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How to Have a Festival Without Going Nuts or Broke by Karl Cohen
'Tule Lake', by Michelle Ikemoto, of San Jose State, addresses the Japanese internment during WWII and tied with 'The Last Goodbye', by Rebecca Denton, also of SFSU . photo: courtesy M. Ikemoto
Last month’s Bay Area Animation News column covered the first night of our first annual ASIFA-San Francisco Spring Festival. When planning the event, we assumed it would run about two hours, however, our announcements for the event generated so much interest that the event had to run for two nights.
The first night we showed works by young animators, college students and some of the independent animators. The second night we showed the remaining entries by independent artists and the commissioned films. Both screenings were in the Exploratorium’s McBean Theatre.
Work by College Students
The fine, entertaining works shown by students from both San Francisco State and San Jose State demonstrated that both schools have strong academic programs that teach the entire spectrum of what animation can be, not just how to use computer software.
I was disappointed that there were no submissions from the more expensive schools in the area. Although all local schools were invited to have students show films, in past open screenings we rarely saw films from the schools with expensive tuitions. How many of their students complete films?
I believe you can judge a good animation program by the work coming out of the school. Just because a school spends lots on advertising claiming they are great, if we don’t see the results of that education, are the claims real or a lot of hot air?
Gems by Indie Animators and Commissioned Projects
The strongest category in the festival was work by independent artists. Joanna Priestly, whom Bill Plympton calls “the undisputed queen of indie animation,” sent us “Dear Pluto”, a humorous essay about the planet being demoted to a lesser classification. It was made by combining computer animation with hand drawn artwork and with other techniques. Priestly, who lives in Portland, Oregon, won first place in independent animation.
David Tart's 'The Story of Animation' was one of the commissioned pieces in this year's animation festival. photo: courtesy D. Tart
The artist winning the Best in Show award was the French animator Leonard Cohen. He moved to the San Francisco area after his film “Plato” won the best student film award at Annecy in 2011. It won our top prize (see it here), and his “The Parable of the Tuileries,” tied for first place in the commissioned film category. It is an amusing sponsored work promoting the importance of the French government’s support of public spaces (parks, town squares) and institutions (museums, etc.).
David Tart’s “The Story of Animation” tied with Cohen’s “The Parable of the Tuileries” for Best Commissioned Film. His short also won our Funniest Film Award. David graduated from SF State in the 1990s and freelances as an animation director for a variety of studios. His film was created primarily to help small animation studios formed by graduates of the Animation Workshop, in Denmark, who were experiencing a disconnect between what clients thought about the process of animation, and what was actually involved in creating it.
"In a way, it's a gift to all animation studios," David says. "There are so many times when clients, not understanding the implications of changes, ask for costly alterations late in the process, causing tension, and usually costing the studio money." David has worked as an animator and animation director at a variety of studios including Pixar, Blue Sky Studios, DNA studios, and Disneytoon Studios. David is currently based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. See his work here.
The audience gave prizes to a wide range of styles, techniques and content. The second place independent short was “The Tyger” by Mark West, a striking looking realization of the famous William Blake poem (“Tyger, tyger burning bright…”). He used bold flat colors, handsome looking design work, Flash and a dramatic soundtrack.
French animator, Leonard Cohen contributed the masterful 'Plato'. photo: courtesy L. Cohen
Ben Ridgway’s “Cellular Circuitry,” full of striking abstract pulsating computer generated forms, was recognized for its Excellence in Experimental Animation. (See trailer.) Karen Lithgow’s “It’s All About Perspective” won a Special Jury Award for using humor to expose the snobbish people who live in fancy gated communities.
Jefferson Thomas’ “Rathle” is a silly humorous interview with his young son about the life and eating habits of an imaginary rattlesnake. (http://www.rathle.net/) It was recognized for its Excellence in Humor as was Alan Orcutt’s “There’s an App for That,” about absurd apps that might be developed in the future. Luke Jaeger, who now lives in the Boston area, sent us “Carolina Shout,” a surreal, experimental “antique music video” full of playful images. It was awarded Best Music Video (go here)
Composer Nik Phelps sent us “Hope” by Sabrina Wanie from Germany. He provided the soundtrack to this work that shows the depressing and dangerous world some children must live in. It encourages people to be optimistic and have hope. Sabrina has just been awarded a TV contract in Germany to produce a series of encouraging and optimistic films and she will be using Nik to create her sound tracks. “Hope” tied for third place in independent animation with “There’s an App for That.”
We showed out of competition a clip from the feature (still in production) “Rocks in My Pockets,” a humorous film about depression, by Signe Baumane. David Levy, a former president of ASIFA-East who makes animated documentaries, sent us “Turning a Corner,” an unusual tale full of irony about the events that led to his father getting into art school. David has just moved to LA to work for Disney.
After seeing these and the other fine films we showed, I believe independent animation is alive and well in the US. These artists are not trying to pursue a popular style, nor are they caught up in a trend. They are creating wonderful films out of their personal desires to express themselves as individuals in whatever way they deem appropriate.
The Victory Party
Our first spring festival turned out to be a wonderful celebration of animation that wasn’t made for commercial venues. It honored imagination and creativity, not commerce and conformity. So to celebrate the completion of the festival we held a party that included a screening of the festival’s winners. It was a chance for our animation community to socialize, enjoy a potluck and to once more applaud each others work.
The spirited evening was held in an old wooden loft filled with relics from films past. Oddball Films is a film archive run by Stephen Parr who has assembled a collection of thousands of educational, experimental and entertainment films. Fifteen-foot tall metal racks hold neatly organized stacks of 16mm films.
The collection fills several rooms, plus there are old editing tables, film projectors and other things. The library provides historic film footage for media projects and on weekends Oddball presents film series in their screening room. I love the building’s slow moving freight elevator that makes lots of mysterious sounds. It is reminiscent of elevators in old movies set in warehouses.
The hall was packed with animators and well wishers. Ricci Carrasquillo, who does the thought provoking covers for our newsletters, created our fascinating looking awards certificates. After the artists who were present got a chance to speak and received their awards their work was shown with breaks between them to allow for brief questions and answers.
My favorite moment was when young Gwydion Brain was asked what inspired him to create a short about where babies come from. He said students at BAYCAT were asked to make films about “family” so in his short a couple goes to the Build-a-Baby store in a mall. Thanks to the use of the latest technology they decide upon the sex, eye and hair colors they want in their child before pushing the build button. The new child comes down a shoot. Gwydion said he got the idea from something he saw on TV.
The man of the hour was Leonard Cohen. He received lots of applause for his two award winning films along with a third film he animated for director Spike Jonze. He told us he was going to miss San Francisco. His wife will remain here while working on a PhD at UC Berkeley, but he will be working in Paris on a weekly TV series for Canal +. He looks forward to returning to our city upon the completion of the series. Later several people told me how much they enjoyed meeting this remarkably talented man and they pointed out how each of his films are quite different in content, style and technique. We believe he has a great career ahead of him.
The festival would not have happened without a lot of help, advice and encouragement from the ASIFA board, members, friends and the Exploratorium staff. Some of the people who helped make it happen include, Ricci Carrasquillo, Sarah Chin, Kevin Coffey, Pete Davis, The G Man, Gene Hamm, Karen Jacobs, Dot Janson, Karen Lithgow, Denise McEvoy, Nancy Denney Phelps, Steve Segal, Joe Sikoryak, Shirley Smith, Dan Steves, all who created the films shown plus Liz Keim, Sam Sharkey of the Exploratorium’s staff and Stephen Parr at Oddball Films. Posted on Aug 13, 2012 - 02:30 PM