MONSTRA, Lisbon Animated Film Festival (May 8 -18 in Portugal) is indeed a monster of a festival. For 11 days the festival brought together the cream of United Kingdom animators for a salute to British Animation along with quality competition programs. The British segment included workshops and retrospectives honoring Paul Bush, Phil Malloy, the Brothers Quay, Vera Neubauer and many other artists.

Cheers!

Paul Bush is always certain to entertain both in person and on film. His retrospective covered a wide selection of diverse styles and subjects. HIS COMEDY, a journey to hell with Dante Alighieri, based on the Dore illustrations, is incised directly on the film. Paul’s WHILE DARWIN SLEEPS uses over 3000 images of insects shown at vertiginous speed, one in each frame. One of my all time favorite films is Paul’s classic FURNITURE POETRY where, with the aid of optical tricks he illustrates Wittgenstein’s quest to discover if common objects will disappear or change shape every time we are not watching.

I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting the Brothers Quay before but they turned out to be as interesting as their films. Their workshop turned out to be two entertaining hours of the brothers talking about a wide range of topics, especially how they work as an inseparable team in their studio. They alternate jobs with one brother moving the puppet and the other filming. The packed audience was treated to an unusually personal glimpse into the lives of two extraordinary filmmakers who work as one. After the session a group of us repaired to the little neighborhood cafe where they further endeared themselves to me when I discovered how much they also appreciate red wine.

Stephen and Timothy Quay and Phil Mulloy relaxing at the tjeater cafe

The American born identical twins Stephen and Timothy have lived in England for so long (since 1978) that they are considered an important fixture on the British film scene. Their highly surreal films are full of personal and distinctive imagery that can be disturbing and riveting at the same time. Two retrospectives of their work were screened.

There was also an extensive exhibit of their puppets and sets at the Lisbon Museu de Marioneta (the Marionette Museum). Seeing the small dimensions, detail and inventive use of found objects in the brothers’ work gave me an even greater appreciation of their artistic abilities. This was the first year that the museum hosted a festival exhibit and I hope it will not be the last. Located in an old convent, the museum is a wonderful setting for the puppet collection, which includes sets for the revered Portuguese animator Jose Miguel Ribeiro’s award winning THE SUSPECT. It is worth visiting the museum just to see Ribeiro’s sets.

A special treat was seeing four films by Vera Neubauer. I had never thought about how radically different Vera changes her style from film to film until I saw 4 of her films together. The petite Neubauer may look like a charming proper lady, but her highly experimental work triggers strong emotions, with its unforgettable images that continue to haunt you long after the screen goes dark. The festival showed three of her totally adult films The Last Circus, Wheel of Life, and Mid Air. Wolly Wolf was made for kids and in 2001 it was awarded 2 BAFTA awards (Best Animation and Best Short Film). I think that her work is exciting because she can work in such radically different styles from film to film and yet make each style and story interesting to the viewer. She certainly deserves her place in the hierarchy of British animation for daring to push the boundaries of imagination to new levels with her creative mixture of images and mediums.

Even more innocent looking when you first meet him is Phil Mulloy. I have known Phil long enough to realize that behind his boyish grin lurks one of the most abrasive, in your face animators creating film today. Phil’s works are a ferocious attack on conservative conventions and sensibilities. In his THE SOUND OF MUSIC from 1993, we are shown a portrait of western culture with its class distinctions and sexual repressions. His first feature film THE CHRISTIES, one of a projected trilogy about the Christie family, uses enormous black silhouette faces that fill the screen. They speak to each other in complex dialogue of the most abusive nature to confront each other. Whether you love or hate his work and there don’t seem to be many people with an indifferent point of view, you have to agree that Phil Mulloy is one of the most original voices of present day animation.

British Academy Award winning director David Anderson, who had a new film in the competition, presented a retrospective of his work and a workshop. Known for mixing traditional animation with stop-motion, pixilation, cutout animation and reworked live-action footage, Anderson gave us a peek into his bizarre, surreal worlds. His award winning DREAMLESS SLEEP uses no dialog to communicate a couple’s uncertainty and fear about what is happening after a nuclear explosion. If he had used dialogue it would have been a much easier job to tell the story, but he relied upon his puppets to create the mood and emotions.

