Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Tomorrow, Sunday May 3rd marks the 40th anniversary of ASIFA East’s annual festival.

A couple of hours worth of films will be screened in the New School’s auditorium at 66 West 12th Street. Immediately thereafter a party will be celebrated in an adjoining room of the school.

This has always been the big event of the New York animation community, and everyone’s encouraged to attend. The only admission requirement is a pleasant demeanor.

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-Back in the year 2000, ASIFA East, celebrating their 30th Anniversary, produced a book outlining the history of their festival. All of the award winners over all of those 30 years were listed, and a lot of images featured some of the highlights of the past festivals.

I loved this little xeroxed booklet. It let me feel like I was an important part of this organization’s history. The booklet was designed and edited by Mark Segall, with help from Howard Beckerman and Bill Lorenzo.

Now that ASIFA East is about to celebrate their 40th Festival, I thought it not a bad idea to post all of the pages from that little publication.

Here they are:

Comment by Howard Beckerman | Back Cover

(Click any image to enlarge to read,)

pgs 6-7 | pgs 8-9

pags. 10-11 | pgs. 12-13

pags. 14-15 | pgs. 16-17

pgs. 18-19

pgs. 20-21 | pgs. 22-23

pgs. 24-25 | pgs. 26-27

pgs. 28-29 | pgs. 30-31

pgs. 32-33

pgs. 34-35 | pgs. 36-37

pgs. 38-39 | pgs. 40-41

pgs. 42-43

pgs. 44-45

pgs. 46-47

pgs 48-49

pgs.50-51

pgs. 52-53

There are a lot of films that won here and went on to win everything else out there. Frank Film, Your Face, A Soldier’s Tale, The Chicken From Outer Space and many others started out at this little fest and became Oscar/EMMY contenders/winners.

You never know what’ll show up – be there Sunday at 6.

- Having been to the Ottawa Animation Festival last week, I thought back to the great grandparent of this Festival. Back in 1967 there was a world gathering of animators at the Montreal World Fair which set the stage for all other North American Festivals. Here’s a repeat of the program I posted back in 2006.

This was a special issue of Top Cel, the NY animation guild’s newspaper. Dated August 1967, it celebrates the Montreal Expo animation conference and exhibition held that summer. Obviously, this was the place to be that year if you were an animation lover.

Just take a look at that list of signatures of attendees. Some of them are:
Chuck Jones, Peter Foldes, Manuel Otero, Edith Vernick, Abe Levitow, Don Bajus, Bill & Fini Littlejohn, John Halas, Ward Kimball, Ken Peterson, Shamus Culhane, Carl Bell, Pete Burness, Ub Iwerks, Gerald Baldwin, I. Klein, Gene Plotnick, Ian Popesco-Gopo, Carmen d’Avino, Bill Mathews, Len Lye, June Foray, Bill Hurtz, Spence Peel, Paul Frees, Steve Bosustow, Dave Hilberman, Stan Van der Beek, Les Goldman, Jimmy Murakami, Mike Lah, Robert Breer, Tom Roth, Art Babbitt, Feodor Khitruk, Fred Wolf, Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Paul Terry, J.R. Bray, Walter Lantz, Otto Messmer, Dave Fleischer, Ruth Kneitel, Bruno Bozzetto, Bob Clampett, Karel Zeman, Dusn Vukotic, Bretislav Pojar, Jean Image, Grim Natwick, Tissa David, Barrie Nelson, Andre Martin, Ed Smith, Dick Rauh, and John Whitney.

I guess they don’t make Festivals like they used to. There doesn’t seem to be much written about this event, and I wish some of those in attendance would write about it.

From the Wikepedia entry for Bill Tytla, there’s the John Culhane quote: On August 13, 1967, the opening night of the Montreal Expo’s World Exhibition of Animation Cinema, featured a screening of Dumbo as part of an Hommage Aux Pionniers. Tytla was invited, but worried if anyone would remember him. When the film finished, they announced the presence of “The Great Animator.” When the spotlight finally found him, the audience erupted in “a huge outpouring of love. It may have been one of the great moments of his life,” recalled John Culhane. I’m sure there were many such moments.

Just to make it all personal, let me tell you a story, although this has nothing to do with Montreal’s Exhibit.

