Offbeat Cartoon

[JJ80]

I saw this odd black and white animation when I was very, very young. It seemed to be about a black soldier in some sort of polluted retro/futuristic world. His unit all wore WW2 type uniforms with permanent gas masks and bolt-action rifles. Things got really weird when he ran into a cathedral decorated with hundreds of statues of angels which proceeded to come to life!
He later turned into an angel himself when he was ordered to shoot them down by his C.O.  The film ended with a news broadcast about the rest of the plot. All the dialogue was in English.

Thanks for your attention!

[Andrew]

From what I know of it, possibly "In the Aftermath" from 1988.

[JJ80]

Thanks for your suggestion but that isn't it I'm afraid although the angels and gas mask do fit. The film in question was a short that was shown as part of a t.v show about world animation so it had to be less than 30 minutes in length. Also, it was definitely shown before 1988.
Thanks anyway.

[JJ80]

These details might help a little:

                                          -The angels were drawn fairly conventionally but had no arms only wings.
                                          -The soldier was portrayed as being mentally strained and was perhaps trying to desert when he ran into the cathedral.
                                          - The final news broadcast sequence was broken up by a repeated shot of one of the soldiers quickly moving his head from eyes left to eyes right.
                                         - The main character had an African-American sounding voice but the newsreader spoke in a stentorian English accent as in an old U.K cinema newsreel.

Hope this helps.

[Andrew]

Finding shorts can be incredibly hard.  About what year did you see the film.

I could not find much about them, but here are two animated shorts about angels I found on the IMDb.  The first is the most promising, as it does blend mechanical and angels:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058246/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0341618/

The second, I cannot find any description anywhere.  It just matches angels, short, animation.

[JJ80]

Thanks again but neither film matches what I remember. I knew this was going to be a shot in the dark as I think that the animation in question is very obscure.

[Rayo Casablanca]

I've seen this as well. I believe I saw it in the mid to late 80s at an animation festival (like the International Tournee of Animation or the Animation Celebration). I wonder if you might be able to find it if you can track down a listing of the shorts on each of those videos...

[JJ80]

Thanks Rayo, I'm looking into the matter right now. 

[JJ80]

I'm starting to think that the mystery film could be "Operation X-70" a Belgian short from 1971. I found some stills from it and a couple of plot synopsis which seem to partially but not exactly fit the film that I remember. The rub is that the plot described seems a little too 'heavy' for an afternoon showing.

[JJ80]

Case Closed! It was ""Operation X-70". I read a detailed synopsis from a German film site (Mitternatchskino) including stills. Too many details match for this not to be the mystery short:

- Black & White minimalist animation;
- Soldiers in gas masks due to the X-70 chemical weapon.
- Plot presented as a scientific lecture which explains the narrated montage sequence;
- Mutation of human arms into wings due to a chemical/biological weapon;
- Sky filled with angels at the end;
- The eyes left/eyes right final scene probably relates to the religious leader character wearing a two-faced respirator;

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[Rayo Casablanca]

Great!You can buy a copy here:
http://www.awn.com/gallery/servais/
http://store.awn.com/home.php