Winter Days(2003)

Winter Days is an animated film drawn from Bashō's 1684 renku collection, a series of collaborative linked poems from 17th-century Japan. The filmmakers honoured the source material's collaborative spirit by having 35 different animators each create visuals for one of the 36 stanzas. Director Kawamoto assembled leading animation talents from Japan and around the world, with each contributor delivering at least 30 seconds of animation. Most sequences run under a minute, though Yuriy Norshteyn's segment extends nearly two minutes. The result is a patchwork of distinct visual styles unified by Bashō's poetic structure, creating a unique meditation on seasonal change and the passage of time.