OUR FEBRUARY 9th OPEN SCREENING WILL FEATURE LOTS OF REMARKABLE WORK!!! Catherine Margerine of Luna Media is the director of Hope, "a stunning visualization of a Native American prophecy. It is a collage of music, sounds and images that illustrates the cause and effect of life out of balance, and suggests a new path to harmony." Hope is a 6 1/2 minute story based on the ideas of Native American storyteller Willy Whitefeather. It was funded by the Dancing Tree Foundation.

Wild Brain is putting together a reel of recent work that celebrates their 10th year in business. Their tape will feature some of the "Best of Wild Brain" from classics like Nike's "Cow & Moon" to recent work.

Kevin Coffey's Cartoonland will show his new animated film for Nextel.

Carl Willet of Carl's Fine Films has a reel full of real sweet kisses.

Paul Naas' reel includes his work for a Las Vegas electronic slot machine company and "maybe a couple of other things if I can figure out how to get them out of Flash and onto tape." Paul used to animate at Disney.

Gene Hamm will be showing a reel of humorous film experiments made while Beta Testing "Gee Three Slick Transitions" plug-ins for Apple's iMovie. Gene is a former Hanna-Barbera and Ralph Bakshi animator. See clips at www.hammination.com

David Chai/Thunderbean Animation will show part of their More Stuff We Don't Know Anything About campaign for a law firm. www.thunderbeananimation.com

Barrett Fox, a 3D animator, is bringing his reel. See highlights from it at http://www.barrettfox.com

Dave Magliocco of Driscal Designs will show 3 Flash shorts, Attack of the Hungrums!, TokBOT vs. JokBOT and The 5 Emotions of a Bug on a Windshield. http://driscal.com

Alex Woo will introduce us to his hero Rex Steele Nazi Smasher It won him a student Oscar and a job at ILM.

Patricia Satjawatcharaphong will show Reflections

Nik Phelps will bring three 1-minute animated pilot episodes of Monstories. He is creating the music for fifty of them for a Canadian animation company.

DeAnza will show a ten-minute student reel that. It will be presented at the start of this month's show. I'm told it includes a remarkable 4-1/2 minute hand drawn work.

SF State is adding to the program 2 or 3 short experimental works that didn't get shown last month.

ILM, Tippett, Pixar, PDI and a few other studios were invited to be part of this event and we can expect a reel from one or more of those companies. And there will be the usual surprises. This should be a great event.

Everyone is welcomed to bring a professional reel of animation unannounced. The Exploratorium can show 16mm, VHS tape and DVDs. We start at 7:30 and can go until almost 10 if there is that much work brought in.

A brief annual ASIFA-SF business meeting and election will begin at 7:15 PM. Members are invited to attend and to make suggestions regarding programming and other ways to improve our association.

NIK PHELPS SIGNS CONTRACT TO PROVIDE MUSIC FOR 50 "MONSTORIES" EPISODES One good reason to go to Annecy is Nik met the producer of the series there. He will be working on fifty 1-minute long animated episodes created by Canadian animator Lance Taylor and Facelift Entertainment. Nik Phelps will be composing and performing the music. The series has been purchased by the Cartoon Network for US television. Monstories follows the adventures of Laurel and Hardyesk, two little imps who just can't seem to stay out of trouble. You can see sample episodes at http://www.monstories.com.

WILD BRAIN HAS SEVERAL EXCITING PROJECTS "IN THE WORKS" Besides developing a feature, they are doing several commercials including campaigns for Sunny Delight, Lunchables and Cap'n Crunch. They are just about to begin production on their second season of Higglytown Heroes with Disney Playhouse, and have a couple other pilots (yet to be named) that they are talking with the Disney Channel about.

