November, 2002
JEROLD HOWARD'S "SEE THE TRUTH" - FILM ARTS FOUNDATION'S 18TH ANNUAL INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER'S FESTIVAL At the Castro, Brava Theater Center (2781 24th St.) and Wheeler Auditorium, Berkeley. This is a great celebration of cinema. On Friday, Nov. 15, 7:30 PM, at Brava, Jerold Howard's SEE THE TRUTH and Koto Ezawa's animated THE SIMPSON VERDICT will be in "America Re/Visioned Shorts," a program that takes a critical look at American political culture (family values, racism, the war on terrorism, etc.). Program also includes 6 live action films.
On Saturday, Nov. 16, 11 AM, Brava, the KIDS ANIMATION MINI-FEST will feature 5 animated shorts. Sylvia Uchida's BLUEGAROO, a computer generated fantasy about a bright purple kangaroo, is about friendship and sharing. Tina Banda's THE MONEY PIG based on the Han Christian Anderson story, uses Victorian dolls "in a quietly campy and ambitious tale of social order, snobbism and greed." Jesse Ford's PHANTOM "follows a lovable, high-energy dog around the hood as he shakes his booty to a funky beat." Jerold Howard's SEE THE TRUTH is a clever and poignant stop-motion morality tale that deals with intolerance. (Howard's commercial credits include the TV series Bump in the Night and Phantom Investigators plus several TV commercials.) Plus the local premiere of an episode of Stephen Holman and Josephine Huang's PHANTOM INVESTIGATORS, a TV series made locally for Warner Bros. using some of the nation's best stop-motion artists and technicians. On Saturday, Nov. 16. 3 PM, Brava, "In The Flickerflash Shorts," program includes Tom Gibbons' amazing THE HUNGER ARTIST, Anjali Sundsram's clever and humorous stop-motion BUCKLE MY SHOE, and seven other personal/experimental works (by Drew Klausner, Lynne Sachs, Anita Changa, Marcy Saude, Brett Simon, Waratap Pasayadaj and Sanghee Park). On Sunday, Nov. 17 at the Castro Theatre at 7:30 PM, Scott Noble and Georgina Corzine's SING ALONG SAN FRANCISCO with a sneak preview of Weather Underground. Follow the bouncing ball and sing along with Jennette MacDonald in a campy 5 minute tribute to the gay Mecca, San FranciscoŠ Animator Stewart Roud recreates the bouncing-ball experience. TOM GIBBON'S "HUNGER ARTIST" GETS ANOTHER RAVE REVIEW Melissa Bouwman wrote a review of the Kalamazoo Animation Festival in the latest ASIFA-Central Newsletter. She said, "I have to pay special attention to an absolutely gorgeous stop-motion piece called The Hunger Artist. I spoke of this piece for weeks after I saw it for the first time. It is based on the short story by Franz Kafka about a man whose performance act was to be caged for 40 days without food. During his period of starvation, he dreams that he's well-loved by audiences and revered for his talent. The stop-motion combined both cut paper and puppet animation. The style was exquisite, yet dismal and a little creepy. I really loved the way the filmmaker Tom Gibbons created puppets that had 2D bodies, with 3D arms and legs. The motion was so realistic it brought a tear to my eye. A toast to you Tom. You're work was awe inspiring!" VINCE COLLINS' WORK WAS IN THE ELECTRO-FRINGE FESTIVAL IN AUSTRALIA in early October. The festival is dedicated to "explorations of Flash & Animation, performance and composition software, fusing audio and vision, digital imagery and graphics 3D vision/ animation / VR worlds, writing online & hypertext, electronic music, soundscapes, and collaborative online tools which allow distributed groups to creatively perform and compose music, soundscapes and vision." Vince has a website unlike any other on the face of Mars. Visit it. It is out of this world. www.vinceworld.com "DIGITAL VIDEO" MAGAZINE GAVE WILD BRAIN'S "WALL STREET JOURNAL" ADS THREE FULL PAGES ON HOW THEY ANIMATED THE STIPPLE LOOK The article included 9 illustrations and lots of technical details. Congratulations to Wild Brain on the recognition for your work. Through Sat. Nov. 2, POWERPUFF GIRLS "Saving the World Before Bedtime" at the Red Vic, 7:15 and 9:15 plus 2 and 4 PM on Sat. Sunday, Nov. 3, AN AFTERNOON WITH JOE MURRAY, CREATOR OF THE HIT TV SERIES "ROCKO'S MODERN LIFE" Murray will talk about the process of creating and selling an animated series to TV (including making a pitch, creating the show's bible, dealing with network executives, etc.). He will screen examples of his work including The Chore, his student Oscar winner made while a