Vera Neubauer, Festival Director Galrito and David Anderson

David’s most recent film, TONGUE OF THE HIDDEN, is an adaptation of the poet Haffez’s “The Tellers of Secrets.” Haffez, called the teller of secrets, used the language of human love and metaphor to describe his intoxicton with the mysteries of the universe and David uses the visual language of 2D and 3D animation to take us into the lyrical world of Haffez.

John Halas and Joy Batchelor’s daughter Vivian Halas presented a screening of short films by her parents, who are renowned pioneers in the history of British animation. The festival also showed their adaption of George Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM,1954. It was the first British animated feature shown to the public (prior to this there had only been educational and war propaganda feature films which were exclusively shown to the army). The film combines the Disney style with an adult script. Vivian has documented her parents brilliant careers in a book entitled HALAS & BATCHELOR CARTOONS; AN ANIMATION HISTORY.

Three-time Oscar nominee Mark Baker began creating animated films with an 8 mm camera when he was a teenager. Today he is considered to be one of Britian’s most acclaimed filmmakers. His first major film, THE HILL FARM, took him three years to complete using traditional drawing techniques with the amazing use of crayons. Using only sound effects, no dialogue, the film takes a close look at the cycle of rural life and the ruptures of its ecosystem. This charming film won the 1988 Grand Prize at Annecy, an Oscar nomination and it has been shown at countless festivals around the world.

Baker’s 1993 film THE VILLAGE looks at the darkest side of rural life. Set in a village where life is organized in a way which allows everyone to know each other’s business and punishment is handed out to those who don’t follow the rules, it is a fascinating parable about intolerance and envy. Once again there is no dialogue. THE VILLAGE won many awards including the Cartoon D’ Or, the Annecy Jury Prize, and a second Oscar nomination.

Baker’s third Oscar nomination came in 1999 for JOLLY ROGER. To create this film Baker used the computer to manipulate and color his hand drawn pictures. Once again he received the Jury Prize at Annecy.

Other British programs were shown without the atists present. They included two Aardman retrospectives and a program of Joanna Quinn’s brilliantly funny films.

The very knowledgeable animation historian James Walker presented his choices of Humor in British Animation that featured such classics as Bob Godfrey’s brilliant DO IT YOURSELF CARTOON KIT and KARMA SUTRA RIDES AGAIN. Ninety of my favorite minutes at the festival were spent watching the YELLOW SUBMARINE. It’s hard to believe that it was released 40 years ago. It is still fresh, humorous and incredibly entertaining. It only took George Dunning, who directed the feature, 11 months to make it only costing around one million dollars, yet he and his crew created a fantastic film that is still a joy to see on a big screen.

Every evening the Festival Café, upstairs at the Teatro Maria Matos, offered a place for all of us to gather and talk over drinks and snacks. Keeping to the English theme, Nik and Serbian animator Rastko Ciric gave a late night concert in the café that featured a mixture of original Beatle songs and songs from Rastko’s The Rubber Soul Project: An Imaginary Beatles Album. The project uses titles from the Lennon/McCartney songbook of songs that they never wrote lyrics and music for. Nik and Rastko will be performing next at the 2^nd ANIMART, July 13-20 in Monodendri, Ioannina, Greece. For this concert under the stars they will play only songs with “moon” in the title.

The Band - Rastko Ciric and Nik Phelps

Part 2 Of the article will follow soon

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The 2^nd ANIMART, a summer meeting about animation and related arts, will be held 13 through 20 July in Monodendri, near Ioannina, Greece. 2008 is the Year of Intercultural Dialogue and so workshops and programs will be presented by many leading professionals from around the world.

Workshops will include clay animation conducted by Rony Oren from Israel; animator and ex libris creator extraordinaire Rastko Ciric of Serbia will lead the Cartoon Animation workshop and Portugal’s Fernando Galrito will lead participants through “The Draw and the Pixilation”.

Mohamed Ghazala of Egypt will give us a glimpse into Egyptian and African animation, and Nik and I will talk about the history of music through animation. Nik and Rastko will reprise their musical act in the amphitheatre with a moonlight concert featuring what else? - Moon songs!

The 8 days will be packed with all of this and much more including a live music performance to a classic Greece Silent movie, also in the amphitheatre.

