Known for Directing
Picha's irreverent style has left a mark on 70s and 80s animation cinema. But where is he now? And how should we best approach his work as an iconoclastic cartoonist, animated film and tv series director and painter who once embodied a certain idea of outrageousness and subversion?
Cowboy and Indien, in the company of foolish and extravagant people, have a life full of unexpected developments. With these funny chaps, everything can happen any time !
A cinematographic “cadavre exquis”, whose entrails reveal the odd nature of a (un)certain Belgian cinema. Authors, directors, actors who have proved that imposture could be an act of creation. Convinced that any so-called “new” cinematographic production was in fact a rehash of what had already been made, these pirates of images snuck as forgers, liars, tricksters, usurpers, … Outlaws of the cinema who falsified its form. From the filmed imposture of Man Bites Dog to Jan Bucquoy’s fabulist biopic, everything participates in the dynamiting of institutional language through simulacrum and absurdity. This free journey in the “cine-belgitude” has for vocation to approach these marvellous eccentrics followers of a overexcited and stripping situationism.
School is out, and Indian and Cowboy are bored. Watching an old pirate film gets them out of their funk and they decide to build a ship and go off on an adventure. But their first try is a disaster. With the help of some animals, they finally manage to launch their proud vessel and everything is ready for their departure. But of course, nothing goes to plan... And the catastrophes come thick and fast.
Indian and Cowboy finally pass their exams. Horse buys them tickets for the County Fair. But at the last moment, he slips and comes crashing down on his head. He wakes up with no idea where he hid the tickets. So begins a race against time for them two to find the passes before it's too late.
Cowboy and Indian are leaving on a luxury cruise, but they've got caught up. They have totally forgotten that today is back to school day! Goodbye tropical islands, our friends desperately find themselves on the school benches being put through the monotony of class. To liven the start of the school year up and to welcome the new geography teacher, the head teacher organises a big contest. The laureates will get to spend a day on the Moon together with M. Youri. Cowboy and Indian are of course ready to do everything to win.
With disarming wit and hilarious visuals, A Town Called Panic: Double Fun revels in the simple setup of three plastic toys sent on increasingly surreal and freewheeling adventures. Cowboy and Indian are always up to some harebrained scheme, with Horse left to clean up the mess. In Christmas Panic, their out-of-control antics lead Horse to call Santa and cancel the presents. But the boys figure they can still save Christmas… if they break into their neighbor's house to steal his yule log! In Back to School Panic, a class assignment yields a special prize, but only Pig knows the answer. Cowboy and Indian use a special shrinking potion to sneak into Pig's brain, where they discover a sodium-packed world of pig cops riding in bacon cars and sausage cycles.
Indian and Cowboy are about to set off on a magnificent cruise on a luxury liner, but they have made a big mistake. They completely forgot that today is the first day of school! Goodbye tropical islands, our friends are back at their desks in school listening as the teacher drones on and on.
The year’s end celebrations are coming. Christmas : the tree, the dinner, the presents. Indian and Cowboy are expecting their presents eagerly. Overexcited by the organisation of the celebration, they fight and destroy the Yule log on which Horse was putting the last touch. Horse is livid and cancels the gifts from Santa Claus. How will they win back the favours of Horse and The Old Bearded Man? How will they retrieve their gifts ? For Indian and Cowboy begins a long, very long Christmas Eve.
Cowboy and Indian's only wish was to come up with a brilliant idea for Mr Horse's birthday, but when their plan ends up in utter disaster, they'll need to travel the world and back to make things right again.
Follows the everyday events of Cowboy, Indian and Horse in a small rural town as they go about their lives.