Pepe Ruiz was the union’s business manager. In 1966 – the year prior to this expo – I was a junior in college, determined to break into the animation industry. Of course, I knew the military was coming as soon as I graduated, but I called the union to have a meeting with Pepe. I wanted to see what the likelihood of a “part time job” would be in animation. This took a lot of courage on my part to see what the union was about. I pretty well knew part time jobs didn’t exist. There was no such thing as interns back then.

Pepe was an odd guy who kept calling me “sweetheart” and “darling” and he told me that it was unlikely that I could get something part time in an animation studio.

However he did send me to Terrytoons to check it out.
I met with the production manager, at the time, Nick Alberti. It was obvious I was holding up Mr. Alberti’s exit for a game of golf, but he was kind and said that part time work wasn’t something they did. (He moved on to Technicolor film lab as an expediter after Terry‘s closed. I had contact with him frequently for years later, though I never brought up our meeting and doubt he would have remembered it.) Ultimately, I was pleased to have been inside Terrytoons‘ studio before it shut down shortly thereafter. A little adventure that let me feel as though I was getting closer to the world of animation.

The photos of the Expo are worth a good look. I’ve singled out those above to place around my text. The picture of Tissa and Grim is a nice one of the two of them together.

Ed Smith was the Top Cel editor at the time, and he put together a creative publication.

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34

Here’s the last of my reports on Ottawa. I’ll post photos later today when I have more time.

- Saturday in Ottawa at the animation festival was, for me, centered on my program/retrospective at 1pm. But first there was a conference at 11am which was moderated by Richard O’Connor (of Asterisk Pictures) about adapting other media to animation. Guests included David Polonsky, the art director of Waltz With Bashir; Frank Caruso of King Features Syndicate, who talked about adapting strips to animation; and me. The session was lively thanks to J.J. Sedelmeir’s interesting questions from the audience.

The end of this session gave me barely 30 mins to run to the Museum of Civilization where the retro took place. Literally, I had to run to get there in time.

Fortunately, there was a decent group, with a lot of the New Yorkers represented. The films didn’t feel quite right as projected on this screen in BETA format. They were overmodulated on the tracks and the images felt too contrasty. Probably the tapes; I’ll have to check when they come back, though I remeember these same tapes looking good at MOMA.

All in all, I felt the show went well.

We couldn’t get a bus in enough time to make the 4th competition screening, so I walked back to my hotel; a 45 min. trek.

That evening, I arrived early, at the same place, to attend the Richard Williams show. I got to say hi to Eric Goldberg, who I hadn’t seen since early Pocahontas when Tom Sito toured me through Disney showing off The Lion King, which was in completion. It’s been a while.

The theater was packed for Dick, and on every seat was a nine minute dvd sample of Dick’s
16 set masterclass dvd. John Canemaker had put together a nice program: the titles to Charge of the Light Brigade, some late commercials,a rarely seen trailer for The Thief, and scenes from the new set of instruction dvds Dick and his wife have produced. These dvd’s look informative and entertaining. However, my favorite clip shown was footage of Dick following people walking in London. It
_________Dick and John a bit out of focus _________________was hilarious.

After the program, Dick and John Canemaker seemed occupied with throngs of people, so Candy Kugel and I went to dinner. We then walked to Barrymore’s where they were holding a party at 11. There, we met up with Nancy Beiman and stood on line for about a half-hour. Eventually, we decided to blow off the party since there were only a lot of students on the long line; no one we knew. Those people would get there much later after the screenings, and we weren’t up to the wait.
By now, both Candy and I were anxious to get home.

Sunday, I had another show at the Museum of Civilization, but I also had a plane to make. It meant getting through an intro to the films and rushing out to the airport without watching my program. At the airport I met up with John Canemaker, who turned out to be on the same plane sitting just in front of me.

We ate lunch in the Ottawa airport, caught the plane and rode into the city together. I’ll meet up with John, tonight, at the Museum of Modern Art’s program of Dick’s work. It’ll be a rerun of the Saturday show.

All in all, I’d say this was one of the better Festivals. The films were great, and in the end they really make a festival. Kudos to Chris Robinson and all those who were so helpful behind the scenes. And a special thanks to all the pre selection jury members. Great job done.

- The second day of the Festival had a completely different feel. For one thing, I didn’t have to make a presentation; for another, there was quite a bit more activity now that the Festival had officially opened last night. I still have a high from some of the films seen last night.