If you need an excuse to come to Greece (and who would ever really need an excuse) ANIMART is it. For more information you can visit their wed site www.animart.gr or you can contact them by e-mail at: info@animationcenter.gr

Animart 2008

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Alexander Tatarsky

Natalia gives us a warm and insightful view into the early life that shaped a true artistic genius. Humorous moments of Alexander playing with his beloved toy collection which he said every grown-up child needed and pictures of him with his dogs and cats that played an important part in his life from early childhood show one side of this very complex man. Most beautiful of all are the pictures of him with his wife and of him holding his young son at home in Moscow.

The great director and animator went on to found Pilot Studios, the first private animation studio in the new Russia, turning it into one of the world’s leading animation studios. Pilot is world renowned, winning awards at festivals the world over and mentoring several decades of animators and script writers that now work in all corners of the world. Speaking of his dear friend and colleague at Pilot, Valentin Telegin said “He took up a flag and led the troops.” This quote complete summarizes the great man’s life.

For those of us who had the privilege to know Sasha, Alexander Tatarsky, Or How To Embrace The Unembracable . . . brings back wonderful memories. Even though my Russian is limited to a few words I can recall afternoons on the KROK boat, sharing drinks and laughter with a man whose humor and delight of the world knew no boundaries geographically or linguistically. For those who were not lucky enough to encounter this amazing man or his films, Natalia’s documentary serves as a perfect introduction to his amazing world.

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Darcy Prendergast and Nik at the beer garden

Nik was kept busy giving a workshop on animation sound tracks and performing several times solo and with a pianist at Cafe Schlossblick, the offestival meeting point as well as in the beer garden.

Joanna Quinn sketching Nik at his concert

The Trickfilm Festival has focused on Eastern European animation since its outset in 1982. Animation from the Baltic States is a special area of interest to me so I was pleased to find that Latvia was the focal country this year. Two good Latvian friends served on juries. My amazing friend Signe Baumane, who creates some of the most insightful work around, by talking frankly about sex from a woman’s standpoint, was on the student jury. It was great to get to hang out with her and share of couple of good gossip sessions since she now lives in New York City and we never get enough time together. Vladimir Lesciov, a talented, ironic animator who represents a new generation of Latvian artists sat on the International Competition jury. We found plenty of opportunities to hang out with mutual friends in the festival beer garden.

Nik and Signe Baumane

Vladimir Lesciov, Bruno Bendazzi and Dennis Tupicoff

Although Latvian animators are not as well known as they should be, they use a richness of color and design to their art to extreme limits and explore new boundries. The festival screened two programs of Latvian short films and the 2006 feature THE THREE MUSKETEERS which is a Latvian, Danish, Scottish co-production. There was also a special program for children and Roze Stiebra’s fairy tale classic THE CAT’S MILL.

An entire program was devoted to the work of Arnold Burovs, the founder of Latvia’s animated cinema and even though there were some technical problems with the 35mm prints it was still a delight to see these gems some of which are over 40 years old. The tribute programs were rounded out by a screening of LITTLE BIRD’S DIARY, the first Latvian animated documentary film, completed in 2007. The film is based on the unique drawings from the diaries of 80 year old Latvian Irina Pilke, which she has created over a lifetime. I was privileged to visit with the producer, Bruno Ascuks, and see the diaries when I was last in Riga, the capital of Latvia. I have watched the copy of the film Bruno gave me many times and I’m still moved byby Ms. Pilke’s pictorial story of her life during WW II and the Soviet period of the 20^th century.

Several years ago TRICKFILM FESTIVAL changed from a bi-annual to a yearly event, so 2008 marks the 15^th fest over a 25 year span. This year along with the International Competition there were five other competition catagories: Young Animation screening the best of the student films; Tricks For Kids presenting sophisticated and entertaining new films for young people; Animovie for feature films; Animated TV Series Competition; and new this year Under Commission which included advertising, music video and TV ident.

The Third Animation Production Day was a meeting for industry professionals which brought 19 carefully selected feature length animated film project producers together with distributors, bankers and investors. For the second year in a row the German Animated Screen Award was given by the Evangelical Church of Germany for the best German language feature length screen play. The 5,000 Euro award went to John Chambers for DER LETZTE NEANDERTALER (THE LAST NEANDERTHAL MAN).