DAVID CHAI OF THUNDERBEAN ANIMATION HAS SOME GREAT NEWS He writes, "Our film `Flames of Passion' has been selected as one of ten finalists in ZeD's Zero to Sixty contest for films under two minutes in length. ZeD is a cool Canadian TV show and website that seeks out and broadcasts the best new short films, videos, animation, visual art, performance and music in Canada and around the world. If you have time to check out the films and rate them as you see fit, we might be able to fire up the gold!" http://zed.cbc.ca

TWEAK FILM WELCOMES FORMER ILM TECHNICAL WIZARD SETH ROSENTHAL TO THEIR STAFF Tweak is a visual effects company located in the Presidio of San Francisco. They have destroyed New York with tidal waves in The Day After Tomorrow and worked on a massive destruction scene in Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Rosenthal has 2 technical Oscars. He invented Dynamation and at ILM he created a dynamics system. www.tweakfilms.com

KEVIN COFFEY'S CARTOONLAND HAS COMPLETED A FIVE MINUTE ANIMATED CORPORATE VIDEO FOR NEXTEL Coffey directed and animated the in-house film that describes the benefits of Nextel's GPS Services. The cartoon features a line-art "Everyman" experiencing the benefits of Nextel's services first hand. Video Arts' Kim Salyer was the producer. John Arnold assembled the project using After Effects.

OUR ANNUAL OPEN SCREENING FOR INDEPENDENT ANIMATORS WAS AN EVENING OF EXCEPTIONAL WORK Independent animation is alive and well judging from this impressive impromptu program. Twenty reels were presented in a show that lasted almost until 10 PM. Lots of styles and techniques were displayed and there was an abundance of solid humor. The program was so good that almost the entire audience stayed until the last reel.

The reels presented were Karen Lithgow's Hawaiian Vacation, Alan Orcut's Got Insurance and Living in a Hole, David Howell's The Gargoyle, Joseph Treter's demo tape, John Fadeff's Sweeper, Guillermo Gomez's Insult to Injury, Chelsea Walton's Jack and Middy Retire, Patricia Satjawatcharaphong's Reflections, David Winn's Fleeced, David Chai's Flames of Passion and 25 Ways to Die (completed version of a group project), The Auction and Grand-Ma (brought in by Steve Davy - see next article), Gene Hamm's Guardian Angel Puddies and If You Draft the Old Farts, Daniel Herrera's Full Circle, Jefferson Thomas' Sailor Mouth and Don Albrecht's "Extravaganza Reel" which was a twenty-five minute compilation reel of new shorts by this retired Disney animator. Peter Cornwell's Ward 13 was also shown. It is an impressive stop-motion work from Australia that is being considered for an Oscar nomination. Due to technological difficulties beyond our control a DVD brought in by another animator would not play in the museum's deck.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT "THE AUCTION" AND "GRAND-MA" Steve Davy who brought both shorts to our open screening was one of the animators on the project. He says both films have been shown and well received at festivals around the world, but he had never had the pleasure of viewing them with an audience before. Students from several schools were involved in making them. During the production Carlo Sansonetti, the animation supervisor, used the Internet to communicate with the artists working on it in various parts of the country.

Most of the character animation that Steve did can be seen in his 3D demo reel on his website along with links to both shorts. http://www.3davy.com I was quite surprised to learn that motion capture was not used as there are subtle movements in shots that are quite lifelike. I'm told it was exceptional rigging. For more information about Grand-Ma visit www.cyberplocstudio.com For more about The Auction visit www.colossart.com

Davy also informs us that Fred Soumagnas, the director and writer (he has VFX credits on Titanic and a Godzilla feature), and Keiko Hirose, the producer of the shorts, are presently working on an animated series in Japan. He understands that Carlo Sansonetti is presently in Italy.

