Then, the job as Richard Griffith's assistant opened and I was recommended by Clara Grossman and Anne Schutzer who were active in programming and distribution in New York and Los Angeles. When I first came to MoMA, very little was being done in the area of animation. There was some material in the collection that Iris Barry had brought to the archive, but little animation work was being added to the collection or exhibited. I felt that this was an unfortunate gap in our activities. Margareta Akermark, who was the Head of the Circulating Film Library, shared my enthusiasm for short films and animation. I couldn't take care of all of it myself, but together we were able to do a weekly short film program called "Wednesdays at Noon" in which we would show shorts--frequently animation. However, this program was Margareta's responsibility and she was devoted to it.

Before coming to Contemporary, I lived in Italy and belonged to film clubs where I saw some foreign animation. I had grown up with American animation. It was a natural part of my childhood in America and I thought it was for kids. I wanted to be an adult. I had to grow up to be able to appreciate American animation. Only later, through the work that you, Leonard Maltin, Greg Ford, John Canemaker and others were doing, did I realize how inventive and subversive classic American animation was. From there, I went on to appreciate independent American animation, such as the Hubleys and Jordan Belson.

A Whole New World
But for me to discover European animation--it was a whole new world. I found it to be fascinating, challenging and often bewildering, like the great Polish animation. The artistry and craft of a Starevitch or a Trnka was a revelation. My interest until then was more towards animators like Len Lye or Robert Breer, both great artists.

The defining film for me, that changed my ideas about film was not an animated film but Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon. Later, Len Lye's work, although so different, had that same effect on me. It opened new doors. Much of that came through Margareta Akermark, who was a friend of Len Lye. At Contemporary, I first saw the work of Norman McLaren, who was a genius. He could do everything. As the years passed, I discovered great animators in Japan, like Kawamoto whose Dojoji Temple impressed me. Puppet animators like Trnka, Starevitch and Segundo de Chomon changed all my ideas about puppet animation. And then there were the Russian and Eastern European schools of animation--to be able to tell stories like Norstein or create mood like Svankmajer . . .

Bringing Them Back to America
I loved these films and I wanted to bring them back to America. The first international animation program I did at the museum was after the Zagreb Festival in 1972. Zagreb was different then, filled with freshness, vitality and humor. The work coming from the Zagreb Studio was so lively and inventive. I met Louise Beaudet there and we decided to collaborate to bring these films to North America--she to the Cinémathèque Québecoise in Montreal and me to New York.

The "Best of Zagreb" show was a success, and we began to bring in other venues, such as Edith Kramer's Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley and the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Boston. Increasingly, there were other venues that wanted the Zagreb show that Louise and I programmed, but we couldn't handle the work. We were able to do what we could only because Yugoslavia would fund cultural activities. The head of the Studio, Zelimir Matko, was an entrepreneur. He headed sales and marketing for the Zagreb Studio and he helped Louise and I bring the films we chose to North America by speaking to various producers and animators and encouraging them to cooperate with us.

Louise had the best animation archive in the world in Montreal and was my guide to all this. We decided that based on the "Best of Zagreb" show, we would do the "Best of Annecy" in alternate years. We also did a "Best of Ottawa" once and two "Best of Hiroshima" shows. These programs were always chronically underfunded. We would get travel and hospitality by being invited to sit on juries, by begging for hospitality from the festivals or sometimes a little from our institutions to cover print transportation, etc.

What I tried to do with the programming, a little subversively, was to draw it out for a week. With the "Best of Zagreb" or "Annecy" as an anchor, we would also program homages to filmmakers or present animation from various countries--Japanese animation, Khitruk, Pritt Pjarn, and so on. We did our "Best of..." until a year ago. Louise has been in ill health and wanted to retire. This, plus a shortage of funds stopped the program. Frankly, outside of the Cinémathèque Québecoise, I do not know an institution where the exhibition of animation is a priority.