DeAnza student. At DeAnza College, 2:30 PM, Advance Technology Center Theatre (room 120), 21250 Stevens-Creek Blvd., Cupertino. Near the intersection of routes 280 and 85. Wed. Nov. 13 at 7 PM, DIGITAL CHARACTER DESIGN AND PAINTING DEMONSTRATION WITH DON SEEGMILLER, Cogswell College, free. Learn tricks of the trade from a well established art director who has been exhibiting his fine art since the 1980's. He will demonstrate his skills with ProCreate's Painter Software this evening. Call (408) 541-0100 to reserve a seat. FILM ARTS FOUNDATION'S 18TH ANNUAL INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER'S FESTIVAL at the Castro, Brava Theater Center 2781 24th St. and Wheeler Auditorium.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, SAN FRANCISCO STATE'S ANIMATION CLUB INVITES ASIFA-SF MEMBERS TO A 16MM PRESENTATION OF "THE YELLOW SUBMARINE" (1968), with a rare film on the making of the feature, plus rare shorts of the Beatles singing Revolution, Hey Jude, Let it Be and Back in the USSR. Program will be introduced by Karl Cohen. Read his articles The Beatle's Yellow Submarine Turns 30: John Coates and Norman Kaufmann Look Back (awn.com, July, 1998) and Yellow Submarine's Second Strange Odyssey to the Screen (awn.com, September, 1999). August Coppola Theatre, Fine Arts Building room 101, 7 PM reception, screening at 7:30. $1 donation requested. Please wear something yellow. Public invited. "SPLAT! A LOOK AT CARTOON VIOLENCE" WITH AUTHOR GERARD JONES, WED. NOV, 20, 6-8 PM $5 donation. Jones will explore the issues surrounding this highly sensitive topic and how they relate to both children and adults. He will also be signing copies of his new book Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence following the presentation. Jones has contributed to Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, Green Lantern, and many other popular icons. His own creations include Ultraforce, Prime, The Trouble with Girls, and The Haunted Man. He has also helped to adapt many Japanese comics for the English-speaking world, including Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon. He is an advisory board member for the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT and he has appeared on Nightline with Ted Koppel, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, ABC World News Tonight, CBS's Early Show, the Howard Stern Show, and the BBC World News. Please contact the Cartoon Art Museum to reserve your space in advance at (415) 227-8666, ext. 314 Till mid-December, STAR WARS II at some IMAX theaters. It is bigger, but not as long as the system can't hold more than 1 _ hours of film and the 35mm prints ran 2 hours. DUCK DOGERS IS IN THE PROCESS OF BLASTING HIS WAY BACK ONTO TELEVISION A new series of Daffy Duck cartoons, set to air in 2004, is being produced by Warner Bros. Animation for the Cartoon Network. The series will feature Daffy and Porky in the 24th 1/2 century as they attempt to protect the planet Earth from its enemies. Each show will feature two 11-minute cartoons. The Network's press release says, "Duck Dodgers (Daffy Duck) is a hapless soul who was accidentally frozen inside a spacecraft in the 21st century and thawed out 351 years later. Through his scheming and lies, Duck has convinced the Earth's Defensive Protectorate that he is a hero from the 21st century and has been given a starship and crew - an adoring and eager young Space Cadet (Porky Pig). Together they form a Œgalactic force' that must team up against Earth's major foe, Mars, and its Martian Commander X-2 (played by Marvin the Martian). Each episode will revolve around Duck Dodgers' adventures, blundering successes and Œday-saving' defeats. He's an unlikely hero who somehow always manages to come out on top." The new shows are being created, written and directed by Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone with Paul Dini and Tom Minton serving as producers and writers. MEL BROOKS DOES A VOICE FOR A NEW COMPUTER ANIMATED SERIES FOR IRELAND Mike Young Productions has announced that Mel Brooks (The Producers, etc.) will voice the role of Wiley the Sheep in the new half-hour series JAKERS! THE ADVENTURES OF PIGGLEY WINKS, based on original stories by Irish writer Denise Fitzpatrick. The 26 episode series is aimed at children aged 4-8. It centers around Grandpa Piggley's tales of childhood shenanigans in the Irish farmland of his youth. It is set to debut on an