WEBSTER COLCORD IS HAVING A REALLY GREAT EXPERIENCE WORKING FOR EA He writes, "I'm currently on Tiger Woods Golf as the animation lead. I find myself going to Vancouver a lot for mocap shoots, and in late January I'm going to Florida for a mocap session with Mr. Woods himself. In Vancouver I've met up with Marv Newland, who provided me with a print of Bambi Meets Godzilla that was shown at the Godzillafest last November at the Castro. Marv has been very busy. He just moved into a new studio, has been teaching at the Vancouver film school and was working on the Green Screen show, his own shorts and several other projects."

Webster is also doing a talk at the Expressions College on Feb. 3^rd and providing 35mm movie trailers and other short films from his collection to the monthly "Thrillville" film event at Oakland's Parkway Theater. www.thrillville.net (An interesting looking series of unusual films from the past.) His Extreme Man & Insane Boy will be screening in 16mm at the next Psychotronic Film Festival at Foothill College. He has updated his website with more downloadable clips and other "good stuff." (www.webstercolcord.com) He also recommends "a great freeware flip book maker" called Minicinema at http://labs.dacamyo.net/en/minicine/

ANOTHER OPINION OF EA A former employee who left the company in August wrote, "I assume it may be too late to comment, but here's a few... "

"Regarding `they routinely squeeze hundred of hours of uncompensated overtime from its programmers and artists?' Yup. Everyone."

Regarding people working 80 and 90-hour workweeks, the person wrote, "Well, this is a mixed bag. It depended on what team you worked on, and how bad the culture on that team was. Lord of the Rings I heard was horrible. Mandatory seven-day workweeks I believe."

On the writer's last project, "There was extremely heavy pressure to work weekends AND long hours during the week for us... 6 days was mandatory for over 1\2 the projects and either way with the workload of more than a seven day weeks worth to squeeze into it. They made sure to tightly over schedule. I worked a whole lot at home just to keep up on top of long days. I'd say I averaged 50-70 hours in the office, sometimes adding another 10-20 at home every week for the last year I was there, busting butt the whole time doing difficult work."

Regarding the comment, "Apparently there are other high tech companies run in the same manner," the writer said, "Unfortunately the industry as a whole is not so good with overtime work and 'crunch time,' but EA has been the worst employer in my 12 years in the industry."

Regarding, "Right now EA doesn't pay them at all for that time. A salary that covers them for 40 hours ...above 40 hours is uncompensated." The person commented, "Correct. They used to throw us `comp time' instead of overtime...a longer unaccounted for vacation of 3 weeks or so. Not any more. They do give little bits of it now still at Maxis, but I heard one week was all they got for their last 2 year crunch on the Sims 2, and even that may have been a bit 'hush hush' with the larger EA."

THE BALBOA'S GARY MEYER RECOMMENDS THE JEFF SANFORD ORCHESTRA'S "CARTOON JAZZ" SHOW He saw them perform at Jazz at Pearl's and expects them back at some point. They perform Raymond Scott's music. It was a prime ingredient

Gary, wife and friend of Looney Tune and Merrie Melodies cartoons. Gary writes, "Veteran Bay Area saxophonist and clarinetist Jeff Sanford fell under the late composer's spell as a kid in Queens watching Saturday morning cartoons. Sanford has spent the past couple of years tracking down charts of Scott's intricately arranged music and organizing a 13-piece band to play it. Today his show is increasingly popular, and a growing number of audiences are aware that Scott's genre-defying music is well-worth hearing even without the animation." http://www.sanfordjazz.com

BAYCAT, THE NEW BAYVIEW HUNTER'S POINT CENTER FOR ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY, TO TEACH ANIMATION TO KIDS AGES 9 TO 15 The center located at 2415 Third Street (suite 230) will present free after school classes 3 times a week for 15 weeks! ASIFA-SF board member Tara Behym is their instructor. She is a graduate of CAL Arts and has taught animation to children at several locations in the past. The center also has classes for kids in Digital Video Production, TV Broadcast and Filmmaking. Kids interested in attending classes should attend an open house, Feb. 3 and 4 from 5 - 7 PM www.baycat.org

TAMI TSARK HAS TWO PAINTINGS ON DISPLAY Tami, whose production credits include The Simpsons and CD-ROM's at Living Books, has two paintings, "Limelight" and "Worrisome Times," in a juried show at the Indian Valley Artists, 781 Hamilton Parkway, Novato. The Motion Emotion show is on view until February 20. The gallery is open Tues-Sun at 11. It closes at 5 on Fri-Sun and at 3 Tues- Wed. (415) 506-0137 www.indianvalleyartist.org

A HOT TIP FROM TAMI TSARK She wrote us, "Just got back from seeing Polar Express. It sounded kind of campy but I wanted to see the new effects and techniques. Turned out to be a beautiful story and very well done. It's a must see for anyone loving animation. Yes, there were moments, when you might have thought, how odd, but the story holds it together so well... Highly recommended."

DAVID KRZYSIK IS SAFE. HE WAS IN THAILAND WHEN THE WAVE HIT He and a friend had decided to go north into the mountains instead of to the beach the week the tidal wave hit. He is now back and is making plans for the next BrainWash Film Festival.

A British friend who lives in Kenya (not involved with animation) wrote me, "Happy New Year. When the tidal wave hit I was in a small boat approaching my village...scary to say the least and not something I want to experience again. It could have been a lot worse. Luckily we were sheltered by an island. Somalia, our near neighbor, got it with great loss of life."

THE 7^th ANNUAL INDIE FEST WILL PRESENT A PROGRAM OF ANIMATED SHORTS and will include 3 other animated shorts in their lineup. The event will be held in San Francisco Feb. 3-15. Their motto is, "The best movies never play a multiplex."

The shorts program "Munch on This" is made up entirely of animated shorts. The shorts are: The Oak Dresser by Andrew Kennedy, 7 min. "Be careful with those acorns." Shlitz'n'Giggles by Joshua Pritzker, 7 min., "the paperboy dreams of making it big." Fred's Box by Aaron Hughes, 8 min., "find out what's inside." Robot Teaser III by Doug Chaing, 3 min., stars "human hunting robots." Conform or Die! by Rob Perri, 3 min., www.robperri.com The Talk of Creatures and Bulk Foodveyor by Margaret Freeman and Niffer Desmond, 1 min. each with music by The Residents. Elegy by Nadine Takvorian, 3 min., "love never dies." Petunia by Aaron Hughes, 3 min., "flowers do make people smile." Nelson: Rock'n'Roll Detectives by Jay Barba & Brian Farrelly, 6 min., www.liebography.com. This is the world premiere of the film. Beginning Middle and End by Daniel Greaves, UK, 5 min. www.tandemfilms.com US premiere, "all things come 'round in the end." A Tale of Bad Luck by Brad Peyton, Canada, 8 min. "a short symphony of horror" www.flowdistribution.ca. The Doll by Jeremiah Costello, Germany, 22 min. miobeeno.tripod.com US premiere, "a cybernetic puppet runs amok in Amsterdam!"

Munch on This, the above program, will be shown at the Roxie Mon. Feb. 7 at 9:30 PM, at Mama's Buzz CafŽ at 2318 Telegraph in Oakland on Sat. Feb. 12 at 2:30 PM and on Sunday Feb. 13 at the Woman's Building at 9:30 PM.

The festival will show Dear Sweet Emma ("she will kill you with kindness") by Danny Oakley and Derek Cernak, 8 min. and Oedipus by Jason Wishnow, 8 min., in a program of shorts on Thurs. Feb. 3 at 5 PM at the Castro. "Oedipus is an animated version of the classic Greek morality tale faithfully acted out by vegetables. Warning: many potatoes were harmed during this production."

www.oedipusthemovie.com www.dearsweetemma.com

Guard Dog by Bill Plympton, 5 min., will be in a program of shorts shown at the Roxie Sat. Feb. 5 at 2:15 PM and on Wed. Feb. 9 at 5 PM. It stars "a crazed paranoid dog that finds the park a very scary place."

