphones and listens to her favorite music as she stops by Sugarcube Corner Cafe on her way to school, while everything around her seems to react in time to her music.

Cycles

August 2018 •English

The short follows the lives of a family consisting of Bert, Rae, and their daughter Rachel. The viewer serves as an observer of the family's lifecycle before, during, and after living in their home. It is Walt Disney Animation Studios' first short set in virtual reality.

Full Moon

January 2001 •English

Designed for continuous single or multiple monitor display (as well as video projection), the tape is a collection of computer animated sequences of celestial images spanning time and cultures, moving objects and images in harmonic choreography and spatial play.