Irish Gaelic-language channel in 2003. ATOMFILMS OFFERS AARDMAN FANS A CRACKING GOOD TIME Nick Park's Wallace & Gromit are back in Cracking Contraptions, a new series of ten short films from Aardman Animation. They premiered online in October on AtomFilms.com. I'd review them for you, but it was going to take up to 30 minutes to download an episode. Anybody with a fast connection want to write a review? Contact karlcohen@earthlink.net To see the ten episodes (each is 1 to 3-minutes long) there is a $10 fee (episode 1 was free the first week it was online). This is Wallace and Gromit's first new work in seven years. Each episodes showcases one of Wallace's ingenious mechanical inventions. wallace.atomfilms.com ANOTHER WEB SITE THAT MIGHT BE WORTH EXPLORING IS WWW.AUGENBLICKSTUDIOS.COM He has a great graphic style and a bizarre character named Drunky who appears in a decadent Internet series on this website. An episode was in the ASIFA-East show this year. Aaron Augenblick's studio is in Brooklyn, NY. CRITICS SAY MIYAZAKI'S "SPIRITED AWAY" IS A MASTERPIECE Here is what 2 of my favorite writers have to say about it. Ed Hooks, author of Acting for Animators, writes, "Maybe it isn't fair to send me to a Miyazaki movie and then ask for unbiased feedback. To me, this man is to animation what Shakespeare is to theatre. I was enraptured with Spirited Away, just as I was with Princess Mononoke. In particular, I appreciate the way that Miyazaki is willing to have his characters take time to think. American animation too often tends to fly by fast and to stay in constant motion. Shakespeare advised that actors 'hold the mirror up to nature' and, in nature, we pause. It is not a violation of animation principle to pause. Miyazaki understands this perhaps better than anybody. And then there is the character design in Spirited Away - the disembodied heads and multi-legged creatures and nightmarish spirits in a haunted theme park. There is simply nothing else like a Miyazaki movie, and we are fortunate to have this great artist among us." Visit Ed at actingforanimators.com and edhooks.com. Chris Lanier wrote an excellent review in Animation World Magazine (www.awn.com, October) that is full of fine intelligent observations about the film. His 2nd paragraph reads, "It's here, in the exploration of the spirit world, that Spirited Away spreads out into one of the most visually baroque films ever made. Its look and density are so unique, rather than comparing it to other films, I found myself comparing it to paintings: intricate Byzantine art, or ancient Buddhist frescoes of the universe ‹ religious art suggesting transparent skyscrapers or towering hives honeycombed with buzzing spirits ‹ windows opening onto fantastic figures, each one particular and strange, each inhabiting its own individual corner of the vast cosmological blueprint." If you use the Internet you might want to read his entire review. CURRENT BOX OFFICE FIGURES Spirited Away has grossed $3,424,435 in only 151 theatres (5 weeks). Jonah, $16 million, 3 weeks, 1581 screens. Lilo and Stitch, $144.5 million. Stuart Little 2, $64 million. Star Wars II, $302.2 million. Haunted Castle (IMAX, 5 halls) 5 million (it was on the charts as it grossed about $10,000 a screen). T. Rex (IMAX), $41.6 million. BIG IDEA'S VEGGIE TALE FEATURE SHOULD BE A MODEST HIT After 3 weeks the film had grossed 16 million in 1581 theatres. It will probably return most of its costs back from the theatrical run and clean up in video release. Ed "Acting for Animators" Hooks was the first on the block to see it. He wrote in his online newsletter, "Big Idea's feature Jonah, A VeggieTales Movie is being released momentarily, and it is a delight. I had the opportunity to see a Chicago digital screening and can confirm it is a crowd pleaser, especially if the crowd is comprised of children. The story of Jonah and the whale is good hearted and welcome on its own terms in these difficult international days, but as told and sung by the Veggie characters, it is also a toot. On purely technical terms, this is an amazing achievement. Big Idea has cast the movie with vegetable characters that have no arms or legs and yet are delightfully animated. The music is fun and humable and the whale is magnificently and hugely hungry. Jonah, A VeggieTales Movie is inspirational proof positive that excellent animation does not have to cost the family farm. This film reportedly came in for