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Cohen’s Cartoon Corners: Sept 2019 by Karl F. Cohen
Scene from Canadian Regina Pessoa's autobiographical new film 'Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days. image: courtesy R. Pessoa
New Canadian Animation
Dear Cartoon Corner Readers:
You are invited to see some great, new animation from the National Film Board of Canada and to meet two of their star animators, Regina Pessoa and Theodore Ushev, at a free event on Tuesday, October 1st, 7pm at San Francisco State's Coppola Theatre.
Pessoa’s new film, “Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days” (Portugal/Canada/France), won awards from the Special Jury and for Best Music (by Normand Roger) when it premiered this June at France’s famous Annecy International Animation Festival.
Combining Pessoa’s patented engraving style with digital 2D animation and stop-motion, the 13-minute film is “a testament to [Pessoa's] love for an eccentric relative, who was an artistic inspiration and played a key role in her becoming a filmmaker,” according to its promo material, which also noted it was “a moving tribute to a poet of the everyday.”
Theodore Ushev sneak previews his “The Physics of Sorrow” (Bulgaria/Canada), which will be released in September after premiering at the upcoming Toronto International. The director of the Oscar-nominated animated short “Blind Vaysha”, Ushev will also show a short doc about his use of ancient Egyptian encaustic painting to create his new film, and an older film, “Towher Bawher”. An award-winning, visually-exciting work, the latter has been called “a whirlwind tour of Russian constructivist art.”
Also in the show is Pessoa’s “Tragic Story with a Happy Ending”, said to be the most awarded Portuguese film ever. It features her drawings transferred to glossy paper, brushed with India ink, and scratched to look like an engraving. Also scheduled is “The Procession” (Canada, 2019) by Pascal Blanchet & Rodolphe Saint-Gelais. The graphic designer for last year’s Annecy poster, this is Blanchet's much anticipated first film.
Screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the directors and some technical presentations.
The provocative image that the 9th annual SF Green Film Fest is using as its promo. image: courtesy SF Green Fest
San Francsico Green Film Festival
The 9th Annual San Francisco Green Film Festival runs from September 24th to the 29th at the Castro, Roxie and other theaters and includes the following animated shorts:
“Airport” directed by Michaela Muller, appears on the "Swissmix Program" (9/26). At an airport, the flow of passengers is suddenly broken by irregularities, which the security forces try to identify, as tragedy lingers one step away (see trailer).
“In a Nutshell” by Fabio Fridley attempts to bring us “From meat to love, and indifference to apocalypse,” according to its blurb, while capturing “the world in a nutshell” (see trailer).
Sophie Wietlisbach brings us “Swiss Made” (also "Swissmix Program"), which makes us think again when we picture the glorious mountains and meadows of Switzerland, while “The Flood is Coming”, from Gabriel Böhmer, covers a forest hermit preparing for a flood, while exploring our anxiety about about nature and our place in it, (see trailer)
“Chiripajas” ("Nature Short's", The Exploratorium, 9/26) by Jaume Quilas and Olgie Poliektova is an ecological film about the big adventure of a small turtle trying to find his family in a polluted ocean (see trailer).
A moment from 'Airport' by Michaela Muller at the upcoming SF Green Film Fest. image: courtesy SF Green Film Fest
“God Has Already Gone Ahead” by Peter Böving is presented from an Egyptian goose’s perspective. While the water level in a pond falls, the inhabitants still have water up the kazoo, leading the goose to suspect nothing bad (see trailer).
“The Trash Task” by Alison Saunders, a middle school student, is an excellent hand-drawn stop-motion short about a family of bears doing their part to clean up our trash-littered shorelines. Saunders said she made it to inspire her fellow planetary citizens to finally do something. It will be shown with “The Woman Who Loves Giraffes” on September 28th (see trailer).
SF Indie Short Fest
The perennially popular San Francisco Indie Short Film Festival—which runs from September 13-15th at the New People Cinema, on 1746 Post St— is showing three animated works in its animated shorts program. They are “Into the Flame” by Sean McClintok, “Okami” by “Motomichi Nakamure” by Annie Maley, and “Tell Tale” by Fu Yang.
All Hail Jeff Hale
"The Unexpurgated, Magnificent, Spectacular Book of Hale" is a fascinating selection of images by the animation director and illustrator Jeffrey Hale. Jeff’s mind was brilliant whether he was creating work for “Sesame Street,” the National Film Board of Canada or the controversial Lenny Bruce film “Thank You Masked Man.” Jeff also co-founded of ASIFA-SF.
His daughter Margot has assembled a handsome selection of his drawings and paintings (about 150 in all) in a 124-page book in color and B/W, available from the book’s FaceBook Page.
Although the book costs $28.00 (including shipping in the US), cineSOURCE readers can get it for for $24.00 (including shipping) by going to this PayPal Account and mentioning you saw it in Cohen’s Cartoon Corner.
