• Previous event: AY-EYE, 22nd July 2025

• Subsequent event: Chris Shepherd, 4th November 2025

AND LIFE WENT ON

Our first ticketed event with special guest Maryam Mohajer and featuring an anthology screening of work by London Animation Club stalwarts at the Garden Cinema, 39-41 Parker Street London WC2B 5PQ.

Due to a gas leak at the cinema on 16th September, the original day of the screening, our event got cancelled about 15 minutes before scheduled curtain time. However, the cinema staff were all really great throughout and filmmakers and guests adjourned to the Wetherspoons across the road.

Details

An event in two halves, with Maryam presenting and discussing her work in part one and an anthology of work by London Animation Club contributors in part two. Presented by Martin Pickles from a concept by Emma Calder.

Maryam Mohajer is a British-Iranian, BAFTA Winning animator-director who was born in Tehran, Iran just before living through revolution, war and immigration. With a background in painting, she discovered animation after moving to UK in year 2000. She got her MA degree in animation from Royal college of art. Her short films have been screened at many International festivals. She lives and works as an animator, writer, director in London.

Part One: And Life Went on with Maryam Mohajer

Red Dress. No Straps.

The Girl with Short Hair (2006, 2 min 36 sec)
A little girl has to ‘prove’ she’s a girl to some boys at a party. Recounting the episode to her mother, we discover that a five-year olds’ logic can bring about hilarious results.
And Life Went On (2007, 6 min 22 sec)
Tehran, Iran, 1985 Iran/Iraq war
Air raid siren. All the neighbours rush down to the basement/shelter. So what is going to happen at this shelter? Would every woman cry and scream whilst every man shivers and chews his moustache with rage and fear…? You will be surprised!
Phantasm (2012, 3 min 52 sec)
An animated video for a song by British-Iranian singer-songwriter, Hoda Mohajerani.
Red Dress. No Straps. (2018, 8 min 24 sec)
1985. Tehran. Iran-Iraq war. Marmar is waiting for granny to make her a dress exactly the same as the glamorous American Popstar: bright red. No straps.
Grandad Was A Romantic (2019, 4 min 39 sec)
My grandad was a romantic. He once saw a picture of my granny and realised that she was the love of his life. One day he decided to go meet her.
And Granny Would Dance – the making of (2024, 47 sec)
And Granny Would Dance – trailer (2024, 8 min)
Marmar listens to the stories told by her grandmother’s friends as they play an illicit game of cards. Based on childhood memories and shared stories, ‘And Granny Would Dance’ is a tale of love, grief and resilience. 

Total running-time 35 minutes approx.

Part Two: A London Animation Club Anthology

Beware Of Trains by Emma Calder

A selection of mainly new work by London Animation Club stalwarts.

Private View (Stuart Pound, 2023, 4 min 16 sec)
The painter, now a filmmaker, talks through the making of a painting, and the making of a video from it years later. The oil on board surface is no longer still but animated with motion paths and filters…
Silly Stuff (Dennis Sisterson, 2023, 3 min 2 sec)
An episodic, thematically linked attempt to capture spontaneously the absurdity inherent in the mundane when the elements present in the scenario are in turn presented to the viewer in isolation from their context and given an alternative context of the artist’s creation. In other words, just a bit of fun.
Welcome To Mini Gabi World (Gabi Almeida, 2024, 3 min 56 sec)
In this vibrant animated music video, Gabi Almeida merges whimsical charm with surreal fantasy, featuring quirky misfit characters in a colourful, graffiti-filled universe. This video marks the culmination of her artistic journey. After a head injury abruptly paused her music career, Gabi created Mini Gabi to front her band and continue her artistic journey. From this spark, Mini Gabi World was born – a vibrant universe filled with eccentric characters and unexpected adventures.
It’s Not My Job (Kate Jessop, 2024, 4 min 3 sec)
Dani has to cross hidden obstacles including the corridor of forgotten dreams and ghosts of your ex’s in order to get a simple form processed. It’s Not My Job is the new episode of Planet Pussy Willow, the feminist sci-fi development of the multi award winning comedy adult animation series Tales From Pussy Willow. Follow @planetpwillow on Instagram for more.
Incident (Ben Fox, 2024, 3 min 32 sec)
A tactile exposé of conspiracy and extrajudicial performance leading to transcendental revelation. Manipulated military archive footage and an explosion of sprayogram manifestations soundtracked by insistent drones and haunted theremin.
Coup 53 – Animated Sequences (Martyn Pick, 2019, 3 min)
Martyn Pick’s painterly animation/live action is used to great effect in Taghi Amirani’s “Coup 53”. This acclaimed documentary feature details CIA and MI6’s overthrowing Iran’s democracy in 1953. Raw brushstrokes and heavy impasto paint expresses the violent conflict on the Tehran streets. A collaboration with the legendary editor Walter Murch gives the scenes a powerful multi camera spontaneity.
TWENTYTИƎWT (Max Hattler, 2023, 6 min 52 sec) 
Shot entirely from an apartment on the 36th floor of a high-rise building, the images in this experimental animated documentary survey large parts of Hong Kong’s cityscape, drawing attention to the individual lives hidden inside its buildings – together alone, collectively sequestered.
A Life Half-Lived (Rob Munday, 2024, 7 min 32 sec)
A propulsive journey through places seen, dreams glimpsed and lives cut short. Within kaleidoscopic loops we find the oppressed and suppressed. From kidnapped Argentinians to pro-democracy campaigners and proponents of socialist body culture. And then the individuals: an astronautical scapegoat, an accidental artist’s muse and the much-studied victim of a botched lobotomy. Time flies by in a whirl of faces, dates and developing structures that build into a lattice of memories that refuse to die.
Beware Of Trains (Emma Calder, 2022, 12 min 47 sec)
A woman with extreme anxiety is devoured by four major preoccupations – the man she met by chance on a train, her dying father, her daughter’s safety and the murder she dreams she has committed. Award winning animation director Emma Calder takes you on an emotional rollercoaster through a world vision collaged from traditional pencil drawings to complex colourful digital manipulation of models and photographs.


Total running time 50 minutes approx.


With thanks to Emma Calder for overseeing the event and to Tom Lowe for DCP conversion and technical support.