birthday boy

Birthday Boy is a multi-award winning film by Sejong Park, a recent graduate of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) who apparently took to animation like a duck to water. The 10-minute film was nominated for an 2005 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Birthday Boy has won 30 film festival awards and screened at 52 festivals worldwide since it was completed in April 2004.

The film is a poignant tale of a young boy who father has gone off to fight in the Korean war. The young boy dreams and plays at being a soldier. The twist in the story needs to be left to the viewing. Despite the subject of war, the telling is gentle, almost whimsical, yet finally disturbing as well. The contrast of the reality of war and the boy's hero-worship of his father is at the crux of the film.

The film is available on DVD, published by AFTRS and Accent Films. While the short film is only 10 mins long there are another 56 minutes of extras on the making of the film.

This is not Disney animation. It is not contrived or cliched. Instead it makes a space for wonerding about how we pass on the best and worst of our humanity to the next generation.