Sprockets

Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, and light another Chanukah candle for us.
We wish you the best of everything in 2007.

With Love from Belgium,

Nik and Nancy

Nik and Nancy Phelps have finally completed their relocation to Gent,
Belgium, and the new music studio is set up and ready to go. We now have
the cherished Belgian work permit, and will be taking on new projects
starting after the new year.

Nik has just finished music for Nina Paley's upcoming feature, Sita Sings
the Blues, is currently working on animation projects for animators Lance
Taylor in Canada, and Jordie Doubt in Switzerland, and will be providing
music for the politically topical website of John Grimes and Robin Chin in
the United States ( www.fizzdom.com ) We are currently putting together our
spring 2007 production schedule, so contact us now for music for your
animation, documentary, or film project. You may not think that original
music is affordable, but you will be surprised. Ask us about our reasonable
rates and check out our web site at www.niksprocket.org

To all our American Friends we wish you a

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

To everyone who is gathering at Tracy and Richard's to carry on a long
tradition

WE ARE WITH YOU IN SPIRIT

AND . . . to the rest of our friends around the world we raise a glass to
you all

HOLIDAY CHEER from

NIK NANCY KIRBY and MOLLY

Well, dear friends, here is what hapened at KROK after I finally arrived on
the boat -- it was smooth sailing from then on. I also do discuess the
animation least you think that I was not in the screening room.

I hope this gives you a little flavor of this unique Animation Festival.

Cheers,
Nancy

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THE 13TH ANNUAL KROK INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL of ANIMATION by Nancy
Denney-Phelps

The KROK International Festival of Animation is my favorite annual event.
Each year it is a seagoing experience in which 200 animators from around the
world spend 14 days steaming down rivers while watching animation and having
the opportunity to make truly lasting friendships. It alternates between
being held in Russia and Ukraine. This year participants gathered in Moscow
on August 7 at the Dom Kino, home of the Russian Filmmakers Union, for the
overnight bus ride to Nizhniy Novgorod. There they boarded the river cruiser
Marshall Zhukov to watch animation, eat, drink, to dance under the stars
until sunrise, and to have far too much fun!

THE BEST ANIMATION FESTIVAL THAT I NEVER SAW by Nancy Denney-Phelps

If you remember my article about the Zagreb International Festival of
Animation two years ago you may recall how much I loved the Festival. From
the moment you arrive you feel that you are with family. The Festival's
director Margit Antauer, affectionately known as Buba, does everything to
make you feel welcome and her fabulous staff works overtime to try to tend
to your every need.
This year's event took place June 12-17. As I settled in to watch the
opening awards ceremony and the first competition program, little did I know
that this would be one of my rare spates of carefree animation watching
here, thanks to the ASIFA International board and committee meetings which I
needed to attend. True to past years, the opening competition program was
very strong, ranging from the National Film Board of Canada's Louise by
Anita Lebeau which I wrote about in the Annecy 2005 article, Ivan Maximov's
Wind Along the Coast which we screened at our two farewell performances in
the Bay Area and John Canemakers' Oscar winning film Moon and the Son: An
Imagined Conversation. Following the screening, there was a lovely welcoming
party.

All of our San Francisco friends know what we went through in our last month
in the city -- and I must say that we could not have done the move without
the amazing help of all of you. Finally after MONSTRA we got the chance to
have a few days off on the North coast of Spain, where Nik promptly got sick
but Kirby, Molly and I enjoyed the lovely beach and I actually got the
chance to start writing and actually read a book -- now off to The Annecy
International Festival of Animation!!!