The first program I attended was a salute to Canadian animation compiled by Chris Robinson (who also has a new book about the subject.) This show wasn’t as well paced as some of the others. There were a few lagging moments in there, but overall it was a high. A couple of the excellent shorts included: L’Ondée by David Coquard Dassault, The
____Fest director Chris Robinson_______.___Nose by Neil Burns and The Forming Game
__________________.___________________by Malcolm Sutherland.

Following this there was another Shorts Competition which included new films by some better-known filmmakers.

Run Wracke’s new short, The Control Master, utilized a lot of CSA images that were cut and pasted together and animated in his cut-out style. It didn’t have the same impact on me as his first film, Rabbit, though I was quite pleased to see it. You can watch it on line here.

This Way Up by Adam Foulkes and Alan Smith was a funny cgi short about two morticians trying to pick up a dead woman and take her to the grave.

Don Hertzfeldt’s new short, I Am So Proud of You, was something of a disappointment for me. After his recent film, Everything Will Be OK, which I found brilliant, this new film felt like more of the same.

A Child’s Metaphysics by Koji Yamamura was not a perfect film, but it was in many ways the most inspirational. I’m a big fan of his work and while watching this short I came up with a thought on an Independent film I’d like to make. You’ll hear more about this.

After a well deserved break, I came back last night for another program of competing short films. This compilation wasn’t my favorite, though a couple of shorts stood out: Western Spaghetti by NY animator, PES, was slight but fun. Baerenbraut by Derej Roczen from Germany was interestingly designed and animated with a complex story. Lost Utopia by Mirai Mizue, from Japan, was a stunningly attractive and complicated abstraction. Georges Schwizgebel had another gem in Retouches. There were quite a few abstract films on this program, and I was glad to see it. This is a form most other Festivals seem to be ignoing. The adolescent film takes centerstage these days even at animation festivals. Not quite true in Ottawa thanks to the taste of Festival director, Chris Robinson. He puts his emphasis on artful films, not cheap entertainment.

Following this screening, we were guided to a party at the old jailhouse, a courtyard at the Arts Courts building (the Festival’s headquarters.) It was outdoors, under a tent, and a bit cold, but the party was lively and fun.

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Friday was about the picnic. Buses met at the Bytowne Theater, a small local theater about a mile from my hotel, wherein most of the competing films were screened. The first bus left
at 11:30 and others were to follow. I went earlier to the Arts Courts Center (pictured left) where the Festival’s headquarters is located. I thought I might see someone familiar, as is often the case. Not today, so I moved onto the theater. There, I found the doubledecker bus waiting at 11:15. People were moving to the upper deck, but I knew that would end up a cold ride (the weather here has been sunny but on the chilly side), so I stayed indoors. I had a nice New Zealand guy sit next to me, and he and I had a good conversation en route. He’s now located in NY representing his company.

The first arrival at the Picnic grounds led to the traditional tent and food set up for serving. Hamburgers and hot dogs were the fare. I decided to wait till the second round of arrivals to eat. It was too early, I felt, for lunch. I ended up talking at length with Dermot Walsh, a Toronto designer and board artist. Eventually, I made the rounds with a lot of NY artists: Dave Levy, Chris Boyce, Linda Beck, Candy Kugel, Justin Simonich, and Dayna Gonzalez. Linda and Justin were shooting a documentary about NY folk attending the Festival, so I was interviewed. Others I met there and chatted with included: Skip Battaglia, Karl Cohen, John Halfpenny.

Once the pumpkin carving was judged, the buses began to load and depart. I went back with Candy trying to make the 5pm show. The “International Showcase” was a Panorama (that’s what they used to call it) on animation that didn’t make it into competition. It was an odd mix. I loved El Empleo by Santiago Grasso from Argentina. It was a well designed and animated piece wherein people are employed as chairs, lamposts, taxis and tables. (Not too far fetched an idea if McCain gets in there! There won’t be many other jobs.) dEVOLUTION by Candy and Vince Cafarelli was a beautifully designed film with a quiet punch. Glago’s Guest was the recent short from the Disney folks. I’m not sure quite what to make of this. Nicely produced with a couple of out-of-place cute and sentimental bits. I really didn’t like Presto, from Pixar, or Ergo from Hungary.

After this, a group of nine of us went to dinner at a nice little Thai restaurant that Hélène Tanguay located. It was a fun dinner with good food (only the second real meal I’ve had since arriving.) After this I decided I was too tired for any more films, so I returned to write this post and check to see whether our economy was still operating.

