August 17
16:00
Cinema Sõprus
Vana-Posti 8
Length 73 min
![](https://animistfestival.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/fienta_punane-buy_the_ticket.png)
Surreal characters, experimentation with different animation techniques and, of course, a dose of Shakespeare – these elements merge in Dave McKean’s cinematography and create an enchanting whole. Seasoned with good old British darkness, we get a delicious treat that generously feeds even the art-hungry souls of Eastern Europeans.
After the screening, there will be a conversation with the author of the films.
![](https://animistfestival.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Dave-McKean-2023-812x1024.jpg)
Dave McKean
Dave McKean has illustrated and designed over eighty award-winning and ground-breaking books and graphic novels including The Magic of Reality (Richard Dawkins), The Homecoming (Ray Bradbury), The Fat Duck Cookbook and Historic Heston (Heston Blumenthal), What’s Welsh for Zen (John Cale), Varjak Paw and Phoenix (SF Said), The Savage, Slog’s Dad and Mouse Bird Snake Wolf (David Almond), Arkham Asylum (Grant Morrison), Night Shift (Stephen King), Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky), Roadside Picnic (The Strugatsky Brothers), Gormenghast (Mervyn Peake), and Mr. Punch, Signal to Noise, Coraline, and the Newberry and Carnegie Medal winner The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman).
He has written and illustrated Cages (Harvey, Pantera, Ignatz and Alph Art awards), two Pictures That Tick volumes of short stories (V+A Book of the Year), an erotic novel Celluloid, Raptor, and Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash, a commission by the 14-18 Now Foundation and the Imperial War Museum. The multimedia live performance of Black Dog was featured at Tate Britain, the Somme Memorial in Amiens, and many other festivals in Europe and Canada.
Dave has directed five short films and three feature films, MirrorMask, Luna (Raindance Festival Best British Feature and BIFA award) and The Gospel of Us with Michael Sheen (two Bafta Cymru awards). He is currently editing his fourth feature Wolf’s Child, adapted from his own play, created with Wildworks Theatre Company and performed for the Norwich Theatre Festival and at the Trelowarren Estate in Cornwall.
He is the Director of Story at the 3-Michelin star Fat Duck in Bray and has created murals and packaging for Heston’s restaurants in London and Australia.
His work is in private and public collections around the world, and he continues to insist that narrative has a crucial place in art.
In 2022 he took a deep dive into AI-generated imagery and created the book Prompt: Conversations with Artificial Intelligence as an essay, examination, and warning about the implications of this new, almost evolutionary, shift in our culture. He continues to draw and paint and make real things in Kent, England.
![](https://animistfestival.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Week-Before-2-1.jpg)
The Week Before
Director: Dave McKean
Year: 1998
Length: 23:00
Country: UK
Production: Hourglass
Synopsis:
The week before the week when God created everything.
![](https://animistfestival.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Neon2-1.jpg)
N[eon]
(with live narration)
Director: Dave McKean
Year: 2002
Length: 20:00
Country: UK
Production: Hourglass
Synopsis:
A man escaping a failed marriage wanders through Venice and becomes obsessed with a ghostly figure, half-seen in a moment in time.
![](https://animistfestival.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Sonnet-138-1.jpg)
Sonnet No. 138
Director: Dave McKean
Year: 2000
Length: 1:00
Country: UK
Production: Hourglass, Illuminations Films
Synopsis:
Visualising Shakespeare’s 138th sonnet.
![](https://animistfestival.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Visitors-1-1024x577.jpg)
Visitors
Director: Dave McKean
Year: 2017
Length: 10:00
Country: UK
Production: Hourglass
Synopsis:
An ambient film; various visitors arrive at Big Sur and Monterey on the California coast, unseen by us.
![](https://animistfestival.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Mirrormask-1-1024x576.jpg)
Mirrormask clip ‘Close to You’
Director: Dave McKean
Year: 2005
Length: 4:00
Country: USA
Production: Columbia Tristar, Jim Henson Company
Synopsis:
A clip from the feature film MirrorMask. Helena is seduced to the dark side by mechanical dolls singing Bacharach and David’s ‘Close to You’.
![](https://animistfestival.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Whack11-1.jpg)
Whack!
Director: Dave McKean
Year: 2006
Length: 15:00
Country: UK
Production: Hourglass
Synopsis:
A terrifying live action and animation version of the traditional British seaside children’s puppet show, made in collaboration with the theatre group Forced Entertainment.