only $12 million! Considering that budgets of $80 million are routine now, this is an eyebrow-raiser indeed. They'll make that money back in a heartbeat. Mega congrats to the Big Idea team. You guys did a marvelous job!" Ed Hooks has two informative websites and publishes a free monthly newsletter for animators. Visit him at actingforanimators.com and edhooks.com. BIG IDEA PRODUCTIONS HAS A NEW VEGGIE TALES EPISODE OUT "THE STAR OF CHRISTMAS" The tape and DVD are "supported By Big Idea's most aggressive marketing campaign ever! Warner Home Video and WEA Corp. have a multi-million dollar national post-street date television campaign with ads running on Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, ABC Family, Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, PAX, TBS, TNT, Nick at Nite and TV Land, in addition to a print ad campaign to run in Rosie, Family Circle, Parents and Child magazines and radio advertising to run on Radio Disney." "Following the release of VeggieTales' first holiday episode, The Toy That Saved Christmas (it sold over 2.5 million units), and inspired by the grand tradition of Gilbert & Sullivan's legendary musicals, The Star of Christmas is a Œuniquely Veggie' take on a simple story of the true meaning of Christmas. With classic VeggieTales humor, stunning animation, delightful song-and-dance numbers and a whimsical cast of characters including Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber, Junior Asparagus, Archibald Asparagus, Jimmy Gourd, Laura Carrot, Madame Blueberry, Jean Claude Pea and Pa Grape - The Star of Christmas is unlike anything Veggie fans have seen before!" Editor's note: They obviously expect to make a profit, but is it any good if you are over 8? TWO DOCUMENTARIES ON ANIMATION ON DVD Extremes and Inbetweens on Chuck Jones, including a fine segment on the different stages of his productions, should be out before Christmas. Walt, the Man Behind the Myth is a sweet biography produced by his daughter. It has some great family home movies in it. It is set to be released, but the release date wasn't in the trade that said it was coming out. PRIMETIME ANIMATION FOR ADULTS IS ALIVE AND WELL ON CABLE NETWORKS. Comedy Central, TNN: The National Network, and Sci Fi Channel have animated shows in development that are aimed at adults. Cartoon Network has had success with animation aimed at young adults. Their "Adult Swim" programming block is on Sunday nights. Now, Oxygen, Black Entertainment Television and WE: Women's Entertainment have announced new original animation projects. Oxygen and BET have commissioned 13 episodes of Hey Monie that will premiere in spring 2003. They will share rights to the series and telecast it simultaneously. Soup2Nuts is producing the series. WE: Women's Entertainment premiered Committed in October. The animated series is based on a comic strip of the same name and the voice actors include Catherine O'Hara (Home Alone), Eugene Levy (American Pie) and Dave Foley (A Bug's Life). WORKERS FROM A DISNEY SWEATSHOP IN BANGLADESH ARE TOURING AMERICA TO LET THE PUBLIC KNOW HOW BAD CONDITIONS ARE THERE The talks are part of a national campaign to focus attention on Disney's violations of human and worker rights including exploitation of child labor in the factories that produce clothing, dolls, and other items sold in Disney stores and elsewhere. At a church in Pasadena last month 19-year-old Lisa Rahman described working conditions sewing Winnie the Pooh garments. She was earning five cents for each $18 Winnie the Pooh athletic cap she made. Former state senator Tom Hayden, director of No More Sweatshops, introduced the Bangladeshi workers, who are on a national speaking tour. He wonders "Is Disneyland really the happiest place on earth?" The tour co-sponsors and supporters include: United Steelworkers of America, Pastors for Peace, United Methodist Church Women's Division and dozens of other religious and civic groups. COMEDY CENTRAL HAS OBTAINED THE RIGHTS TO FOUR ANIMATED SERIES AIMED AT TEENS AND ADULTS THAT DIDN'T "MAKE IT" ON BROADCAST TV Comedy Central's move toward a more adult-oriented animation market includes the purchase of four series that failed in primetime. They have acquired DILBERT (30 half-hours), CLERKS (6 half-hours), GARY & MIKE (13 half-hours) and UNDERGRADS (13 half-hours). ABC yanked CLERKS after two episodes. Comedy Central will air a CLERKS marathon on Sunday, December 22, 