What the heck is RE-CYCLING?

A unique experiment, an intriguing example of international cooperation, a game.

On a freezing Wednesday afternoon last winter we were sipping from our hot smoking tea cups, and suddenly a flashy thought popped up into our minds:

“wouldn’t it be amazing if we gathered ten great authors for a brand new, fresh and unique experiment in the adventurous field of ANIMATION MOVIES?”

And then we thought:

“why call it an ‘experiment’, when we can make it way more fun transforming it into a GAME?”.

And, lastly: “Gee, why don’t we make it even more challenging and awesome using the good ol’ celluloid film? It's the 100th anniversary of Norman McLaren's birth after all!”

So that was it: the seed was planted, the idea was born into our mind, and all we had to do was feeding and breeding it. It was all very exciting; we couldn’t wait to see the results of our brainwave!

First, we travelled the seven seas to find the finest, most interesting European artists in the field of animation cinema. We searched carefully: we wanted to work with someone curious, bold, with a buzzing mind and a distinctive style. And there they were, all that we had been looking for:

Špela Čadež (Slovenia)

Rastko Ćirić (Serbia)

Vessela Dantcheva (Bulgaria)

Magda Guidi (Italy)

Joni Männistö (Finland)

Regina Pessoa (Portugal)

Ülo Pikkov (Estonia)

Marina Rosset (Switzerland)

Gábor Ulrich (Hungary)

Petra Zlonoga (Croatia)

For various reasons, these names (see the slideshow at the end) perfectly represented the soul of the film we were trying to create: all of them were fresh, hungry, driven, and all of their styles were unique and remarkable.

We squeezed our minds to extract all the juice and we started cooking up the recipe for our lush game. Step by step, the game phases began to get off to a good start, and our project weighed the anchor:

1.  Each artist had to choose one item related to the everyday life in his or her country and send it to the Re-Cycling Team.

We wanted something symbolic and not at all predictable - like, ehr, a mandolin from Italy or an alphorn from Switzerland. No no no, we wanted something personal, something meaningful and special that had its own peculiar story.

2.  After receiving the ten objects, our team shuffled them, picked them at random and each one was sent to a different artist.

This way, every one of the authors received something chosen and sent by one of his or fellows artists in the first place.

1. No information about the original provenience of the items was given to the ones who received them.

The objects were meant to be “mysterious”, as well as their legitimate owners. We wanted the artists to take their imagination wherever they wanted, without being influenced by anything. Plus, the results would have been even more surprising and unpredictable this way (Mistery! Intrigue! Suspense!).

1. (Fire in the hole, here begins the most exciting part)! Each artist started working on his own film: one minute to narrate the story of the objects that they “adopted”.

So the object lives another life, fills another story, assumes another meaning. Every artist re-invents it, “re-cycles” it.

(A sneak peek of Rastko Ćirić's work. Curious, huh?)

1. The ten authors drew or scratch their movies directly on the celluloid, using negative or positive film (or both).

Should we talk about the fascination of the celluloid, or explain how it felt to touch with our hands the very metaphor for the history of cinema? Do we need to?

And this brings us pretty much to the present days, after we collected the amazing 1’ movies from all over Europe. The “Re-Cycling” adventure goes on…

What happens next?

Now “Re-Cycling” must go through a post-production stage.

We will cut, assemble, digitalize, and we would like to add an original score, composed by Andrea Martignoni and played by the legendary Zerorchestra from Pordenone.

The final result will be a 10’ short movie, with its own original soundtrack and the opening and ending credits designed by Giulio Calderini and Michele Bernardi.

The aim is to make this film travel: it had begun to wander across Europe before it was even born, when it was just a piece of blank film, so its very nature is to go and discover the world.

We will start our journey from Ljubljana (SLO): we already have a cooperation with Animateka - International Animated Film Festival, which will lend us the screen  for a premiere during its next edition (that will take place from the 8^th to the 14^th of December, 2014).

Then the film will travel across Friuli Venezia Giulia (ITALY) for the Piccolo Festival Animazione, in Udine (where the viewing will be associated with an exhibition at Visionario), Pordenone, Trieste and Gorizia next winter.

What are our hopes and expectations?

We want it to be cool enough to be presented to a bunch of festivals around Europe and to win all of them!

We want it to be enjoyable enough to make all of you smile and laugh and dream and jump on your seats.

We want it beautiful enough to make all our friends jealous and green with envy forever.

YOU CAN MAKE ALL OF THIS HAPPEN: COME PLAY WITH US!

What we need the money for: