CinePanic: Thunderhead + Liondance!

On March 4, we will screen the animated short films Thunderhead (2026, Una Jongenelis) and Liondance! (2024, Eleri Wonkyeol Lee) and we reflect on fear and panic. What happens if you are very scared but you don’t know what you’re scared of? 

Prior to the films, neuroscientist Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam will give a mini-lecture about fear and why it is so persistent and filmmaker and presenter Kiriko Mechanicus will talk about fear and the invisible. Both films will be introduced by the directors and after the screenings of Thunderhead and Liondance! there is a Q&A.

Thunderhead (Dir. Una Jongenelis):

A panic attack transforms a girls mind into a nightmare.

A young woman is overwhelmed by a panic attack. In an attempt to calm herself, her mind transforms into a dark place where all logic seems to have vanished. The nightmare culminates when her fears materialize in a devastating cloud that is hot on her heels. When she sinks into a miserable downward spiral of negative thoughts she realizes that she needs to face her deepest fears to escape.

Liondance! (Dir. Eleri Wonkyeol Lee)

A woman with panic disorder seeks an ancient guardian god in the present.

Liondance! is a journey of a woman with panic disorder seeking an ancient guardian god in the present. Drawing from the folklore depiction of the lion, she hysterically pursues her desire to find her god. Adopting shamanistic values from history is followed by mourning her own anxiety and finding a guardian in herself, which leads the narrative to hint at how fear sustains life.

Info speakers:

Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam: 

Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam is an assistant professor at the unit Developmental and Educational Psychology of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University. She is also affiliated with the department of Psychiatry (Leiden University Medical Center) and part of the Knowledge Center for Anxiety & Stress in Youth. 

Kiriko Mechanicus: 

Kiriko Mechanicus (she/her, 1995), also known as Kiri Academy, is an Amsterdam-based Dutch-Japanese documentary filmmaker, writer of fiction and non-fiction, culinary historian and researcher, photographer, art director, full-time opinionated bitch and part-time party girl. 

Una Jongenelis:

Una Jongenelis (b. 1997, Amsterdam) is a visual artist and filmmaker whose multidisciplinary practice spans film, painting, drawing, books, and music. Her debut animated film, Thunderhead, marks a significant step in her career, weaving together her background in psychology with her distinctive artistic vision.

Eleri Wonkyeol Lee: 

Eleri Wonkyeol Lee was born and raised in South Korea and studied at the dept. of fine arts at Seoul National University and graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2024. At her first bachelor’s, she focused on figurative painting and worked as an actor for independent films in Korea. Using her theatrical experience, within her films, she uses narration to move across the hereditary chain of her life.