Pixar appears to be returning to its hippie roots in 'Soul', directed by the company's creative director Pete Docter. image: courtesy Pixar
Shorts and Trailers from Pixar
“Soul,” being produced by Dana Murray of the “Lou” short, and directed by Pete Docter, will be “a journey from the streets of New York City to the cosmic realms to discover the answers to life’s most important questions.” Other then that, the press release is rather coy about what to expect, although it does add, “Ever wonder where your passion, your dreams and your interests come from? What it is that makes you ... YOU?” Pretty spacey for a billion dollar company, although we have to bear in mind many were once hippies, "Soul" is set to open June 19, 2020.
A trailer for Pixar’s new feature, “Onward,” scheduled to be released on March 6, 2020, is here. Featuring the voices of Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Octavia Spencer, the film has been described as an urban fantasy, “set in an alternate world populated with elves, trolls, mermaids, centaurs, fauns, satyrs, gnomes, sprites, goblins and other mystical creatures such as unicorns and dragons."
"It is a world where fairy tales were once the reality, but are losing their sense of magic. The characters use machines such as mobile phones and cars instead of magic. Two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, embark on a quest to discover if there is still magic in the world in order to spend one day with their father, who died when they were too young to remember him.”
Given "Onward" fantastical qualities, it appears as if Pete Docter, the current creative head of Pixar, is trying to break from the admittedly exceedingly profitable business model of making sequels. Evidently he is excited about making more challenging original features including another that may deal with human emotions, possibly in the tradition of his “Inside Out”.
While sequels to films like “Spider Man” are a lot of fun and they can make obscene amounts of money, it is wonderful that Docter has the freedom, at least for now, to branch out and create original content. I understand Pixar has two more unique features planned for 2022.
Paul Krassner (rt) was once the young hipster on the block, looking on as poet Ed Saunders (lft) and activist Abbie Hoffman debate it out, circa 1968. image: courtesy NY Times
Last But Not Least, Paul Krassner, In Memoriam
I got to know Paul (1932-2019) when he was living in the Bay Area and developing an act as a stand-up comic about 1978. He tried out material as part of the Sunday night shows I used to produce in North Beach. More a storyteller than a comic, Krassner would share odd tales of the counter-culture which would, often upon relfection, turn out to be absurd, bizarre and very funny.
Hard as it is to believe, Krassner contributed to Mad Magazine, was a member of Ken Kesey's acid evolutionaries, The Merry Pranksters, and a cofounder of the Yippies with Abbie Hoffman, with whom he became the ninth member of the so-called Chicago Seven (which officially became eight with the addition of Black Panther Bobby Seale).
Nevertheless, my favorite memory of him was not his many acerbic anecdotes about his colorful antics but when my subscription to his ground-breaking magazine The Realist, arrived in my mailbox in 1967.
I still crackup today when I see that issue’s centerfold, the “Disneyland Memorial Orgy”. Thanks to our progressive parody laws Paul dared to publish Wally Wood’s incredible satirical drawing and Walt’s lawyers didn’t even take a crack at trying to ruin him. To see the details of the centerfold click to enlarge the below image or enjoy a color version published by Paul a few years later on his fascinating website .
According to Wikipedia, The Realist was a pioneering magazine of social-political-religious criticism and satire, intended as a hybrid of a grown-up version of “Mad” and Lyle Stuart's anti-censorship monthly, The Independent, both of which Krassner contributed to, along with Playboy, the Huffington Post and many more. After starting it in 1958, and publishing out of his parents basement for many years, he continued The Realist to 2001, at which point reality overtook humor, he claimed.
Krassner published 'Disneyland Memorial Orgy', which he came up with and Wally Wood illustratied in 1967 (NOTE: Click to view full image). image: courtesy NY Times
“Trying to save the world is a banker’s mentality,” Krassner once told Mr. Fish, AKA Dwayne Booth, the versatile cartoonist behind Truthdig.com, “which is why I like to spend my time paying attention.” This comment shows Krassner's astute awareness that self-criticism and expanding your own mentality outweighs attacking the enemy.
Born in Brooklyn, he moved to the Bay Area in the late-'60s and by 1971 was a well-known radio personality and DJ at SF's KSFX (later KGO-FM). Krasser went on to do stand-up all over town as well as speaking engagements and collaborations with counter-culture figures like Wavy Gravy.
Ultimately passing in Desert Hot Springs, California, on July 21, 2019, at the age of 87, Paul Krassner will be sorely missed.
Karl F. Cohen—who decided to add his middle initial to distinguish himself from the Russian Karl Cohen, who tried to assassinate the Czar in the mid-19th century—is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached .Posted on Sep 05, 2019 - 07:40 PM