2002, including the four never-seen episodes. GARY & MIKE and UNDERGRADS will premiere on November 3 and play every Sunday at midnight. DILBERT and CLERKS will fill the same time slot beginning February 3. ASIFA-NW HAD A HALLOWEEN PARTY WITH SPOOKY TREATS At their Halloween party in Seattle they were planning to show Mary Ellen Bute's Spook Sport, Paul Berry's The Sandman, Betty Boop in Mysterious Mose, David Anderson's Deadsy, Epic of Gilgamesh by the Brothers Quay, Night on Bald Mountain by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker, Historia Naturae by Jan Svankmajer, Felix the Cat in The Ghost Breaker, excerpts from Nightmare Before Christmas and more! Info at www.asifa.net/usa-northwest SATURDAY NIGHT FANS REJOICE, THE ORIGINAL CREATORS OF "THE AMBIGUOUSLY GAY DUO" ARE BACK AFTER A TWO YEAR ABSENCE Animator J. J. Sedelmaier of J. J. Sedelmaier Productions has reunited with writer/producer Robert Smigel and have brought The Ambiguously Gay Duo back for an exciting, manly, all-new adventure. The segment titled "The Third Leg of Justice," aired on the October 19th broadcast, hosted by maverick Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. "Justice" revolved around the further efforts of Bighead to Œout' the boys. In this episode, Bighead redecorated his cave in the hopes that Ace and Gary would notice, buttressing his suspicion that the boys are gay. "Soon the world will know just what flavor those two are," Bighead sneers to fellow villain Brainio. Sedelmaier's studio has not produced any "Saturday TV Funhouse" cartoons for two years. The recently aired three-and-a-half-minute segment was made in less than 3 weeks without a hitch. Sedelmaier, the show's director/designer says, "The boys have a stronger following than anything we've ever worked on, and that includes Beavis and Butt-head." J. J. Sedelmaier Productions is an award-winning animation and design firm based in White Plains, New York. In a personal note JJ wrote me, "how you be?? Things are as cutting edge as ever here. Just finished a fun piece for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central). Just about to start some more Quilters stuff tooŠ. Good to hear from you." KC MONSTERS, INC. HAS SET A NEW DVD SALES RECORD It sold 11 million DVD and videocassette units in one week in the US and Canada, shattering every DVD-era home entertainment industry sales record. Only The Lion King, in its 1995 pre-DVD era release, sold more units in its first week of sales (20 million videocassettes). On Sept.18, 2002 Buena Vista Home Entertainment reported that 5 million DVD and videocassette copies of Monsters, Inc. were sold, topping the industry one day sales record previously reported at 4.5 million units. Anticipating a high sales rate, Disney had shipped 20 million units to retailers before the film went on sale Sept. 17, 2002. OTTAWA AWARDS TOP PRIZE TO ROBERT BRADBROOK¹S ³HOME ROAD MOVIES² Heather Kenyon, editor-in-chief of AWN.COM wrote, ³In a truly international showing, the jury of the 2002 edition of the Ottawa International Animation festival chose five films from five different countries as the top prize winners in the Independent Short Films Competition. The festival concluded on October 6, 2002 with a gala awards presentation. Robert Bradbrook's HOME ROAD MOVIES (UK) scored the Grand Prize for Best Independent Short Film or Video. The film, which recently won the coveted 2002 Cartoon d'Or, is a true account of a shy father and his wish to bring his family closer together by taking them on automobile outings. The film is a mix of 3D animation and live-action.² (It was in the Res Festival shown in SF in Sept.) ³For Best Narrative Short Film Under 40 Minutes, the jury honored FLUX by Canadian filmmaker Christopher Hinton. The NOITAMINANIMATION Award For Best First Film was presented to HASTA LOS HUESOS (DOWN TO THE BONE) from Mexico's Rene Rivera Castillo and Anita Killi of Norway won the prize for the BEST FILM MADE FOR CHILDREN for her short TORNEHEKKEN (THE HEDGE OF THORNS). In a new category for the festival, The National Film Board Of Canada Award For Best Non-Narrative Film went to A.Z by Tim Szetela (U.S.). This year's festival had two other new award categories, Internet Animation and Feature Animation. In the Best Animation For The Internet category Canada's Christopher Hinton picked up the award for TWANG, and Richard Linklater's WAKING LIFE was honored as the Best Animated Feature Film.