Fresh from the Festivals: June 2002's Film Reviews

By Jon Hofferman | Wednesday, June 5, 2002 at 12:00 am

If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a clip from each film by simply clicking the image

This Month:

Carmelo (2000), 8.5 min., directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez, Mexico. Info: Jorge R. Gutierrez. Email: mexopolis@yahoo.com.

Hara Mamburu (1994), 4 min., directed by Slava Ushakov, Russia. Info: Slava Ushakov, 10980 Ohio Ave., #202, Los Angeles, CA 90024. Tel: 310-444-9367. Email: slavaushy@cs.com.

Kitchen Katastrophe (2001), 9 min., directed by Derrick Auyoung, Andrew Huang, China/USA. Info: Ted Vegvari, Palos Verdes on the Net, 30940 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 101, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275. Tel: 310-541-7992. Email: tedv@palosverdes.com.

Red Vines (2001), 4 min., directed by Evan Mather, USA. Info: Evan Mather. Tel: 626-395-9461. Email: evan@evanmather.com.

A Szentjánosbogarak Nemi Élete/The Sexual Life of Fireflies (2000), 7.75 min., directed by Pál Tóth, Hungary. Info: Pál Tóth, Paja Film Bt., 6724 Szeged, Vág u. 3/b, Hungary. Tel/Fax: 366-249-3658. Email: tothpal@elender.hu.

Carmelo
Director Jorge R. Gutierrez brings a striking primitivist style and fine eye for detail to this fable about a young boy who dreams of becoming a famous bullfighter like his father, whose career was brought to an untimely end when he was gored by a bull. Based on a traditional tale associated with Mexico's Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Carmelo is extremely atmospheric and Gutierrez's rendering of his characters as rough-hewn puppets is imaginative, if perhaps also somewhat off-putting. The narrative, while clear in a broad way, tends to get murky when it comes to specific actions and motivations, and it's possible that, without some prior knowledge of Mexican customs and history, a lot of the nuance, and some references, could be lost. Still, there's a lot of beauty in Gutierrez's dark, folk-art-inspired visuals, and the sense of place and purpose resonates, even if one might wish for a more lucid narrative structure.

Born in Mexico City and raised in Tijuana, Jorge Gutierrez attended

Hara Mamburu
In terms of sheer visual exuberance, this music video for the Russian indie band, Nogu Svelo, is hard to beat. In another context, director Slava Ushakov's collection of eccentric, highly stylized characters and the film's breathless series of more or less inexplicable events could easily have turned out to be an unpleasant exercise in overkill. As it is, however, his freewheeling style and anarchic sensibility are the perfect match for Nogu Svelo's very funny -- if entirely incomprehensible (to me at least) -- song. Using old-fashioned cel animation, Ushakov plays with a number of wacky motifs that gradually take on obscure iconic significance, and he incorporates just the right balance of repetition and variation to both highlight the humor and keep things moving along.

Slava Ushakov began his professional career at the age of 17 as a cartoonist for the Moscow weekly, Soviet Circus. From 1987-1996, he worked in various capacities for the Pilot studio in Moscow and in 1996 established his own Nils studio. Since 1998, Ushakov has been based in Los Angeles, where he works as a director and storyboard artist for Kinofilm. Hara Mamburu was funded by the Metropolitan Bank in Moscow and received an MTV Award at the 1994 International Video Festival in that city; more recently it won an award at the 2001 DIRECTV — LEVEL13.NET ANIMATED FILM FESTIVAL last December. Ushakov's other works include Earlier I Used to Live by the Seashore (1997), Aeroflot and Short Legs (1998), and Orange (2002). On Cartoon Network's Mike, Lu and Og, he served as storyboard director as well as in other capacities.

Kitchen Katastrophe filmmakers Derrick Auyoung (foreground) and Andrew Huang (at computer).

Kitchen Katastrophe
Continuing the ongoing love affair between animators and kitchen implements, this amusing and well-executed 3D entry chronicles the valiant but ultimately unsuccessful efforts of an assortment of pots, pans, cutlery and, yes, one brave little toaster to rescue an unfortunate fork who's been unwittingly imprisoned in the microwave. Though created with the usual assortment of high-tech digital tools, including Maya, Sound Forge & Vegas Pro, and several Adobe programs, the film has a nice retro look and feel that enhances its appeal. Narratively and visually, it's nothing we haven't seen before, but the well-shaped story, good comic timing, and clever use of camera angles (not to mention funny voices) contribute to its successful exploitation of a familiar genre.

A collaborative effort co-directed by Andrew Huang and Derrick Auyoung, Kitchen Katastrophe was made under the auspices of Palos Verdes on the Net, a nonprofit community technology center. Huang is a self-taught animator who has been experimenting with CGI technology since he was eleven. Currently a junior at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, he's looking forward to a career in the visual arts. Auyoung is in his third year as a computer science student at UCLA, where, among other extracurricular activities, he teaches computer workshops. Both Huang and Auyoung also work as interns at PV on the Net.

Kitchen Katastrophe has screened at several festivals, including the Hawaiian International Film Festival and the Visual Communications Los Angeles Asian American Pacific Film and Video Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Reel Award.

Comments

say-jon....., thanks for the great report on the winners of...

say-jon....., thanks for the great report on the winners of the film festivals. i was wondering ...if? -there are any sites which actually showcase all the various "winners"? i need to see more of these shorts,and the impression ..... is; one has to actually "GO"...to the festival to get any idea of all the entries,and there appears to (be) sooo many of these festivals that one needs some of kind of "guide-book" on the whole scenario? am wondering if ..YOU have considered doing such a "guide-book"? last week, i tried using this site"s "links" about comming anmation-shorts festivals,and there were so many(pages and pages) that i began to wonder how IMPORTANT all these so-called competitions ...ARE!? my impression is; some festivals are "self- appreciating" with certain 'commercial-entertainment-draws made to benifit the local economy? i see entries having to spend a lot of research and time(= s lost creative time) if one is new on the scene. it appears "anything-goes" in terms of concept and characters+ affects+styles+types of various ways to animate? like 300 mghz. ....P C? i have created over 200 characters and plan to animate them with multiple- several characters-as the 'cast", and this comes to another conceptual question: are the "judges" of these competitions using conservative standards or are they LOOKING for somthing completly new and origional? i can see a LOT of time,money-resources ...wasted on these "judges"...IF one does not actually KNOW their intent. in other words,... i feel as-if i"m looking at a "gauntlet" of just where to began...if one wants(sanley)to enter any animation competition. i would like to se more writing on "multiple-character" concepts and discussions about the "one or two" character ,scenarios,such as disney"s "lilo and stich" which is consistantly keeping -story-telling stagnant,and boring! currently, we have -spiderman-shreck-etc., as winners,with many other major studios comming out with ...MORE "single-character-story telling scenarios." will it ever stop?..and are these "JUDGES" at animation festivals?...keeping this "system" alive?...by picking this as the winner!? monsters,poke mon,muppets, etc. are the exceptions,and they have succeesfully demonstrated this multiple -character scenario... works! dawk.......

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dale mc farlane (not verified) | Wed, 06/05/2002 - 23:00