OIAF 2022: Dozens of Norths Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is a festival that is hosted in Canada’s capital city, Ottawa. The yearly festival is the oldest and largest animation festival in North America. It features, in addition to feature films, documentary works, short films, conferences, VR exhibits, and more multimedia animation festivities.

The OIAF winner of the Grand Prize for Animated Feature was Koji Yamamura’s Dozens of Norths. Director Koji Yamamura is a Japanese animator who has worked on countless productions. He has directed countless short films and he has worked as an editor and animator for many different TV commercials and advertisements. His 2002 short film Mount Head was nominated for Best Animated Short at the 2003 Academy Awards. His legendary repertoire in the animation world speaks for itself, and his latest work, Dozens of Norths, shows off his brilliant techniques to the fullest in its rather short 64 minute runtime. 

Dozens of Norths is a scatterbrain effort from director Yamamura in the nicest way possible. The film opens with words on the screen. The words signify that the rest of the film will be the recollection of the people met in the norths, but the memory of our narrator is fragmented, or so they say. From then on, audiences explore a nightmare-fueled world plentiful of different figures, shapes, and creatures. The animation which resembles hand drawn work excels here. There are so many different unique aspects of the film that just would not be possible in any other format. It is hard to put into words the imagery, for it is always shapeshifting and revealing itself to be more than what it seems at first. 

The film’s score plays such an important role in the film as well. It is loud, rambunctious, and sometimes gets in the way. It is also elegant, impressive, and helps guide the viewer through this nightmarish world. Aside from the animation, it is the most important aspect of the film. The score uses so many different sounds and noises that string together an inventive soundscape for the film. With no dialogue at all, the music does the heavy lifting. It’s easy to get swept up in it, maybe even distracting from the film at times. However, when considering the goal for the film, it may be genius. The score ultimately fits the film’s scatterbrained feel overall, despite it often being distracting. 

Dozens of Norths lacks much of a plot, it is essentially a journey and an experimentation in animation. As a work of art, the film profoundly succeeds. As a narrative, it is hard to say if it always sticks the landing. While not necessarily incomplete as it hits the mark at what it is trying to achieve, many may be left yearning for more depth. Regardless, to leave audiences feeling cold is clearly the goal of the film. It delivers one of the better visual depictions of anxiety and a confused state of mind. Scatterbrain is the very best word to describe the film, for it is everything all at once. 

Dozens of Norths seeks to utilize the vision of its director in the most impressive way possible. It is visually an impressive film, with many unique images and sequences. Its experimental animation style is never not shockingly impressive, despite feeling like there is a lack of direction in the narrative side of the film. 

*still courtesy of OIAF*

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Brennan Dubé

**ignore the above Instagram link**