² Her article left out the following, but they were included elsewhere in her publication. The winner of the grand prize for best commissioned work went to CARTOON by Frank Budgen and Russell Brooks, UK; best educational film to ROBOTO by Steve Angel, Canada; best advertising film to THE WOLFMAN for Sony PlayStation 2 by Tim Hope, UK; best TV ID to SAMURAI JACK: JACK AND THE BLIND ARCHERS by Genndy Tartakovsky, USA; best TV station ID to YTTV CAMPAIGN by Frank Falcone, Canada; best music video by COLDPLAY: DON¹T PANIC, Tim Hope, UK and the public prize went to SLAKT & VANNER (FAMILY AND FRIENDS) by Jonas Odell of Sweden. LEUNIG: HOW DEMOCRACY ACTUALLY WORKS by Andrew Hope of Australia won 3 prizes, the Goirdon Bruce Award for Humor, the Mike Gribble award for humor and a special jury prize. COMMENTS ABOUT OTTAWA 02 by Chris Lanier ³It really is a magnificent festival, and it was great to get away and especially to spend time with fellow animators - a couple I'd corresponded with but never met face to face, and one I met on my last Ottawa trip. The festival has a great community vibe.² COMMENTS ABOUT OTTAWA 02 by David Levy, president of ASIFA-East. The following is an excerpt from their current newsletter. ³The real crowd pleasers of the festival were found in the Children¹s films competition. Here was a variety of narrative, art and animation styles that added up to make a complete experience. I recommend you check out such films as LE TROP PETITE PRINCE (Zoia Trofimova), TRIM TIME (Gil Alkabetz, Israel) and TORNEHEKKEN THE EDGE OF THORNS (Anita Killi).² ³There were some great retrospectives to see this year! Highlights for me were Buzzco, Ink Tank and John KricfalusiŠ At one panel, on Writing For Animation, David Fine, Mo Willems and John Kricfalusi squared-off each one defending their own very different process and sensibility. On the subject of body humor, we learned that: Mo plugs up all the holes and John K. opens Œem all up. Sure, but which one floats like a butterfly and which one stings like a bee?² The current newsletter also has a fine article (part 1) on the production of Richard Williams¹ Raggedy Ann and Andy and what went wrong. (A LOT! It is a long article.) GREETINGS FROM HIROSHIMA Attending a major international festival is a wonderful experience for most lovers of animation, Leslie Iwerks recently wrote, ³I am writing to you from Hiroshima International Festival of Animation where I am screening the Ub Iwerks documentary to Japanese audiences. I have you to thank indirectly for my being here, because one of the last e-mails you sent this year was a recommendation to look on AWN and find a place I¹d like to travel and see if they would screen the film. Well I did, and here I am. So, as a walk through the grounds of the A-bomb peace park where a whole city was decimated, I am thankful for that moment of inspiration you gave me to seek out another international opportunity. Last night ASIFA Japan hosted a party on a hotel rooftop overlooking the cityŠ² THE FOLLOWING IS A BRIEF EXCERPT FROM ³FESTIVAL REPORT: HIROSHIMA 2002² by Paul Glabicki, an animator and Professor of Art at the University of Pittsburgh who presented a special exhibit of his work in a ³meditation² room at this year¹s festival. He wrote, ³The evening Competition screenings started with two rather low-key, somber, programs. With all of the anxiety, tension and chaos going on in the world, this mood was a kind of reflection, and to be expected. The International Selection Committee had viewed and scored a total of 1,438 films/videos from 54 countries and regions. I remember the fascination, privilege, and exhausting task of serving on 1992 Selection Committee, when we viewed just 800 films. How much this festival has grown in stature and importance! How difficult it must have been to select an elite 73 works for the competition! The 2002 Selection Committee did a heroic, sensitive, and outstanding job. Michael Dudok De Wit's moving FATHER AND DAUGHTER seemed to be a favorite of the first competition program (and went on to win the Grand Prix), but the program also featured such strong works as Runi Langum's EXPEDITION, Gabor Ulrich's FOREIGN BODY, Phil Robinson's amusing HUBERT'S BRAIN, Stepan Biryukov's charming THE NEIGHBORS, and Saku Sakamoto's visually stunning FISHERMAN. Competition Program 2 began with Tali's witty LA PIROUETTE, and was followed such fine works as Suzie Templeton's