Chapter 2 (with english subtitles)

part 1: (for an in-depth analysis, see my book “Children’s Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness” (Routledge 2015).

part2

part3

part4

For an indepth critical analysis of Winnie the Pooh and other children’s books, read the Phd dissertation on Children’s Literature as Knowledge, Culture, and Social Foundation, available in PDF at the University of Montreal library.

1988

(with English subtitles)

(based on a Ukrainian folk tale with English subtitles)

This animation film is the unschooling hymn! Maxim Gorki’s cry for freedom in his Song of a Storm Petrel gets beaten, confined, and finally murdered within the stone walls of school. The role of the teacher in this instance is to slam any attempt of the soul to flee the prison-like building. Each time the girl reciting the Song conjures the passions of the storm and the contradictions of darkness and light, joy and tears, the voice of the pedantic teacher brings the birds/spirits back to reality, they slam against the classroom cement and fall back on the ground beaten. The chaos that attempts to liberate the passions of the youth in the end collapse. The final scene is revealing, for, in the debris of shattered dreams and smashed paraphernalia meant to keep the pupils as prisoners of school, appear the characters of the real Alexandre Pushkin and Maxim Gorki – Russia’s classical poets and writers. Their voices let us know that these were the pupils that the punitive teacher destroyed: her final scream is the machine gun that leaves us no hope, as the gunning murders the poets. What could have been the Song of the Storm Petrel falls to ground smudged with ink and dirt.

Drawing animation:

1.All because of the Hat: Spring (1980)

2.Summer in Moominvalley (1981)

3.Autumn comes to Moominvalley (1983)

For an in-depth analysis, please see my book Children’s Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness (Routledge 2015).

Puppet animation (the three parts form a feature film):

1.Moomintrolls and all the others (based on Comet in Moominvalley)

2.Moomintroll and the Comet

3.The Road Home

For a deeper critical analysis of the Moomins, read PhD dissertation on Children’s Literature as Knowledge, Culture, Social Foundation, available in PDF at the University of Montreal library.