LOCAL EVENTS (top)

NATIONAL NEWS -THE OSCAR RACE (top)

A quick Internet search led me to an article "SpongeBob, Barney Promote `Gay' Tolerance" at www.capalert.com It quotes AFA researcher Ed Vitagliano as claiming the objective is to get children to the gay foundation's website "and there they're given the full pitch about homosexuality."

It appears the AFA will denounce homosexuals and stand by their statements even if their facts are proven wrong by the national press. Their followers want to believe the AFA is right. The more shrill the AFA is, the more money they raise. I doubt the AFA will admit they made an error.

CONGRESSMEN SEE A COMIC BOOK AS A USEFUL AID TO TERRORISTS Mexico has published a 34-page comic that tells migrants their rights if they enter the U.S. illegally. It warns of dangers of crossing the border by foot and it gives advice on how to survive that crossing. People die each year trying to make it across hot deserts.

Now Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado has contacted Colin Powell urging him to file a complaint with Mexico as he believes the comic might be useful to terrorists trying to enter the U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, a Republican from Arizona says, "Mexico's sponsorship of illegal immigration is nothing less than an act of deliberate hostility against the U.S." The "Chronicle" says Hayworth feels it is "AN ACT OF WAR!"

This may be laughable, but in 1917 the producer of The Spirit of '76, a costume drama about our Revolutionary War, went to jail for 3 years. The film came out a few weeks after the U.S. entered WWI. Wilson was fighting in Europe for freedom, but here it was against the law to tell the truth. The film showed English troops killing citizens including the bayoneting of a baby. A judge ruled the scenes were giving aid to the enemy, hurting enlistment, etc. It didn't matter that the Wyoming Valley Massacre took place in Pennsylvania on July 3, 1778 or that the British and their 700 Indian fighters hunted down and killed the survivors and other settlers of the area. In 1915 the Supreme Court ruled motion pictures were not protected by the first amendment so the producer could not claim his freedom of speech was being violated.

JIB JAB HAS LAUNCHED A NEW WORK ON THE WEB Second Term can be seen for free at www.jibjab.com It is a very impressive production and like their previous work it is silly and avoids getting too serious. The company also created three "trailers" for this year's Sundance Festival

STEPHANIE MAXWELL HAS A FINE WEBSITE THAT INCLUDES CLIPS FROM HER FILMS She went to the Art Institute (on Chestnut in San Francisco), is an award winning independent animator and a professor of animation at RIT in Rochester, N.Y. www.rit.edu/~sampph

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PEZ WHO MADE "ROOF SEX'? Creativity, a slick magazine for the advertising business, ran a profile on him last November. He has a stop-motion work on the web called "Kaboom!" at www.dieseldreams.com. The photo they ran (not from the film) shows a skull inspired by Jan Svankmajer made up out of candy corn for teeth and peanuts for brain matter. The article says Pes' real name is Adam Pesapane and he is from New Jersey. He has a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia. He studied James Joyce and once lived in a room that Edgar Allan Poe slept in. He tries to keep busy doing commercials and has a website www.eatpes.com that his manager says gets a million hits a month. It has lots of amazing works on it including a brilliant understated anti-Bush work he made for Move On.org and his masterpiece Roof Sex. Pes says his secret is not an ability to do excellent stop-motion work, but "It's in capturing and holding a viewer's attention." He captured and held mine. I think you will enjoy a visit to eatpes.com. His 30 second film Fireworks is in the new Animation Show opening in the Bay Area on March 4.