Saturday, I have a conference and the first of two presentations of my “Retrospective.” I may not get a chance to post any more before returning on Sunday. If that’s the case, I’ll complete the sum-up on Monday. With pictures.

- Today I’m leaving for the Ottawa Animation Festival and I’m, of course, expecting to have a good time. I’ll probably be far from a computer so don’t expect to be posting new pieces until next Monday. However, I have chosen some golden oldies to post again and don’t think those who visit will be disappointed.

In Ottawa, I’m looking forward to the few programs of my studio’s work. They’re scheduled for Saturday, September 20th @ 1pm and Sunday, September 21st @ 11am.
There are also two programs at the National Arts Gallery for children. These are scheduled for Wednesday, September 17th @ 11am and 1pm.

Other than that, I look forward to the Richard Williams program on Saturday at 7pm, and I’ll see that again in its NY incarnation next Monday. I’ve also been told that the show will be different from the Ottawa program, and I have no doubt about that.

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To add to the post, I’m grateful to Paul Spector for sharing this magazine piece (it may be missing its intro.) The magazine, as far as I can tell, is an old ASIFA publication.

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– This past weekend I came upon two reviews in one issue of Daily Variety. Kung Fu Panda and Waltz with Bashir were reviewed on the very same page. Both animated films are being presented in Cannes, and Variety reviewed them well in advance of their release (at least, in the U.S.).

Kung Fu Panda didn’t receive a very positive notice: Chopsocky ‘Panda’ has bear necessities read the headline.
“Even by moppet-defined standards, _______The cast of Kung Fu Panda in Cannes.
the situations, characters and moti-
vations here are extremely elementary and lack nuance; other than Po and his prescribed transformation, none of the other figures reveal dimensions not fully evident at their initial appearances.” They went on to praise some of the graphics.

As for Waltz With Bashir, the reviewer said it is, “A subject that might, had it been made conventionally, have repped just another docu about a war atrocity, is tranmuted via novel use of animation into something special, strange and peculairly potent …”

The Hollywood product is designed to capatilize on the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu and Angelina Jolie. The other, Israeli made feature uses a mix of acted and documentary voices (including the director) and is subtitled.

The reviews in Hollywood Reporter were almost identical to these in Variety.

Of course, Kung Fu Panda will ulltimately have a large enough public in its Dreamworks distribution and will probably score $150-200 million. It was designed for commercial purposes to attract a large “family” (meaning “children”) audience.
Waltz With Bashir may not make it to the U.S. Variety said that U.S. distributors in Cannes are taking a “wait and see attitude” before buying into it.
________ Ari Folman _______.._.____That usually means that it has some problems.
_____________________.__________The film has sold to distribution in Spain, Germany, France and Greece. Writer/director, Ari Folman admits that the film is difficult to watch (it is about war) and cannot be changed to a happy ending movie.

The directors of Kung Fu Panda have worked in LA’s animation community. John Stevenson has been with Dreamworks for a while. Stevenson worked in storyboard on Madagascar, Sinbad and Spirit. He also directed episodes of the tv show, Father of the Pride. Mark Osborne has directed episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants prior to joining Dreamworks to direct on this film.

The director of Waltz With Bashir, Ari Folman, also wrote the film. He wrote and directed two other live action films and wrote episodes of “In Treatment”, the Israeli version of the show that transferred to HBO. His next film will be an animated adaptation of Polish author Stanislaw Lem’s “The Futurological Congress”. This time, he’ll make the animated feature in English.

I haven’t seen either film, obviously, though I’ve looked at a lot of clips. One is dyamically drawn with a lot of pop and snap to the animation – meaning there are no characters there. The other looks rotoscoped – more in the manner of the Chicago 10 than Waking Life. I’m getting discouraged again about the medium I love. But then, I’ve only seen clips. Perhaps they thought the poetic scenes wouldn’t attract audiences.

Here’s an article about the Kung Fu Panda party at Cannes.
Here’s a Cannes interview with director, Ari Folman.

- It’s nice to see some local talent get good press for their animation work. Currently, The New York Observer has a solid article about Emily Hubley in conjunction with the screening of her feature film, Toe Tactic, at the New Directors/New Films festival held at MOMA and Lincoln Center.

