Dubbed "the queen of independent animation" by Bill Plympton, Joanna Priestley unveils her new short MISSED ACHES, a humorous rant about the need for proofreading. This can't-miss program for animation buffs also includes a series of animated gems representing the range of the artist's techniques: VOICES, GROWN UP, ALL MY RELATIONS, STREETCAR NAMED PERSPIRE, UTOPIA PARKWAY, CANDYJAM, SHE-BOP, PRO AND CON, and DEW LINE.
Mentored by Jules Engel at CalArts, Priestley had previously made 19 award-winning films about subjects as varied as relationships, plants, magic, menopause, abstraction and prison. Retrospectives of her work have been presented at The Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, and American Cinematheque, among other venues.
Monday, April 20, 8:30 p.m. Jack H. Skirball Series $9, students $7, CalArts $5
MISSED ACHES (2009, 4 min., DVD or Beta SP, stereo, 1:1.85). Los Angeles premiere Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Written and narrated by Taylor Mali. Sound Design by Normand Roger and Pierre Yves Drapeau. Music by Pierre Yves Drapeau with Denis Chartrand and Normand Roger. Text Animation by Brian Kinkley. Character design by Don Flores. Storyboards by Dan Schaeffer. Supported by The Regional Arts and Culture Council and the Caldera Institute.
MISSED ACHES is about the need for proofreading and the indiscriminate use of spell chuck. It incriminates character animation with moving text. Missed Aches was written and narrated by Taylor Mali, four time winner of the National Poetry Slam (USA).
STREETCAR NAMED PERSPIRE (2007, 6.5 minutes, computer animation) Directed and produced by Joanna Priestley. Sound designed and produced by Lance Limbocker. Animation by Pascal Campion and Joanna Priestley. Voices by Victoria Parker Pohl and Paul Harrod.
DEW LINE (2005, 4.5 minutes, 2D computer animation) Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Sound designed and produced by Jamie Haggerty. Edited by Jamie Haggerty. Supported by a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
UTOPIA PARKWAY (1997, 5 minutes, drawings on paper. replacement animation) Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Sound design and music by Jaime Haggerty. Art director: Paul Harrod. Directors of photography: Charles Rehwalt (box unit) and David Trappe (bottle unit). Edited by Chris Willging and Joanna Priestley. 3-D animators: C. Bourdette, B. Bruce, T. Drilling, C. Duke, J. Gratz, M. Gustavson, J. Poulot and J. Priestley.
UTOPIA PARKWAY was inspired by the box sculptures of Joseph Cornell, who lived in the same house on Utopia Parkway in Queens, New York, nearly all of his life.
GROWN UP (1993, 7 minutes, drawings on paper, pixillated hands and object animation) Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Sound produced by Lance Limbocker. Written by Barbara Carnegie and Joanna Priestley. Music by Steve Christopherson and Warren Rand. Props by Paul Harrod.
PRO AND CON (1993, 9 minutes, 2-D puppets, drawings, object and cel animation and clay painting) Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley and Joan Gratz. Sound produced by Lance Limbocker and Chel White. Music by Chel White. Narrated by Lt. Janice Inman and Allen Nause.
ALL MY RELATIONS (1990, 5 minutes, drawings on paper with 3-D frames) Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Improvised voices by Victoria Parker and Scott Parker. Sound by Joanna Priestley.
ALL MY RELATIONS satirizes the pitfalls of romance, from marriage, childbirth and upward mobility to the disintegration of a relationship. The animation is framed by a series of assemblages which emphasize the message implied by its archetypal characters whose dilemmas are familiar to those who have bought into the American Dream.
SHE-BOP (1988, 8 minutes, drawings and puppet animation) Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Music by Dave Storrs. Written by Carolyn Myers. Narration by Carolyn Lochert Curtis. Funding by the National Endowment for the Arts.
A poetic tribute to the dark, feminine side of spirituality.
CANDYJAM (1988, 7 minutes, drawings, puppets and object animation) Co-produced and co-directed by Joan Gratz. Music by Dave Storrs. Animated by David Anderson (London), Karen Aqua (Cambridge, MA, USA), Craig Bartlett (Los Angeles), Elizabeth Buttler (Cambridge, MA, USA), Paul Driessen (The Hague, Holland), Tom Gasek (Cambridge, MA, USA), Joan Gratz (Portland, OR, USA), Marv Newland (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Christine Panushka (Valencia, CA, USA) and Joanna Priestley.
CANDYJAM is a whimsical exploration of confection by ten filmmakers from four countries.
VOICES (1985, 4 minutes, drawings on paper) Sound by R. Dennis Wiancko. Voice by Joanna Priestley. A humorous exploration of the fears we share: fear of the darkness, of monsters, of aging, of being overweight and of global destruction.