BILL PLYMPTON IS RUNNING A CONTEST TO FIND THE BEST GUARD DOG, (BUT IT CAN BE ANY KIND OF ANIMAL, "EVEN A BIRD") He called to say details and the rules are posted on his website. He will consider both serious and humorous stories and images when he selects his winners. The prizes will include an original signed drawing by Bill and other fun items. www.plymptoons.com/guarddog/index.html

MADONNA TO PRODUCE AN ANIMATED FEATURE Material Girl will be based on her children's book The English Rose. Britney Spears will do one of the voices.

Another feature project in the planning stages is a remake of Tron by Disney.

ASIFA-NW HELD THEIR ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP PARTY IN A BAR WHERE THEY SHOWED VINTAGE ANIMATED BEER COMMERCIALS The reel of ads from the 50s and 60s includes Mr. Magoo, Fred Flintstone and other stars pitching beer. Sounds fun.

KENNETH ANGER'S NEW FILM "MOUSE HEAVEN" STARS RARE 1930'S MICKEY MOUSE TOYS Apparently the footage was shot a few years ago, but it has only recently been edited. In an interview published by The Temple ov Psychick Youth he says, "I've always loved Mickey Mouse since I was a little boy and I'm outraged about the current Disney company's attitude about Mickey Mouse. I mean they think they own it but all the children of the world own Mickey Mouse. And I have devised a way to star Mickey Mouse in a film that the current Disney company can't legally object to, by filming an antique toy collection of early Disney toysÉ I'm actually being very respectful of early Mickey Mouse. I hate later Mickey Mouse, because from Fantasia on the Disney people decided to humanize the mouseÉ" He likes the devilish mouse that disappeared long before Fantasia. The film recently premiered in NYC at the Museum of Modern Art in an Anger retrospective.

Amid Amidi and Jerry Beck's "Animation Brew" ran a brief review of the film's premiere that was written by Anne Bernstein (a writer of material for Nickelodeon and cartoonist). She found the new film to be "cute," "peppy" and fun. She had hopes of something risquŽ between Mickey and Minnie toys, but that was not to be. She looked for hidden meaning or subversive content and couldn't find it.

"THE INCREDIBLES" IS DOING INCREDIBLY WELL AT THE BOX OFFICE The national gross as of Jan. 20 was $256.9 million, the international gross $335.6 million for a worldwide total of $592.5 million. For Shark Tale the figures are $160.9 m. domestic, $161.3 m. international, $332.2 million total. For Polar Express $160.8 m, $112.7 m, 273.5 million total. SpongeBob $83.8 m., 19.6 m., $103.4 million. Team America $32.8 m., 9 m., $41.8 million. Life Aquatic $22.5 million (no foreign income yet).

ASIFA-EAST PRESENTED AN EVENING OF RUSSIAN ANIMATION The program was organized by Alexey Budovskiy and Natalia Elina. Among the classics presented were Khitruk's Winnie the Pooh. The program notes say,"Every Soviet child loved this Winnie the Pooh more than the book! The film turned us all into raging intellectuals." Also shown was Norstain's Hedgehog in a Fog, Nazarov's Once Upon a Time There Lived a Dog, Maksimov's Bolero, Petrov's Mermaid (Oscar winner) and other works.

The Red Shift Festival also took place in NY last month. It presented new work by Alina Bliumis, Alex Budovskiy, Irra Verbitsky, Sergey Aniskov (unique use of Flash), Marina Elina, Signe Baumane, Lev Polyakov and other Russian speaking animators.

"SHREK" FRANCHISES HAVE EARNED $1.6 BILLION in consumer goods worldwide.

Grown-Up by Joanna Priestly

NANCY PHELPS REVIEWS JOANNA PRIESTLY'S NEW DVDS She writes, "I have seen Joanna Priestley's work at animation festival's and have always enjoyed it. Her two new DVD'S - RELATIVE ORBITS and FIGHTING GRAVITY, give us a chance to enjoy all 17 of her award winning films. From Voices, which appeared in a mid-1980s Tournee of Animation, to the Dancing Bullrushes we can trace Joanna's growth from her Cal Arts student days to her present day-self as an animator and teacher at the Art Institute of Portland.

