Midnight Madness: M dot Strange, John Bergin at Waterloo!

The Festival is proud to confirm that lone gun animators and directors M dot Strange and John Bergin will be at the Festival to present their films in person!

Midnight Madness is all about edge, and both directors bring it in spades. M dot Strange’s We Are The Strange - a film he describes as “Monsters Inc. meets The Nightmare Before Christmas inside of a retro Japanese video game” - is an animated feature film influenced by 8-bit console games, anime and stop-motion animation in which two diametrically opposed outcasts fight for survival in a sinister fantasy world of stark landscapes, bizarre monsters and even stranger protagonists. With every single frame rendered, photographed, animated; with every single note of music composed and mixed by the director himself, We Are The Strange epitomises the personal and artistic challenge of the Tidbits programme.

John Bergin’s surreal and disturbing From Inside brings the director’s stark apocalyptic vision to the silver screen. Inspired by the aftermath of Katrina, Bergin revisited his epic Harvey-nominated graphic novel of the same name, to tell the story again the way he had meant for it to be told: in animation. The film follows Cee, a young woman travelling across a desolate world threatened by flood, war, plague and famine, while coping with the memories of her lost husband and the imminent birth of her child. The artistic style of the original graphic novel - each frame of the 400-page novel was a full oil painting - is brought into the film itself, complementing the dark tale with unique, sombre impact and dread.