Inter-Action, SEATComments Off on Inter-Action screening this Wednesday!
Jan282012
Did you miss the Inter-Action program of animated shorts when it screened at the NWFF in June? Well, fear not! It is playing once more at the Naked City Brewery in Greenwood, this Wednesday, February 1st! And it’s free! If this sounds familiar, it’s because the January 18th screening fell right in the middle of snowmageddon and we had to reschedule. The program is 75 minutes and is comprised of 12 locally made animated shorts, including Tess Martin‘s Plain Face, Stefan Gruber‘s Both Worlds, Drew Christie’sThe Man Who Shot the Man Who Lincoln, and Bruce Bickford‘s The Comic That Frenches Your Mind! Not to mention shorts by the talented Britta Johnson, Amanda Moore, Salise Hughes, Davis Limbach, Aaron Wendel, Sarah Jane Lapp, Clyde Petersen and Webster Crowell!
Here are the details: Naked City Brewery
8564 Greenwood Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103
Wednesday February 1st, 8:00PM
FREE
SEATComments Off on Animated films at the Children’s Film Festival
Jan252012
First off, let me just say, there is a TON of animation showing at the Children’s Film Festival (Jan 26-Feb 5 at the NW Film Forum). There are 11 shorts programs, organized by themes (click here for the full schedule). I’ve gone through and sorted out which programs have the most stop-frame animation (whether dawn or puppets) rather than live-action or computer animation:
If you’re really into drawn animation, there are two shorts programs that seems to be pretty much comprised of this:
Fire and Ice: New Animation from Russia (Jan 28 at 3pm, Feb 4 at 3:30pm, 51 minutes): This is a program of 9 shorts, none older than 2002. All seem to be drawn, except for this one which is told with buttons (!):
and Fright Delight (Jan 29 at 1:30pm, Feb 1 at 7pm, Feb 4 at 5:30pm, 67 minutes): Scary films for ages 9 and up.
If you’re more into stop-motion with objects and puppets rather than drawn, there is a program for little little kids called Touch My Heart: Gentle Films on the Big Screen (Jan 27 at 11am, Feb 5 at 11am) that has a knitted film, one made with cardboard, and a few other stop-motion.
Birds of a Feather (Jan 29 at 1pm, Feb. 4 at 11am) also has many stop-motion and drawn shorts.
These are the ones with the MOST stop-motion, but truth be told, every single shorts program (11 altogether!) has a least one or two stop-motion animations. So go out and catch them!
The other big animation is the opening night feature, and here is my rant about that:
I’m torn. I absolutely loved Micel Ocelot‘s ‘Princes et Princesses‘ when I first stumbled upon it in my university library seven or eight years ago. It was a fun film, a short film, but a long one, if I recall correctly, composed of vignettes of a girl and a boy play-acting different fairy tales. It was made in a Lotte Reiniger style of back-lit cut-outs, and they were ingenious, and moved beautifully. Then Ocelot made ‘Azur et Asmar‘ a computer animated feature that echoed his two dimensional cut-out style.
It was ok. Not great. There were some fun moments, but overall I found the story went downhill two thirds of the way through and I was disappointed with the animation. What a waste, I thought! Surely he has now learned that he should not have strayed from the simplicity and grace of his stop-motion technique! Alas, that was not to be. His latest film is called ‘Tales of the Night‘ (Les Contes de la Nuit) and it will open the Children’s Film Festival at the Northwest Film Forum tomorrow (Jan 26th) at 7PM.
From what I can tell, it seems to be very much inspired by his short Princes et Princesses, except it focuses on one fairy tale and is longer. He is using computer animation to closely imitate his stop-motion technique, and maybe the restriction of the having the figures silhouetted will reign in the temptation to go CG-crazy. But you decide! I’ve included below clips or trailers from all three films.
Did you miss the Inter-Action program when it screened at the NW Film Forum on June 16th 2011? Now’s your chance to see all 12 locally-made animated short films for free (!) at the Naked City Brewery in their monthly film night, Third Wednesday with Northwest Film Forum. Here is the Facebook event.
And here are the deets:
Naked City Brewery
8564 Greenwood Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103
Wednesday January 18th, 8:00PM
FREE
This last one WILL blow your mind, guaranteed (wait, I didn’t mean it like that….)
Not to mention shorts by the talented Britta Johnson, Amanda Moore, Salise Hughes, Davis Limbach, Aaron Wendel, Sarah Jane Lapp, Clyde Petersen and Webster Crowell!
UpcomingComments Off on Grand Illusion presents 7 days of animation history!
Nov042011
Check out the program with descriptions on this facebook event. Screenings are Nov 4-10. It seems mostly centered on ‘cartoon’ history (rather than history of experimental animation), but two programs I plan to attend are the Zagreb program on Tuesday and the ‘Animation becomes personal’ on Thursday night – films by Bill Plympton, Barry Purves, Joan Gratz, Joanna Priestly, Jan Svankmajer!
Inter-Action, SEAT, UpcomingComments Off on Inter-Action program playing at Cine-City Film Festival
Nov022011
The entire program of SEAT films curated by Tess Martin (Inter-Action), recently toured in Europe, will be screening on Nov 17th in Brighton, UK as part of the Cine-City Film Festival.
Inter-Action, SEATComments Off on Inter-Action: La Peniche Cinema, Paris, France
Oct292011
Tess Martin’s travel blog:
This is my last entry on this tour! Last night was the Paris screening of the Inter-Action program (actually only half of the program due to time restrictions). It was pretty awesome. This event was held at La Peniche Cinema, a cinema….on a boat! ‘Peniche’ means canal boat in French. The boat is moored in l’Oucq canal, inside Parc de la Villete, a very modern park with lots of red blocky buildings, sculptures and open space. Very ‘unlike Paris’ as my friend put it. La Peniche is run by Gabriele Brennen and they show the most short films in the whole of France!
