Serial Parallels (2019) by Max Hattler Serial Parallels This experimental animation by animation artist Max Hattler approaches Hong Kong’s built environment from the conceptual perspective of celluloid film, by applying the technique of film animation to the photographic image. The city’s signature architecture of horizon-eclipsing housing estates is reimagined as parallel rows of film strips: Serial Parallels. "This film reflects on urban architecture in a very physical rather than intellectual way. The megacity is experienced as a pulsating apparatus where you can just sense the presence of otherwise invisible humans. It speaks directly to the retina and vestibular system. The Animation Avantgarde Jury gives a Special Mention to Serial Parallels by Max Hattler." Jury Statement, Special Mention (Animation Avantgarde), Vienna Shorts, 2020 "This film is an extraordinary fine and poetic work, which uses familiar methods in unexpected and new ways. And provokes the questions: is repetition our only support, are these monstrous ships a good reflection of human nature. Congratulations to Max Hattler for Serial Parallels." Jury Statement, Award for Best Film, Kinodot Festival, 2020 "Hong Kong's distinctively shaped housing blocks form mesmerizing patterns that appear to move and shimmer in this dazzling, subliminally subversive dance of images."International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), 2020 "the escalating urban anxiety of Max Hattler's Serial Parallels" Vassilis Kroustallis, Zippy Frames, 2020 "Max Hattler, another Festival regular, animates the windows, balconies, and façades of unnamed buildings in Hong Kong with such speed and repetition that the iconic high-rise architecture becomes something different altogether." San Francisco International Film Festival, 2020 "In seinem delirierenden Filmkunstwerk „Serial Parallels“ hat der deutsche Animations- und Avantgardefilmer Max Hattler der Brutalität in Stein, die sich in den Himmel stapelt, Leben eingehaucht. Dazu musste er die fotografierte Wirklichkeit nicht einmal manipulieren, lediglich die nur in Nuancen abweichenden Aufnahmen der Stockwerke als Einzelbilder aneinanderschneiden. Mit den Mitteln des analogen Films hat er ein Stück optisches Techno geschaffen, das kein Weggucken duldet. Der 9-Minuten-Film gehört zweifellos zum Coolsten, was das Internationale Trickfilmfestival Stuttgart in seiner Online-Ausgabe zu bieten hat." Daniel Kothenschulte, Frankfurter Rundschau, 2020 "An experimental documentary that applies the art of animation to the photographic image, achieving a hallucinatory portrait of one of the most vertical and densely built cities in the world: Hong Kong’s immense housing blocks appear to shimmer in a dazzling dance of fluid and dreamlike images. A disorientating and 1 Serial Parallels (2019) by Max Hattler meditative journey that challenges you to let go and immerse yourself in its hypnotic vision, set against a dead- on soundtrack of metallic noises and urban sounds. An innovative and transfixing animation firmly rooted in a hectic metropolis and completely detached of time and space, all at once." Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, 2020 "Todo es susceptible de ser animado. Incluso los edificios de Hong Kong. Serial Parallels es la vanguardista obra que lo demuestra. Max Hattler se propuso fotografiar la característica arquitectura residencial de su nuevo país de residencia, mientras Zhang Riwen y Iresa Cho se encargaron de la también laboriosa tarea de animarlos con stop motion. Las fachas desfilan ante nuestros ojos de un modo tan original y a tal velocidad que pronto dejan de ser fachadas para convertirse en estímulos hipnóticos, algo así como una pieza de electrónica experimental, de trance, pero para los ojos. Cierto que el experimento pierde algo de fascinación en la segunda mitad, pero Hattler encuentra la manera de mantenernos interesados con tan mínimo recurso narrativo, cosa que tiene su mérito. Para quien quiera experiencias nuevas. (8,5 / 10)"Animacion para adultos, 2020 "Serial Parallels ... provides a transfixing portrait of one of the most vertical cities in the world. ... captivating architectural animation."Directors Notes, 2019 "... a hypnotic vision of a relentless urban architecture, set to a suitably mechanical soundtrack." Alex Dudok De Wit, Cartoon Brew, 2019 "Max Hattler’s new piece, Serial Parallels is as soothing as it is dizzying. ... The experience is like a meditative journey, in which you let go of control and become immersed in the flowing and rushing buildings. The sounds are reminiscent of the kinds of things you would encounter in an urban landscape; motors, helicopters, scraping cement and the warm ticking of a film reel playing. The pace of the sound and visuals create a mesmerising, abstracted view of Hong Kong. The parallel