CAL-ARTS ANIMATED PROGRAM AT NUART

“Joy of Movement,” a program of recent student films from the motion graphics department of CalArts that screens at the Nuart Theater tonight, is a collection of nonobjective animated shorts that range from brilliant to boring.

The outstanding work in the show is Amy Kravitz’s “River Lethe”: abstract images drawn in graphite and aluminum powders reveal how evocative nonobjective or “pure” animation can be.

Jamie Charles moves stick figures reminiscent of aboriginal art against watercolor backgrounds in “Ambrosia.” Lauren Companeitz imbues bannerlike shapes drawn in colored pencil with a carefree merriment in “Contrapunctus.” The moving sculpture in Dan Schmidt’s “Formation” creates graceful patterns of curves, spheres and reflections. But none of these films achieves a real resolution and feels like a succession of images, not a coherent visual statement.

“Jam” by David Brody and “City Number Seven” by Suzanne Mitus resemble portfolios of drawings, rather than animated films.

Making “Nighttime Fears and Fantasies; A Bedtime Tale for a Young Girl” and “Voices” may have been therapeutic for Christine Panushka and Joanna Priestly, but neither the images nor the motions command a viewer’s attention.

“Joy of Movement” screens at 6 7:45 and 9:30 p.m. at the Nuart Theater, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles. Information: (213) 478-6379 or 479-5269.