All My Relations addresses all of our inner bad desires, giving us an entire ten years of a soap opera in 5 minutes. Surface Dive, which according to the DVD cover is made up of more than 600 sculptures, 200 glass pieces, and 2200 drawings, is beautifully photographed. It takes the viewer to the extreme limits of abstract with images that make you feel that you are diving through a magical underwater fantasy.

Joanna moves seamlessly from abstract whimsy to political statements and social commentary. Pro and Con, one of two pieces co-directed with Joan Gratz, delves into the psyches of a prison warden and an inmate successfully using animation to visually jar our senses as we listen to two distinctively opposed and disturbing monologues.

Candyjam

At a time when we in the United States need to lighten up and not take ourselves so seriously I appreciate the way Joanna Priestley pokes fun at icons and mere mortals alike. At times, as in Candyjam, we get a little bit of Monty Python humor and a lot of Svankmeyer and at other times I felt as if the wonderful Faith Hubley was speaking to us, especially through the choice of sound tracks, but Joanna's unique take on the world always comes through loud and clear.

The sound designs, a very enjoyable and integral part of all of her work, are extremely strong and varied, but occasionally I felt that she was stretching the images to fit the rich sound track. Many of the animated works have the same timing and although the design is often exquisite, animation is about timing and the action can seem repetitive.

FIGHTING GRAVITY features Interview with the Sound Guy. Both DVD's also feature visits to Joanna's studio with peeks behind the scenes.

She-Bop

In our youth oriented society it is so nice to experience a beautifully crafted homage to the joys of life over 40 as we are treated to in GROWN UP. I look forward to experiencing where the other side of 40 will take Joanna Priestly and her unique visions of the world.

You can check out her work at www.primopix.com.

RELATIVE ORBITS and FIGHTING GRAVITY can be ordered on her web site. Each DVD is $19.95 or 2 for $34.95. Shipping is $4.for 1 and $7 for 2. Shipping outside of the U.S. is $7 and $14. You can also order direct from:

Joanna Priestley

Priestley Motion Pictures

1801 NW Upshur Street STE. 630

Portland, Oregon 97209

ADVANCE NEWS OF AN INTERESTING SOUNDING BOOK Chris Robinson, the co-director of the Ottawa Animation Festival writes, "John Libbey will be publishing my book, Unsung Heroes of Animation in late 2005/early 2006. It's a collection of essays (or character studies, as someone called them) I've written since 1996 on different independent animators. The collection will include a number of brand new pieces. Among the animators (tentatively) profiled: Priit Parn, Igor Kovalyov, Ruth Lingford, Signe Baumane, Chris Landreth, Rene Jodoin, Ryan Larkin, Michele Cournoyer, Pjotr Sapegin, Raimund Krumme, George Griffin, Mati Kutt, Brothers Quay, Chris Sullivan, Paul Fierlinger, Jan Lenica, Koji Yamamura, Pierre Hebert, Studio Filmtecknarna, Gianluigi Toccafondo, David Ehrlich, Stephen Woloshen, and Phil Mulloy.

COMING SOON, A TV SERIES BASED ON MEL BROOKS' "SPACEBALLS" BFC Berliner Film Company, Brooksfilms and MGM plan to make an hour pilot and 13x30 animated shows based on his 1987 feature.

IRAN NEWSPAPER CLAIMS "FIRST ANIMATION OF THE WORLD FOUND IN BURNT CITY" Archaeologists found a 5000-year old goblet that shows a goat in several positions jumping toward leaves in a tree and munching on them. While it does convey the idea of sequential images, an attempt to put the 3 or 4 images of the goat into motion by archaeologists doesn't work. You can see it at http://www.payvand.com/news/04/dec/1249.html

PATRICK SMITH SAYS "AVOID EYE CONTACT II" IS NEARING COMPLETION He writes, "We're all really busy here in NYC. We're putting the finishing touches on Avoid Eye Contact Vol. II, which includes tons of new films. My latest is called Handshake. I'm sure you'll see it and all the others very soon."