strips are often travelling in different directions and the camera tilts make it feel as though the buildings are looming in closer or slowly falling backward. A disorientating experience that is firmly oriented in Hong Kong with a strong sense of time and place." Amy Baker, Skwigly Online Animation Magazine, 2019 "High rises on speed. Buildings move, up and up and up and then down again, only to move up once more. Fascinating, invigorating, pulsating and fascinatingly meditative." OFF - Odense International Film Festival, 2020 "Hong Kong’s residential skyscrapers serve as the visual material for this mesmerizing architectural animation. Comparable to single frames from a film, the different skyscrapers’ housing pods are individually arranged, some of them in parallel strips. Because of their similarities, the composition creates either static or an elegant flow and, because of their differences, a vibrant life of its own." Vienna Shorts, 2020 "Paralelos em Série (Serial Parallels), de Max Hattler, leva-nos até à paisagem urbana de Hong Kong pela perspectiva conceptual da película cinematográfica. A curta-metragem, muito ritmada, usa a arquitectura em movimento como o motor da narrativa e da região." Ines Moreira Santos, Hoje Vi(Vi) Um Filme, 2020 "Paralelos em Série pode ser encaixada na categoria experimental, dada a sua falta de narrativa no sentido mais comum do termo. Usando imagens fotográficas de edifícios de Hong Kong e usando técnicas de animação, é aplicado um movimento ótico no sentido vertical ao longo de todo o filme. É uma curta-metragem hipnótica, que não deixa ao espectador muitas opções que não sejam a de se deixar levar pela experiência quase meditativa. Nota: 4/5." Luis Ferreira, Cinema Serima Arte, 2020 "...un cortometraje que ha pasado por innumerables festivales y que muestra, utilizando técnicas de animación aplicadas a la fotografía, una visión fascinante, conceptual, de las edificaciones de la ciudad de Hong-Kong, con una técnica audiovisual que resulta casi hipnótica." En Primera Fila, 2020 "Sem uma história ou narração, com uma acelerada edição abstrata marcada por sons urbanos, o artista alemão Max Hattler constrói um filme todo formado por fotografias de edifícios que se sobrepõem geometricamente em um ritmo hipnótico, como uma espécie de cartema animado. Os prédios retratados são de Hong Kong, mas o curta é universal ao problematizar a claustrofóbica vida nas grandes cidades verticalizadas onde não é possível enxergar a linha do horizonte." Julio Cavani, Cinema Escrito, 2020 • Stills: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s9gu3rlhjwrsjdv/AAABz5grdnS4bpQiPiTPMiRSa?dl=0 • Trailer: http://vimeo.com/maxhattler/serialtrailer • Official website with press quotes, up-to-date information: http://www.maxhattler.com/serialparallels/ 2 Serial Parallels (2019) by Max Hattler AWARDS - Off-Limits Award, Annecy International Animation Film Festival, France, 2020 - Honorary Mention (Computer Animation), Prix Ars Electronica, Austria, 2020 - Special Mention (Animation Avantgarde), Vienna Shorts, Austria, 2020 - Award for Best Film, Kinodot Experimental Film Festival, Russia, 2020 - Honourable Mention (Professional Jury), Videoformes Festival, France, 2020 - Award for Best Editing, San Giò Verona Video Festival, Italy, 2019 - Jury Mention, FIVA Festival Internacional de Videoarte, Argentina, 2019 SCREENINGS AND EXHIBITIONS - La Truca International Animation Festival, Cali, Colombia, 4-8 May 2021 - MUMIA, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 3-10 Dec 2020 (International Competition) - 36th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, 6-8 Nov 2020 (German Competition) - 22nd Wiesbaden International Animation Festival, Wiesbaden, Germany, 4-7 Nov 2020 (Best of International Animation 2019/2020 Competition) - Cinema Urbana - Architecture Film Festival Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil, Oct 2020 - Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 7-11 Oct 2020 - Anifilm, Liberec, Czechia, 6-11 Oct 2020 (Abstract and Non-Narrative Animation Competition) - Animafest, Zagreb, Croatia, 28 Sep - 3 Oct 2020 (World Panorama) - Move Cine Arch Film Festival, Brazil, Sep 2020 - 16th Indie-AniFest, Seoul, Korea, 17-22 Sep 2020 (Asia Road Competition) - Minikino Film Week 6, Bali International Short Film Festival, Bali, Indonesia, 4-12 Sep 2020 - LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival (Online Edition), Ukraine, 2-6 Sep 2020 (Experimental Animation and Video Art Programme) - 18th Fantoche International Animation Film Festival, Baden, Switzerland, 1-6 Sep 2020 (International Competition) - Fest Anca International Animation Festival, Zilina, Slovakia, 27-30 Aug 2020 (International Competition) - Odense International Film Festival, Odense, Denmark, 24-30 Aug 2020 (Animation Competition) - MalatestaShort