Eine Kleine Nachtmusic - Romanze Andante.

Hollywood, The Soul Of Film
After my film was shown in Annecy (France) a man came up to me and said; "Congratulations"--It was Ron Diamond from Acme Filmworks in Hollywood. We began talking, I didn't listen to anything else during that evening ... Hollywood always makes me think of the soul of film--and Walt Disney, of course.

I was excited about the possibility of working in Hollywood, but I didn't believe it could really happen until Ron called me. Now, I know that he is a brilliant manager and producer. He found me work that was very well suited to my personality. I would make four films for the Austin Lyric Opera in Texas.

There were four 30 second commercials to Opera music: La Traviata, Tannhäuser and Lucia di Lammermoor. I had to chose 30 seconds from each of these operas for the films. Many ideas appeared in my mind. I think, I chose the best parts for my technique.

Now, when I think about my good fortune in meeting Diamond, I am reminded of my aunt who inspired me to create the film On the Beautiful Blue Danube. She was interested in my films. When I visited her, she would pour coffee for me in a very pretty cup with a beautiful, delicate design on it and we would talk about my films. She became very ill and on the last night before her death, she gave me that pretty cup for memory. That cup became a film star.

I often think about the parallels between my life and my films. Perhaps, one day I will make a live-action film about these parallels.

On the Beautiful Blue Danube.

Synchronizing With My Life
Every film has a different story and synchronizes with my own life. My most recent film project (a three-part collection from the Bizet opera Carmen: Carmen Suite, Carmen-Habanera and Carmen Torero) was born in a little town in Spain called Huesca. The International Film Festival there had invited me and my film. I could feel the warm Spanish sunlight on my face and also in my heart. I saw fiestas which took place in the moonlight. In the morning, I observed the sun above the brown-red Spanish land. Of course, before I started making the films, I studied the Spanish flamenco dance.

Also, before I started on the first Carmen film, I lived on a ranch. Everyday, I made lots of drawings among the horses. My lovely horses used to come to me and look at my drawings or paintings as if they were mirrors. It was very funny for me and I think for them also. I had to draw very fast because the horses (especially one of them) wanted to eat my drawings.

My professor from the Academy of Fine Arts used to say, "Keep your sketchbook in your pocket always." I try to make sketches every place I go. It is my principle. I keep my flipbook in my pocket.

I am very happy that I can participate in animation festivals, that I can travel to other countries. There are many places for interesting, sometimes surprising meetings with wonderful, sensitive people who are making art films more and more beautiful.

There is one heart of animation art shared by all film directors, animators, cameramen, good producers and enthusiastic people who love animation film.

Each animation festival impresses my mind and heart with a deep sign. I try to note these impressions with drawings and write them down. When the last Annecy festival ended, I wrote a short impression:

"The day after the end of the Annecy Festival: I am sitting on a bench at the side of a lake. Only the swans are unchanged. The surroundings get altered, decorations change, the water in the canals has fallen low. People are walking faster. Trucks, cruising the park, make noise. Even pigeons are more uneasy and are looking inquiringly.

"Only the swans are swimming quietly certain of their presence. My heart is full of conversations and animated forms. I am breathing the presence of people I saw (maybe it was too short to understand, too short to remember). Yet I can still observe the animation of life. The animated film is going on.

"The swan as question marks, maybe it is enough to sail along the route of God?"

Carmen Habanera.

The Ocean of Life
This story is only a little drop in the ocean of life. My life and work really makes me think of the ocean. Maybe every film is just like one wave? Always the same rhythm, but a different story, a different, unusual sound and form.

When I was teaching students at the Academy of Fine Arts they asked me, "You very often make films around ballet, dance, opera; what is the most interesting area for you?" My answer is, "Every moment is unusual for me. How amazing is movement in nature. I observe it often and I find ideas of the harmony in it. There is an incredible dialogue between creating shapes, sounds and movements.

"It is a great play of many instruments, of many feelings. The fantastic combination is joyful and sorrowful, dramatic and humorous--the true poetry of life. I feel like I am just one element from that composition, from that landscape. My body speaks the same language, which is sometimes called dance, ballet or pantomime."

And all the time, I am looking for the point of meeting between poetry, movement, music and painting. I see that point not only in music films, not only in ballet or other dance, not only in opera. I see that point everyday in my life. When I walk across the meadow, when I look at the ocean, and at the noisy intersection.

I think the most important thing is to be able to observe movement in its variety and still learn by looking at the world through artists' and children's eyes. Alexsandra Korejwo is a filmmaker based in Poznan, Poland.