The Swan by Aleksandra Korejwo.

Colored Changing Pictures
When I was a child, as my family tells me, I used to watch Disney films and I would paint something like storyboards. My Mother laughs: "You used to sit on the floor and draw some rectangular frames with colored changing pictures inside." At that time, my Grandpa sent me a lot of coloring books with Disney characters. I loved Disney's "soft animation."

When I think about Walt Disney, I know that he felt movement. His characters really lived in his imagination. I believe the most important thing in animation is to feel movement.

Therefore, before I start with a film, I always work around the film. I paint a lot, I make drawings to find the best movement for each element. I like to study movement in nature. I prepare my special scores for films, of course. I change my psyche and my mind for new movement in a new film. I work with my camera "face to face," it is very important to have movement in mind.

The Travels of AKO
Before I started with my first children's film, The Travel of AKO, I had thought about making a series for children. Disney was my inspiration, and I wanted to make films just like he did. The Travels of AKO is about three friends. The first looks like a yellow circle and is a very happy, optimistic "person"; the second, which is a blue triangle, is an enthusiastic, reserved, cold person; and the last is a very active and sometimes nervous person with a pink, square form. They appear and disappear, transforming into other forms--good play for children.

Fairyland in Salt
Kids often visit me in my studio when I do my animation. They love to play with me and create forms from fairyland in salt.

When I was making my next film for children about seven little colored ducks (from Julian Tuwim's poem, "Hard Calculation"), I studied ducks walking in the country. My idea was to transmit from the screen to the child a visual knowledge of color theory, the process of additive and subtractive mixing of colors, through a good, humorous story.

I was pleased when the organizers of the International Animation Festival in Annecy, France, invited my film to the event.

Later, I came back to making films for music, especially classical music. In 1989, I made The Weaver to the music of Stanislaw Moniuszko, for which I received the Award for Animation from the Association of Polish Filmmakers.

After that, I made The Swan to the music of Camille Saint-Saëns. The idea for this film was born in Annecy, during the Festival, where I sketched swans gesturing near the lake. As I walked along the canals in this pretty town, I was fascinated by the pure white, majestic birds.

In my film, I wanted to achieve absolute perfect synchronization between music and painting. My film would also synchronize the ballet of a swan and a young girl.

I had to be a choreographer as well. Many ballerinas say The Swan is the most difficult composition for ballet. For this film, I received two awards: The Special Prize for Perfect Transposition of Music Into Pictures given by the Jury of the Festival of Films for Children and Young People in Poznan, Poland (1992) and Grand Prix for the Best Animation Film (Under 10 minutes) given by the International Jury of the Festival of Animation Films in Shanghai (1992).

At the Shanghai festival, I met many people from around the world, and many famous animation personalities. At that time I became an ASIFA member.

My next projects were the films, Ave Maria to music by Schubert and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik--Romanze Andante to music by Mozart.

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was a film about the sometimes sorrowful life of Mozart. After the filming, I too, experienced sorrow, when it was discovered that all of the film had been overexposed due to a problem in the camera. I had to start all over again, but it was not the same film. In my technique, I animate directly under the camera; I destroy the first picture to create the second. When I finish, all that remains is the dirty salt on the floor. The life of the material exists only in movement, and only for a few minutes, but I hope it remains forever in the imagination of the audience.

My next film was Exultate Jubilate Alleluja (Hallelujah), also to the music of Mozart, followed by On the Beautiful Blue Danube to the music of Strauss. For this film the organizers of the International Animation Film Festivals in Canada, Portugal and France invited my film to their festivities.