Here’s a short quote from the informative article:
__ Originally, there wasn’t going to be any animation at all in the film. But Ms. Hubley hand-
__ drew the dogs (with some help from animator Jeremiah Dickey) to help shepherd the
__ short poems about love, life and mortality into the movie. “At the beginning [of the
__ process] the dogs are just a joke, but then they nosed their way into the rest of the
__ story,” she said. “Poetry is one thing that is very hard to put into movies… I just thought
__ that the only way to keep it fun, or keep people from glazing over, or I guess to keep it
__ from being too self-loving, would be turning it into something else completely.”

__ All together, the result is a highly emotional fable. “I want [the audience] to feel full
__ when they walk away,” she said. “It’s really about personal art; it’s not a factory
__ product.”

As I reported last week the film’s stars include: Lily Rabe, John Sayles, Marian Seldes, Eli Wallach, Andrea Martin, and Mary Kay Place. Ms. Place and Ms.Martin are two of my favorite performers; John Sayles is the father of Independent Cinema, and I love Eli Wallach. Lily Rabe was brilliant when I saw her in the play, Crimes of the Heart, now playing in New York. What more is there to say.

The film is scheduled to play:
__ Sat Mar 29: 6:00pm (Walter Reade Theater)
__ Mon Mar 31: 9:00pm (MoMA)

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- I received some information from the Hiroshima 08 Festival, and was pleased to note that two ASIFA East members are featured.

Ray Kosarin is among the International Selection Committee Members. Along with Rao Heidmets from Estonia, Elena Chernova from Russia, Sophie Lodge of the UK, and Kiyoshi Nishimoto of Japan, Ray will represent the US in the selection of films for the festival to be held August 7-11. Add to that information, David Ehrlich, also of ASIFA East, will have a special exhibition and performance for his art. With Paul Driessen as the International Honorary President, the Festival sounds like a big one this year.

Congrats to Ray Kosarin and David Ehrlich.

- If you’re a fan of Lewis Carroll, the 19th Ankara International Film Festival has something for you. They’re putting on a tribute to Carroll by running a number of films that adapt his work and document his life. I have three films in their program: The Hunting of the Snark, Jabberwocky, and Glimmers of a Life (a biography of Carroll focusing on his nonsense poems.) These three films were released as one program on vhs. The dvd features only the Snark.

The complete Carroll retrospective includes:
__* Neco z Alenky, Jan Å vankmajer, Czech, 1988
__* Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameného Huberta/Jabberwocky,
________Jan Å vankmajer, Czech, 1971
__* The Hunting of the Snark, Michael Sporn, USA, 1989
__* Lewis Carroll’s Nonsense Poems: Glimmers of a Life,
________Michael Sporn, USA, 1989
__* Jabberwocky, Michael Sporn, USA, 1989
__* Sincerely yours, a Film about Lewis Carroll, Andy Malcolm&George Pastic, Can, 2004
__* Alisa v strane chudes / Alica in Wonderland, Yefrem Pruzhansky, USSR, 1981
__* Alisa v zazerkalye / Through The Looking Glass, Yefrem Pruzhansky, USSR, 1982
__* Alice in Wonderland, Lou Bunin, UK/France, 1949

Lou Bunin’s Alice in Wonderland which will screen at the 19th Ankara Film Festival in Turkey.

The print they’ll screen of Bunin’s Alice Personally, my favorite film about Lewis Carroll is Dreamchild starring Ian Holm; it features excellent puppetry by the Henson people. Perhaps the rights to that one weren’t quite as accessible.

The festival in Ankara, Turkey should attract an interesting following. It runs from March 13-23. Ezgi Yalinalp is the Coordinator of this event.

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Talking about Wonderland, Josh Siegel of the Museum of Modern Art was kind enough to send me a copy of the video shot during my chat last November. I’m beginning to understand why George Bush wants to suppress our civil rights. He just wants to get rid of all evidence of his life in Blunderland. I’m looking into suppressing this video – how embarrassing. Funny how positive my memories were until I saw what I looked like.

_____Here I’m trying to scare Josh Siegel and John Canemaker, but it doesn’t work.

_____Finally I do everything I can to bore them into submission. I think that worked.

But then I think back to how many people came out in support to watch the films that ran all weekend long or even just to hear me talk on that final Monday. Michael and Phyllis Barrier travelled from Arkansas to NY to attend. I couldn’t begin to tell you what that meant to me. The same is true of John and Cathy Celestri who came from Ohio. Their presence, and that of all those who came was a great treat that you just miss while watching this dvd. It’s wonderful to have as a memento, but my memories are even greater. I can’t thank Josh Siegel or John Canemaker enough for those memories.