evocative DOG, Virgil Widrich's clever COPY SHOP, and Merwan Chabane's subway sly gang/love story BIOTOPE. Program 3 hit a broader stride, with more outrageous humor seen among the more subtle, personal works. Cordell Barker's STRANGE INVADERS was sharp and funny. IN THE VILLAGE "THE CAKE" was zany and hilarious (this film really made me laugh, and is impossible to describe), and I really enjoyed the comic timing of THE GLOVE. I was knocked out by the visually stunning THE TALE OF THE FLOATING WORLD, a big budget, dreamy, gorgeous digital/live-action impressionistic spectacle on several events/periods in the history of Japan. Alas, I had to get back to my hotel to pack and prepare for my return trip on the evening of the final Competition screening.² "HOLLYWOOD FLATLANDS: ANIMATION, CRITICAL THEORY AND THE AVANT-GARDE" by Esther Leslie, Verso, London and NY, 2002, $30. This is a fascinating study for those interested in the modernist movement in cinema and the aesthetic and political world of the arts in the period between the great wars. One of the book's strengths is Leslie did a terrific job researching her book. She found fascinating details that add to our knowledge of animation. Part of the book focuses on Disney and his product and how it was viewed by people in Germany, the USSR and in other parts of the World. The cover shows Sergei Eisenstein shaking hands with Mickey Mouse when he visited the studio in 1930. "INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMIC ART" is a very thick periodical devoted to historical, practical and theoretical aspects of cartooning and comics. It is scholarly, but readable and covers the international world of comics and political illustration. It comes out twice a year from John Lent, editor-in-chief, 669 Ferne Blvd., Drexel Hill, PA 19026 USA. Subscriptions are $30 a year. The Fall 2002 issue is 375 pages full of information (perhaps 25% of it is illustrated, the rest is text). Article titles include "Drawing from Life, an Interview with Joe Sacco," "The Editorial in Caricatures" (on Plantu's work for Le Monde in France), "Theatrical cross-dressing in Osamu Tezuka's early Shojo Manga," "The Changing of Dutch Comics," "Superman vs Imago," Korean Cartoonists' Reaction to Bush's Axis of Evil" "American Imported Animation in Taiwan: A Case Study of South Park" and a dozen other articles, reviews, etc. NEW WALT DISNEY MYTHS CONTINUE TO GET PUBLISHED HERE IS A REALLY OFF-THE-WALL BIT OF FICTION AND MY LETTER TO THEIR EDITOR by Karl Cohen I wrote, "Dear Editor, Simon Braund's account of Disney in "Hollywood and the FBI" is pure fiction. Walter Lantz was never a partner of Walt Disney and was not involved with the creation of Oswald Rabbit. He got those rights months after Charles Mintz, a distributor, dropped Disney as his animation company in 1928. Mintz then produced 3 or 4 Oswalds before Lantz entered the picture. The story that Walt asked Hoover for help tracking down his parents has been disproved by several researchers. There is no proof Hoover pressured Walt to name names either. He was a friendly witness and judging from letters in his FBI file, he was quite willing to name names. Walt named 4 people in public testimony, however he did not name Lantz a communist as claimed by Branund. Lantz's loyalty was never questioned by anyone. Creating myths about Disney seems to be a new literary activity for fictional writers seeking success by creating outlandish tales about famous dead people. Empire has been taken advantage of by one such writer, Simon Braund. Mr. Braund should check his facts better in the future. Karl F. Cohen, author of Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators (McFarland, 1997), animation history professor at San Francisco State University and president of ASIFA-SF, the Bay Area's Animation Association. Readers might enjoy seeing his article Was Walt Disney a Saint, An Evil Sinner or the Devil Incarnate? The Truth About Some of Those Nasty Disney Stories! at www.awn.com published July 25, 2002." The original message sent me was from Andrew Osmond in England. He wrote "I'm a (sometimes) animation writer, who contributes to AWN. I thought you might be interested in the following excerpt from a UK magazine article. I just wondered how much, if anything, about it was right - the Oswald stuff looks screwy for starters! It's from a long piece on John Edgar Hoover in the best selling UK film magazine EMPIRE. The