The event was also sponsored by AFCA, Association Francaise du Cinema d’Animation, and was in fact, part of the 10th Fete du Cinema d’Animation organized by AFCA. AFCA is an organization that was born independent of ASIFA France, the French chapter of the international animation organization, but within the last 10 years the two have joined forces. They now organize a festival every year during the month of October across the whole of France. And our event was in fact on Oct 28th, official international ‘animation day’.
The Seattle animations were screened first, followed by a selection of French films – mostly from a studio called Planktoon, that makes their own films, but also does ads and idents for television stations. This produced an interesting mix of independent vs. commercial animation, and some remarked on the irony that it was the Americans who were making experimental work, and the French more commercial work. But amongst the French films there was one real gem – an independent film by French/Japanese filmmaker Momoko Seto called ‘Planet Z’. I’m still hazy on the details, but apparently she got a residency and producer through an Annecy Film Festival competition to make this film. Lots of timelapse photography, some of very very, small things. Watch the trailer below, it’s awesome.
Juliette from AFCA and Gabriele from La Peniche led the Q&A after, and I got a lot of interesting questions about techniques, distribution methods, and motivation. There must have been about 40 people there, and it was probably the most enthusiastic audience of the tour. Thank you to Gabriele and Juliette for the hard work!
Inter-Action, SEATComments Off on Inter-Action: MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria
Oct252011
Tess Martin’s travel blog:
I flew into Vienna yesterday morning, and was kindly picked up by Holger Lang, one of the professors at Webster University Vienna campus. The event here was sponsored by them as well as by ASIFA Austria, the local ASIFA chapter that I’m happy to say seems quite active and interested in experimental work. The Inter-Action screening (animations from Seattle) was held in a nice multi-purpose room inside the MuseumsQuartier – this is one long building that used to be the court stables, but has now been converted into a number of museums like the Leopold Museum (Austrian Expressionists), MUMOK (modern art) and Kunsthalle (contemporary art). There’s also an architecture centre and dance centre, a children’s museum and a children’s theatre. But better than all that is something called quartier21, which is basically an umbrella organization that helps fill all the little nooks and crannies of this big building with small shops and studios for local arts initiatives – so you’re walking down a hallway and there’s all the interesting installations and shops scattered about – really inspiring.
My screening was held in a multi-purpose room called Room D that can be booked by different organizations, including ASIFA Austria. It holds about 40 modern plastic seats, and has a nice bar area. The event went very well! I’d say we had about 35 people (mostly either Webster Vienna students or ASIFA people, but a bunch of general public as well). Right at the end a group of thirty-five 15 year old students on a school trip came by with their teacher – they were from a small village and the teacher was making sure they got exposed to as much art as possible on their trip. They had planned to attend the screening but were very late. So I screened five of the films again for them while the previous audience mingled in the bar area. It was a pleasure talking with Holger, and Stefan from ASIFA, and some of their media students about different inspiring films, trends in the festival world, etc.
Below is a slightly over-dramatic video about the Museumsquartier, but it gives a good feel for it:
Outside one of the entrances to the MuseumsQuartier
Inter-Action, SEATComments Off on Inter-Action: Lichtbick Kino, Berlin, Germany
Oct242011
Tess Martin’s travel blog:
I arrived in Berlin on Friday, and stayed at an acquaintance’s lovely flat in Kreuzberg, near Oranienplatz – a very busy street filled with cafes, middle eastern restaurants, and fruit stalls – and a popular street for protests – there were two large marches in the three days I was there. My hosts took me out to an art walk of sorts in the Hermannstrasse neighbourhood, and I spent one whole day walking around and learning the layout of the city. Berlin seems very big, with wider streets and sidewalks than most European cities. But still quite…gritty. Lots of graffiti, no elevators, and old fashioned stamping machines to ‘validate’ your subway ticket before boarding. But definitely a lot of art happening, and lots of international people.
The Lichtblick Kino is a funky 36 seat cinema in the Rosenthaler area in North Berlin – the same day as my screening they were showing Wings of Desire (Der Himmel uder Berlin), and a French Inspector Lavardin mystery. Despite all the cute fliers and posters advertising the Inter-Action screening (animations from Seattle), unfortunately, not many people attended – must have been the Sunday 10PM start time and the cold night.
But it was still a wonderful experience – thank you to Heinz and Hedda for making my stay much more enjoyable!
Leaving Amsterdam - not the most recognizable skyline, but in this picture you can see the horseshoe-shaped canals
Inside the Kunsthaus Tacheles - a large bulding filled with artists studios since 1990
Did you miss the Inter-Action program of animated shorts when it screened at the NWFF in June? Well, fear not! It is playing once more at the Naked City Brewery in Greenwood, this Wednesday, February 1st! And it’s free! If this sounds familiar, it’s because the January 18th screening fell right in the middle of snowmageddon and we had to reschedule. The program is 75 minutes and is comprised of 12 locally made animated shorts, including Tess Martin‘s Plain Face, Stefan Gruber‘s Both Worlds, Drew Christie’s The Man Who Shot the Man Who Lincoln, and Bruce Bickford‘s The Comic That Frenches Your Mind! Not to mention shorts by the talented Britta Johnson, Amanda Moore, Salise Hughes, Davis Limbach, Aaron Wendel, Sarah Jane Lapp, Clyde Petersen and Webster Crowell!
Check out the program with descriptions on 