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2006 Annecy International Animation Festival

Once again this year I found the animation at Annecy by and large to be a big yawn!!! The quality of the competition films was exceptionally low -- there were entire programs that I came out of thinking “Why did I have to sit through that?” Films that I would normally have thought “That was OK, but . . .” seemed to be a breath of fresh air and the few really good films – Joanna Quinn’s DREAMS AND DESIRES – FAMILY TIES, A RAM AND A GOAT and PRINTED RAINBOW really stood out. For those familiar with Quinn’s two previous award winning films featuring her character Beryl (GIRL’S NIGHT OUT and BODY BEAUTIFUL), her new film treats us to an older Beryl who decides to plunge into the arts to help cushion her mid-life crisis. At the directors’ chat, Joanna said that this is the first of a four-part series about Beryl plunging into the arts. Needless to say, Beryl’s foray into the world of wedding video photographer ends in hilarious .disasters. A RAM AND A GOAT by Natalia Berezovaya, part of Pilot Moscow Animation Studio’s ambitious and beautiful series of animated folk tales from regions all over the former Soviet Union. I wrote very highly and in greater detail about this series last year after seeing samples at KROK. Each episode is in a different style by various Russian animators and covers a wide range of animation techniques. The lovely Indian film, PRINTED RAINBOW, by Gitanjali Rao, is a story, told through Indian matchbox covers, of a woman and her cat who live alone and travel vicariously through her beautiful match boxes. The film looks at loneliness and death in a positive and hopeful way.

Well, guys, I have been getting requests for new about our adventures -- I'm afraid that it is going to have to come in installments since we landed in Gent (which I love --now sitting in my office in a window over looking the canal -- occasionally a boat or barge comes by) and took off immediately to festivals but here goes the first part . . . laugh on . . . it's all good!!!

Love, Nancy

PS a couple of photos so you can get the feel of what we are up to. Also, sorry about the unedited state of the story but there just isn't any more time!!!

Hey Everyone - Our Dear friend Ms P Segal is having a Bon Voyage
get-together for us on Saturday:

Dear friends,

As you probably know, Nik and Nancy Phelps have
finally given up their house in the Avenues, and are
moving to Ghent, Belgium, in a few days. They're
tremendously excited, and have a remarkable and
well-earned future ahead in Europe.

For those of you who haven't had a chance to see them
recently, we're having a very informal drop-by
farewell at my house this Saturday, April 8, from
about 6 until midnight or so. My academic life has
made it impossible for me to do anything like a bash
right now, and this is a totally bring-you-own food
and drink kind of thing for a last visit before they
are off to Europe. Please pass the word along to
people who should know, because my email list is
hardly complete.

The Museum is now closed and Nik and Nancy are moving on to their next life.
If you have enjoyed the parties and good times here, the remains can be
viewed and PURCHASED on March 24, 25 and 26  (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)
from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.  Please come by to say bye to Nik and Nancy and
BUY - BUY - BUY.

Our special thanks to everyone who has given SO generously of their time to
help us pack, move into storage and brought us FABULOUS meals -- we couldn't
have done it without you all!!!

2066  30th Avenue  (Between Pacheco and Quintara) - for the last week
24, 25 and 26 March

9:00 AM to 6:00 PM

Dear Friends:

On Friday morning at 9:00 AM, Nik and I will open the doors of our home to
the public to buy, buy, buy. If there are things in our home that you are
interested in purchasing please give us a call at 415/681-3189 ASAP and we
will make arrangements for you to come over prior to this Friday AM.

We love you all and will miss you but it is time for us to move on. . . so
come and help us clear out!!!!

Love,

Nik and Nancy

PS We are packing with a frenzy and so as much as we would love to sit
around and drink wine and visit WE JUST CAN'T!!!!

FINAL, ABSOLUTELY LAST NIK PHELPS AND THE SPROCKET ENSEMBLE FAREWELL
PERFORMANCE

THURSDAY, MARCH 2

Balboa Theatre

3630 Balboa Street @ 37th Avenue in San Francisco

Two DIFFERENT shows 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM

Separate Admission for each program: $10.00

Just when we thought that we had given our last Bay Area performance and
turned our creative talents to sorting through 20 years of our life, Gary
Meyer and the Balboa Theatre honored us by asking Nik and I to present two
special programs of our work. If you missed our Trinity Chapel performance
here is another chance to see and hear NIK AND THE SPROCKET ENSEMBLE before
we leave for Europe in April -- if you have never experienced our live
performance be sure not to miss MARCH 2 at the Balboa Theatres