main source quoted for the article is the FBI site at fbi.gov/homepage.htm . If you want to contact EMPIRE, the address is empire@emap.com (published letters are usually short, only around 100-150 words at most). Here's what it says: '... It was Hoover, fostering a climate of paranoia, smearing and intimidating Hollywood figures, forcing them to testify before the committee to name names or go to jail, that gave McCarthy his ammunition. Quite how ruthlessly he did this is exemplified by his devious coercion of Walt Disney. Uncle Walt was hardly a noted liberal and doesn't exactly emerge from the affair smelling of roses." "Nevertheless, Hoover was able to use Disney against his will as a tool in his sinister crusade. Early in his career, Disney had partnered another animation pioneer named Walter Lantz. Together they had produced movies featuring a character called Oswald Rabbit, which Disney had created. When the partnership dissolved, it was Lantz, however, who retained the rights to the character. Shortly afterwards, Disney created Mickey Mouse and might have been expected to let the matter rest. But his old partner's "theft" of Oswald Rabbit continued to rankle and when Lantz became a household name himself with the Woody the Woodpecker cartoons, Disney's thirst for revenge became acute." "Enter J. Edgar. Years before, Disney had elicited Hoover's help in tracking down his birth parents, an act of charity that Hoover had immediately deposited in the favour bank. Now it was time for Disney to pay up. At the height of the HUAC hearings, Hoover leant on Disney to name names. At first, Disney was reluctant. Undeterred, Hoover honed in on Disney's desire to get even with his ex-partner and, by guaranteeing anonymity, eventually persuaded him to name Lantz as a communist. From then on, Hoover blackmailed Disney repeatedly into co-operating with unethical FBI operations by threatening to expose what he'd done. The most famous of these was the fake riot staged at Disneyland in the '60s to discredit the anti-Vietnam movement. Terrified that the studio's involvement might leak out, Disney instigated the infamous "short hair" hiring policy to keep the hippies out of the Magic Kingdom. The policy remained in effect until a lawsuit in 1980 ruled it illegal [Followed by two paragraphs on the FBI's concerns with That Darn Cat.] (from 'Hollywood and the FBI' by Simon Braund in Empire 162, December '02, pp183-4)" "THE INVISIBLE ART: THE LEGENDS OF MOVIE MATTE PAINTING" by Craig Barron and Mark Cotta Vaz, has a late November publishing date from Chronicle Books, 300 pages, hardcover. The advance notice in Millimeter said it comes with a CD ROM bound into a pocket. Sounds like a welcomed edition for a lot of film fans. ASPEN SHORTSFEST 2003 DEADLINE IS DEC. 20 (early is Nov. 15) www.aspenfilm.org BLACK MARIA FESTIVAL DEADLINE IS NOV. 20 Shows some animation, gives out about $10,000 in prize money and tours the winners to museums, schools and colleges (including the Pacific Film Archive).. Jurors are people in the arts world (film curators from museums, etc.) www.blackmariafilmfestiva.com or (201) 200-2043 for details. 41st ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL DEADLINE IS DEC. 1 $35 entry fee, lots of cash prizes (over 40 of them), tour of winners, etc. A great event for personal films. They are animation friendly. PO Box 8232, Ann Arbor Michigan 48107, (734) 995-5356 or www.aafilmfest.org SF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL DEADLINE IS NOV. 15 One $1,500 cash prize in animation should attract some top contenders. $55 entry fee for films under 40 minutes long. Bay Area and new vision categories are $30 to enter. SF Film Society, 39 Messa St. Suite 110, The Persidio, SF CA 94129 www.sffs.org NASHVILLE INDEPENDENT F.F. DEADLINES ARE DEC. 6 & JAN. 6 $45 entry fee. Brian Gordan is their director (he ran our Golden Gate Awards for many years). PO Box 24330, Nashville TN 37202-4330 BRADFORD ANIMATION FESTIVAL is Nov. 14 16. It is England's longest running annual animation festival. Details at www.baf.org.uk |
This issue was written by Karl Cohen with contributions by Chris Lanier, Ed Hooks, David Levy, Paul Glabicki, David Armstrong and awn.com. Pete Davis proofread it and the mailing crew included Nik and Nancy Phelps and Shirley Smith. Copies are part of your $22 local membership from the above address. |
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