Mary Ann Skweres jumps into the Slamdance Festival and returns to tell us what she discovered.
Growing up in the shadow of film festival behemoth Sundance, Slamdance is the underdog on the block. But despite humble beginnings, the festival that bills itself, by filmmakers for filmmakers, celebrates its 10th birthday this year. With the availability of new tools, animation has become more and more prevalent at film festivals. This year Slamdance showcased eight short animations, one feature length and two documentaries that included animation. They also presented a special screening of Spike and Mike Venture into the World of 3D, a one-night short animation showcase.
Filmmaker Bill Domonkos (left), inspired by Jill Tracys (right) haunting song, created The Fine Art of Poisoning, which appeared at Slamdance. Domonkos headshot © 2002 Vince Guarino; The Fine Art of Poisoning © 2002 Bill Domonkos and Jill Tracy; Tracy headshot © 2002 Brian James.
In his seductive film, The Fine Art of Poisoning, Bill Domonkos creates a glamorous netherworld of plots, deceit and revenge, using a montage of 2D and 3D animation, vintage photographs and hand-drawn images. San Francisco siren Jill Tracys song (of the same name) inspired the film. Her haunting music underscores the grim tale of Victorian parlor gatherings, fatal masquerades and eerie hallucinations, evokes mystery and dread with malicious elegance. Domonkos studied painting and video art at the Cleveland Institute of Art. After moving to San Francisco, he began working as an animator/illustrator in the computer game industry.
At Slamdance, filmmaker Nirvan Mullick dons a dandelion helmet to interest viewers for The Three of Us. It worked the show was SRO plus Nirvan got orders to make more hats. © Nirvan Mullick and Benjamin Goldman 2003.
Inspired by the instrumental song Number Three by Ben Harper, The Three of Us is a surreal love triangle full of trippy images that morph into different objects in a magical way. The film began as an improvisation when Nirvan Mullick and Benjamin Goldman decided to collaborate when two weeks of stop-motion studio time was available. Although the intention was to complete the project in those two weeks, it was finally finished four years later. The film combines traditional 3D stop-motion animation with 2D hand-drawn animation, cutouts, scratch-on-film and found objects. Originally shot on 16mm, the footage was transferred to high definition, put on hard drives for editing and then blown up to 35mm. The filmmakers met while studying Experimental Animation at CalArts.
Sarah Browns darkly ironic Live Bait is a clay and puppet animation about a hungry fisherman showered with food that turns out to the bodies of former fishermen. Sunny settings, visible strings and 50 pounds of green rotting meat create the environment for this rough and ready first film. Brown graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. She currently lives in Los Angeles were she is a freelance animator.
Katherin McInnis used 2D/3D animation and other media to make the short documentary, Model Prisoner, which follows a death row inmate. © Katherin McInnis.
The short documentary, Model Prisoner, uses downloaded data, archival footage, original video, as well as 2D and 3D animation to examine how Death Row inmate Joseph Paul Jernigan became the subject of the Visible Human Project: 1,871 cross-sectional images of the human body used to generate a virtual cadaver. A graduate of the MFA program in Film and Video at California College of the Arts, director/animator/editor Katherin McInnis used Final Cut Pro, After Effects and Cinema 4D.
Monster Road explores the world of clay animator Bruce Bickford (left photo). Filmmakers Brett Ingram and Jim Haverkamp (left to right) accept the Best Documentary Feature prize with Bickford at Slamdance. Monster Road © 2004 Bright Eye Pictures; photo by Alex Maness; Award photo by Bob Bayless.
Monster Road won the Slamdance 2004 Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Documentary Feature. Filmmakers Brett Ingram (producer/director/dp/editor) and Jim Haverkamp (producer/editor) collaborated on this film that explores the fantastic world of legendary underground clay animator Bruce Bickford whose dark clay animations for Frank Zappa in the 1970s brought him worldwide cult status. Ingram is a former rocket engineer whose short animations and documentaries have screened at more than 100 festivals and museums internationally. Haverkamp teaches film and video production at Wake Forest University.
It is obvious that creatively abounds, aided by new tools make the process faster and cheaper. Festivals like Slamdance which continues its mission of showcasing emerging filmmakers supply the screening venues. The opportunity for a renaissance in animation has never seemed better.
Mary Ann Skweres is a filmmaker and freelance writer. She has worked extensively in feature film and documentary post-production with credits as a picture editor and visual effects assistant. She is a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild.