"I was in the UK for Christmas visiting family, and what did my girlfriend's dad get me? "Forbidden Animation" by Karl Cohen. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the book. I couldn't put it down. Really great work!" (Thanks Patrick for the kind words, KC)

"BAMBI" AND "THE INCREDIBLES" WILL BE OUT SOON ON DVD The release date is March 15 for both titles. Amazon has them both priced at 35 to 40% off list. In January Disney released 4 one-hour long "Favorites" DVDs for $14.99 each. Each honors a different star - Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Chip'n Dale.

ASIFA-SAN FRANCISCO

P.O. Box 14516

San Francisco CA 94114

Nik Phelps and the Sprocket Ensemble present Ideas in Animation March 4 & 5. Nik performs with Greta Garbo and a silent era cartoon Sunday, Feb. 27 at 1 PM at the Balboa. See local events section for details.

This issue was written by Karl Cohen, with major contributions by Nancy Phelps and Steve Segal. Pete Davis, who is now living on the frozen coast of Maine (with only 1 foot of snow outside) was the proofreader. The mailing crew includes Laura Tulloss, Shirley Smith and Nancy and Nik Phelps.

ROBERT ZEMECKIS TO TURN THE ENGLISH POEM BEOWOLF INTO A MOTION CAPTURE FEATURE using the technology used to make his Polar Express. Polar Express has now grossed over $40 million in IMAX theaters. $161.3 million in all U.S. theaters as of 1/27

FESTIVALS (top)

OTTAWA 05 entry forms will be online soon. The entry form deadline is June 1. The festival, now an annual, runs September 21-25, 2005. www.awn.com/ottawa

ANNECY 2005 deadline for Internet productions is March 15. The deadlines for films was Jan. 15. Internet work must be entered using the Internet www.annecy.org

TELLURIDE INDIEFEST deadline is May 31 for an August 31 - September 4 event. They showcase exceptional independent films and do not require films to `premieres.' The event in Colorado attracts Hollywood distributors, agents, etc. tellurideindiefest.com.

KALAMAZOO ANIMATION FESTIVAL deadline is March 1. Nice prizes, good support from ASIFA-Central, etc.www.kafi.kvcc.edu for entry forms and details.

26^th ANNUAL TELLY AWARDS where $140 + the $50 entry fee buys you a fancy trophy. This isn't a competition, but a chance to buy a fancy sounding award if your work meets their standards of excellence. There isn't a screening or party, just a chance to obtain an expensive looking paperweight. March 4 deadline. 1212 Bath Ave. Suite 301, Ashland KY 41101. tellyawards.com

~~~~~~~~

"As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

ASIFA-SF, THE BAY AREA'S ANIMATION ASSOCIATION, PRESENTS

OUR ANNUAL OPEN SCREENING FOR PROFESSIONAL ANIMATORS AND STUDIOS

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 9 AT 7:30 PM

ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING AT 7:15 PM

FREE, PUBLIC INVITED

Presenting the work of:

Wild Brain

Catherine Margerine of Luna Media

Kevin Coffey's Cartoonland

Paul Naas

Carl Willet of Carl's Fine Films

Gene Hamm

David Chai of Thunderbean Animation

Barrett Fox

Dave Magliocco of Driscal Designs

Alex Woo

Patricia Satjawatcharaphong

Nik Phelps

and lots of other talented people

Everyone is welcomed to bring a professional reel of animation unannounced. The Exploratorium can show 16mm, VHS tape and DVDs. We start at 7:30 and can go until we show everything. Please, no reels over 14 min. long. A brief annual ASIFA-SF business meeting/election will begin at 7:15 PM. Members are invited to attend and to make suggestions regarding programming and other ways to improve our association.