Fusako Yusaki and the some of the children who took part in her animation workshop. Courtesy of I Castelli Animati.

Attending Castelli Animati felt like being part of a large, interesting, creative, joyful community. Someone new to animation could leave with an understanding and appreciation of the depth of this artistic medium; someone working in animation could not help but be inspired. I saw films I hadn’t seen before and will remember forever and be grateful to Castelli Animati for opening my eyes to everything — or many things — that animation can be and to the work of great filmmakers. I believe Rafaelli achieved his goal — to have a festival that’s a unit, not a collection of spots. I would go again in a New York minute.

Some highlights from the workshops:
Paul Bush on pixilation and his film Furniture Poetry: “Pixilation is not to be confused with digital pixels. It comes from the word for pixie. Pixilation means insane, crazy, bewitched, magical. When it works, it has a way of bringing to the audience a childlike, dreamlike quality.”

“What tends to happen is that animators graduate from college, learn a technique and carry on with this technique and develop and improve this one technique. Maybe because I’m not a graduate of an animation school, or maybe because art school in the ‘70s didn’t emphasize product — we did minimalism — I’ve been interested in trying out ideas.

Belgian animator Jonas Giernaert’s clever urban comedy, Flatlife, was awarded the Grand Prize by a jury that included Oscar Grillo. © Jonas Geirnart.

I’m interested in films driven by cinema and technique, not by narrative. If I have an idea about cinema, I think about what story will hold it together. So a film like Furniture, is not a narrative film. The idea could be shown in another way — in a gallery or a museum.”

Borge Ring: “I’m 84 years old. I was brought up on black-and-white Mickey Mouse films. All of you here are seeing films by one person. That was unthinkable when I was young. I became a studio animator and animated in other people’s features, but, in between that, I made three films and won 30 awards. So people ask, ‘Isn’t it terrible to work in a factory with many people?’ The answer is, ‘No, it’s not.’ You’re like an actor doing a part in a film. If you do your own film, you’re like cabaret artists who write their own material. I like both. I like working on a team. It’s like being a musician in a big orchestra. Bt it’s nice sometimes to make a film with no one telling you what to do.”

Paul Bush on first seeing Borge Ring: He looks like Father Chistmas!

Peter Lord (while waiting for Isao Takahata to join him on stage): “The first thing people often ask, which is horribly obnoxious, is ‘How did you get started?’ But people are interested. [For example,] we had a visit from Mr. Takahata’s colleague, Mr. Miyazaki who is the owner and founder of Ghibli Studios. They have a museum of animation and we were flattered to be asked to put an exhibit of our work in the museum. (This was before the massive fire in our studio in Bristol, so the material we hoped to put in the museum is now in a large pile of ashes.) One of our colleagues visited the museum, measured the area and planned the exhibition. But Mr. Miyazaki said, ‘No, I think this is the wrong exhibition you’re planning.’

“He thought the exhibition should be a story rather than any attempt to record objective truth, and the one thing that interested him most was in how we got started. I think he thought that was an inspiring story to tell children. There are two competing versions of the story of how we got started. The one he thought we should tell was of me and Dave Sproxton as starving artists pictured standing on cobblestone streets with our pockets open. We did suffer and there was a sort of truth… we didn’t have money for a few years and being dramatic at heart, I was happy to tell that story. My partner Dave said, ‘No. We were rich middle class kids.’ But, I’ll go with Mr. Miyasaki’s version.”