Little Rock People (LRP), Kinemastik’s International Kids Film Festival, is celebrating its 10th edition this year. The festival aims to leave a legacy, create an impact and a chance to walk hand in hand with young minds and see things as they really are.
A cultural NGO based in Malta, Kinemastik, organises a year-round programme of film screenings, concerts, exhibitions, workshops, talks and short-film production.
The festival’s aim is to champion films that involve young people, portray their pointsof view and show them creative avenues to explore and experiment with.
Supported by the Arts Council Malta through a cultural partnership agreement, Kinemastik has in the past shown short films that have shocked, disgusted (most popular) and beguiled audiences.
Curated by Jon Banthorpe, LRP will be showing 12 films on the big screen this year.
Environments feature heavily – from a post-apocalyptic lonely video game player, thoughts on plastic, meditations on a wave and a cross-community Catalunian tradition that involves all and where the smallest of kids play the most important role.
Fully-fledged, high-tech animations also sit alongside hand-drawn submissions and an experimental documentary on sound making will remind audiences of the rhythms all around us.
Environments feature heavily
Here are some highlights:
An animated short, directed by students from the French Atelier de Sèvres, High Score won the SACD Award at the Rennes Métropole National Animated Film Festival. It tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world where one man takes refuge in an arcade.
It’s a Plastic World, inspired by a holiday on a secluded beach littered with plastic waste, by German animator and producer Andreas Tanner. Back home, the director began to fathom the causes of this, which eventually led to the creation of the film about plastic and the far-reaching consequences of improper disposal. Many NGOs like Greenpeace, the WWF or Plastic-Oceans endorsed the movie and Kinemastik is happy to spread this message too.
Children are invited to vote for the film they like most and give out the Kinemastik Golden Dot Award to their favourite.Junction by Lithuanian director Nathan Jurevicius is an animated film based on a graphic novel by the same author. On the surface it demonstrates the yearly wind-altering ritual brought about by a member from a special clan of ‘Face Changers’. Layers of other subtle themes are woven into the tale that gently suggest the pressures of a young person coming of age and the importance of tradition. We are also presented with thoughts on how we react to regular change in our lives and the positive/negative aspects of personal growth.
Off Piste is an animated comedy by Léo Brunel and Loris Cavalier that follows the adventures of two of the best rescue workers in a snow-covered region, who take off on their umpteenth mission. Professionalism and efficiency all around, but things don’t really go as planned.
Floreana is an award-winning short that earned a couple of laurels so far from the Los Angeles Animation Festival and the Chitose Airport International Animation Festival. Made by Louis Morton – an animator and film-maker living in Los Angeles, this is a film about a remote island in the future, where people are preparing for an important mission. Morton’s work uses hand-drawn animation to examine and exaggerate the ways in which humans and their environments interact.
Maestro is a deep forest story where a gathering of wild animals start a nocturnal opera, conducted by a squirrel. Written and directed by the Illogic collective, the film closed the Annecy Animation Film Festival in 2019.
Children are invited to vote for the film they like most and give out the Kinemastik Golden Dot Award to their favourite.
LRP’s master of ceremonies is 12-year-old Zen Kono, who prepares and delivers a film quiz to the audience to warm them up each year. There are also great prizes for quiz winners.
Famous for its juice bar LRP offers freshly made juices and granitas, healthy and not so healthy snacks and popcorn. A bar for adults will also be available.
LRP closes with a disco party, with a playlist from Kono.
LRP is on today at the Msida Bastion Historic Garden. Doors open at 7.30pm. Film screenings start at 8.45pm. Single tickets cost €4 for children and €6 (parents). More information is available on http://littlerockpeople.com or at https://www.facebook.com/events/449894512494007/.