Total running time: 12:48 (Haiku 4 – 6:22; Haiku 5 – 1:45; Haiku 7 – 4:41
Three entries in Lyle Pisio’s thematically and stylistically diverse ongoing Haiku series of collaborations with different artists. Each of these stop-motion animation films provides an uncanny, poetic viewing experience.
Haiku 4: STILL
In his kitchen, overgrown with plants and vines, Teagran keeps his dead father. Tormented by dreams, he tries several rituals to bring him back to life. From weaving a beard out of vines, to hunting down a wolf, Teagran tries everything he can to rid himself of the nightmares he is having and resurrect his dead father.
Based on a dream, Haiku 4: STILL was written and scored by Jun K Lee, a Calgary-based musician, poet, and comic-book artist. Using the uniquely hand-carved wooden puppets designed and animated by Pisio, the film is the fourth in an ongoing series of collaborations between Lyle and different artists.
Haiku 5: BLOOM 
Andrew gives Agnes a flower, and as it blossoms, we watch glimpses of the relationship as it blooms as well. The flower was made by carving a small piece of dyed wooden doweling, while the leaves are the shavings of the carving.
On this stop-motion short, Pisio worked with Brigitte Dajczer, a long time collaborator and band-mate who is now a Montreal based musician. She now goes by BRIGA and you can find more info on her at: brigamusic.wordpress.com/ Using previously completed footage, the director created a short vignette which Brigitte made music for.
Haiku 7: PULSE
A drum troll struggles to find the courage and means to escape his snare drum prison, while an artist works to free his muse.
In Haiku 7, Lyle worked with long-time friend and band-mate Mark Dicey, who appears in the film in a series of time-lapse sequences that document his artistic process at his studio. Most of the rest of the film was done as a residency at the EPCOR centre for the arts in Calgary.
Lyle Pisio is a Calgary-based artist, musician and animator. A founding member of the free-improvisational bands Street of Crocodiles and tokyosexwhale, Lyle has been making films and animation since 2000. His films have been screened worldwide in over 100 festivals and have received several awards for animation, music, and artistic design. His films include: The Unholy (2004), Another Lost Soul (2006), Visages (2008), The Empress (2009) and Wrecking Ball (2010).
