This July AFS’s Essential Cinema series presents masterworks of feature-length animation from around the world. Because the visual palette available to animation filmmakers is virtually limitless, these artists travel to other planets, other dimensions, and into the equally mysterious depths of the human subconscious.

VAMPIRES IN HAVANA

Grab a glass of Sangre O-Plus and thump along to the tunes of the legendary Arturo Sandoval in this bawdy, politically incorrect adult cartoon. Vampires are real, and they have been ruling behind the scenes for centuries, fearing only one thing: the fatal light of the sun! In Havana, a vampiric scientist is on the verge of creating a medicine that will allow his kind to walk in daylight, and the secret to its success is hidden in his nephew, trumpet-playing Pepito, who is more interested in sex and overthrowing the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado than drinking blood. Gangsters, vampires, politicians – everyone’s a bad guy in this outrageous romp.

BIRDBOY: THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN

A post-apocalyptic wasteland, adolescent love and hope in a depleted landscape – even in the darkest of worlds, hope persists. BIRDBOY is a striking, Goya award-winning, fever-dream populated by anthropomorphic creatures, human in their dreams and yearnings, trapped in a world destroyed by nuclear catastrophe. Confined to a wasteland, Dinki and her friends plan to escape the island they call home in search of a better life. Only a sullen, pill-popping, BIRDBOY, secluded from the world, beset by personal demons, holds the secret to a brighter future.

MIND GAME