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- Speaking of one who came out, Michael Barrier has a great post on his site today. It talks about the difficulties of a real animation historian. Watching Mike or John Canemaker travel endless miles for the necessary interviews or programs, just tires me. (They’re the two I’m closest to, so I see what goes into it.) I love animation history, but I just wouldn’t have the stamina to do the hard work that no one properly credits them for doing. I raise a glass of champagne to them all in toasting their work. I can’t get enough of good, solid, dependable animation history. The same for all the others who do that tough work.

– The Heartland Film Festival opens tomorrow in Indianapolis. I have a real connection to this Festival and Jeff Sparks, the Festival Director. I’ve won their Crystal Heart Award four times in the past, and I’ve won the audience choice award once. I’ve been a judge at the Festival twice. They’re a great group of people, and they consistently put together a great program of excellent films.

Starting Saturday, my new short Pabs’ First Burger will premiere, playing once at 3PM and again at 9PM. It will screen a half dozen times total. It’s on a bill with the documentary Note By Note.

I just wish I could be there to introduce it.

This short will also open the program at the Museum of Modern Art on November 12th when John Canemaker chats with me about my work. So, if you can’t make it to Indianapolis, you can see it at MOMA.

________________________________________
At Live Journal, there’s an interesting collection of some of George Baker‘s Sad Sack comic strips as seen in Yank Magazine during WW II.

As a kid, I had an odd grouping of comic books to read regularly. I wasn’t really into the superhero strips, I appreciated more the cartoon strips. Naturally, I bought Carl Barks’ Donald Duck; they had the best stories and some great artwork. Little Lulu also appealed to me, and I read every issue. (Has there ever been a story on her creator, Marge?) In a pinch, I’d read Hank Ketchum’s Dennis the Menace, but I didn’t love it as much as others. When I got a little older, I read Archie.

Sad Sack was also among those comics I enjoyed. It’s interesting how a strip designed specifically for soldiers would have a life after the War. I guess the good writing and funny drawings kept it alive. Beetle Bailey popped up in 1950, and I suppose it really was nothing more than a rip off of Sad Sack. Although the drawings weren’t as funny, that strip offered enough to make it popular as well.

________________________________________

- I love the recreated background sites that Hans Bacher and Rob Richards have developed. On Animation Backgrounds, Rob has posted some backgrounds of the Witch’s Castle from Sleeping Beauty. I also really like seeing the two BGs he posted from Sword In The Stone and would love to see more from this film. 101 Dalmatians had a specific look to accomodate the new Xerographic process they were using in the cels. Sword In The Stone took another turn in its backgrounds, and I like both films.
It’s a real pleasure to visit both sites; I go there often. I can’t get enough of the Snow White BGs on Animation Treasures II.

On Sunday ASIFA East
The annual ASIFA-East Festival awards and party will take place at the New School.

A lot of filmmakers will be awarded prizes and their films will be shown starting (dare I say) punctually at 6PM.

It’s the annual program of the best 2007 animated films (commercials, sponsored, student and independent films) as judged by our democratic list of judges (all the members who wanted to vote.)

Following the films and awards ceremony there will be the usual party (wine and cheese) and big schmooze. As always, it promises to be fun.
(Tape The Sopranos, and come.)

It’s FREE as usual.

Sunday, May 6th, 6 pm
The New School, Tishman Auditorium
66 West 12th street

_________________________________

On Monday at MOMA
- An Evening with Andreas Hykade (Germany) and Mariusz Wilczynski (Poland) will be celebrated at the Museum of Modern Art on Monday, May 7th at 8PM.

For this special program Andreas Hykade introduces his trilogy of “country films,” which have won top prizes at the prestigious Hiroshima and Ottawa animation festivals: the mythic We Lived in Grass (1995), the raunchy, honky-tonk Ring of Fire (2000), and the trilogy’s disturbing coda, The Runt (2006).

Mariusz Wilczynski presents a range of work from the Chaplinesque Times Have Passed (1998) to Unfortunately (2004), a twilight journey set to a haunting score by Polish jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stanko. The artist describes his newest work, Kizi Mizi (2007), as “a tough love story between a cat and a mouse…a film about loneliness, betrayal, and revenge.”

The program is presented in conjunction with Goethe-Institut New York and the Polish Cultural Institute.