It's time!!
The 14th Annual Animation Festival of Halifax (AFX 14) program is out now!
The festival includes Workshops, Industry Panels, Artist Q&A's, Film Screenings and Special Events.
Held at four venues across Halifax, events daily from May 8-12, 2025!
Notes on Animation
Ryan
Copyright Copper Heart Cut Inc and the National Film Board of Canada. Image courtesy of the NFB.
From 2020 to 2022, AFX commissioned local artists interested in animation to make a short animated film inspired by the work of Helen Hill (who was always keen to introduce artists to animation). These have been tough times so the spirit of Helen has been most welcome in the following short films screened at AFX:
This Does Not Authorize Re-Entry - Jenny Yujia Shi 施雨迦
Circles - Stephanie Yee
Home - Bria Miller
Follow us at @anifesthfx on Twitter and Instagram for more animation commission news.
About If I Knew, I Would Assure You:
If I Knew, I Would Assure You is a four-part series of new short animations commissioned by AFX as part of the festival’s celebration of experimental animator Helen Hill. Each new work is exhibited along with the Hill film that inspired it.
From 1995-2000, Hill resided in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, where she taught animation, made some of her most well-known films, and worked for several social justice causes including anti-poverty, food security, and animal rights activism.
Curator Becka Barker says, “Helen Hill was such an important mentor to a generation of artists and local social activists, and her work, which centres compassion, care, and love, is as important today as it has ever been. I was wishing Helen was still with us to have conversations with these four artists. Animation seemed like the perfect vehicle to imagine what those conversations could be.”
If I Knew, I Would Assure You is a project of Carbon Arc Cinema and the Animation Festival of Halifax. Carbon Arc Cinema is located in Kjipuktuk in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral, unceded unsurrendered territory of the Mi'kmaq Nation. We appreciate that our audience may be accessing our online program from many other territories outside Mi’kma’ki, and we invite everyone to consider the territory from which they participate. Furthermore, we acknowledge that colonial oppression still exists in virtual spaces, as well, and that in all spaces we inhabit, we are all treaty people.
We gratefully acknowledge the support from The Canada Council for the Arts, Nova Scotia Arts Council, and the Centre for Art Tapes for making this project possible.