There were several programs devoted to Japanese Anime and especially the work of Osamu Tezuka who invented what is now the world famous style of drawing characters with huge round eyes which has become characteristic of the genre. The documentary KINGS OF TIME paid homage to the 50^th anniversary of the renowned Estonian animation studio Nukufilm. I wrote extensively about the studio and their anniversary party in my article about the Black Nights Film Festival.

Latvian animation historian Uldis Makulis and Latvian director Roze Stiebra

Noted Russian film critic and animation expert Natalia Lukynikh presented a lovely tribute to Alexander Tatarsky. The renowned and beloved head of Moscow’s Pilot Studio, the first Soviet independent animation studio, unexpectedly passed away last year. Along with Natalia’s moving documentary ALEXANDER TATARSKY, OR HOW TO EMBRACE THE UNEMBRACEABLE . . . Tatarsky’s own films were screened as well as works by his colleagues at Pilot.

The Crazy Horse Session consisted of five teams of two animators each of whom had 48 hours to create an animated film in front of festival guests who could visit the 3D computer area where they worked. Each team had to use the new festival mascot, Trixi, a multi-colored psychedelic horse. The new Trickfilm awards statue is also modeled on Trixi, who has her origin in Stuttgart’s city banner of a horse rampant.

As if all of this and more were not enough, for the first time the worldwide Online Bitfilm Festival kicked off it’s 2 month event at the Stuttgart Festival. Bitfilm which was founded in Hamburg nine years ago is dedicated to films that use digital technology in creative and innovative ways. Bitfilm showed highlights of its current competition at a festival cinema and all films can be watched on line and viewers may vote for films which vie for awards totaling 10,000 Euros donated by the City of Hamburg. To view and vote on the films go to www.bitfilm.com/festival before July 1.

There were so many special programs at Stuttgart that there was no way that I could see them all let alone write about it all. From excellent screenings to enjoying German beers with friends under the trees in the festival beer garden, the 15^th Trickfilm Festival is an event not to be missed. Andrea Bauer, Programer and Guest Coordinator, and her excellent staff went out of their way to do everything possible to ensure that our festival visit was perfect. If you have a chance to attend Trickfilm Festival this is one festival not to miss. The 16^th edition of the Trickfilm International Animation Festival will take place May 5 to 10, 2009. For more details visit the festival web site http://itfs.de/

AWARDS OF THE 15^th STUTTGART FESTIVAL OF ANIMATED FILM

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION:

Jury: Suzanne Buchan, London; Ron Diamond, Hollywood; Vladimir Lesciov, Riga; Joanna Quinn, United Kingdom; Fritz Steingrobe, Hamburg

GRAND PRIX (State of Baden-Wuerttemberg and city of Stuttgart Grand Award) 15,000 Euros

FRANZ KAFKA’S A COUNTRY DOCTOR – Koji Yamamura (Japan)

INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION AWARD (Best Student Film) 10,000 Euros

CAMERA OBSCURA – Matthieu Buchalski, Jean-Michel Buchalski, Jean-Michel Drechsler, Thierry Onillon – France

SPECIAL AWARD: MUSIC FOR ANIMATION (Sponsored by the GEMA Foundation) 5,000

HEZURBELZAL ,UNA FOSA COMUN (HEZURBELZAL, A COMMON GRAVE) – Iziben Onederra – Spain

YOUNG ANIMATION:

Jury: Signe Baumane, New York/Riga; Hanna Nordholt, Hamburg; Theodore Ushev, Montreal

BEST STUDENT FILM (Sponsored by the Landesanstait fur Kommunikation Baden-Wurttemberg) 2,500 Euros

1977 – Peque Varela – Great Britian

TRICKS FOR KIDS:

Junior Jury: Marthe Eilenstein, 13 years of age; Fabian Helde, 13 years of age; Francis Mayer, 10 years of age; Martin Moch, 13 years of age; Lucie Schultz, 11 years of age; Zara Willmann, 11 years of age

BEST CHILDREN’S FILM 9Sponsored by NICK) 4,000 Euros

THE CURSE OF THE SKULL ROCK – Ben Smith – Great Britian

ANIMOVIE

Jury: Michael Coldewey, Munich; Iain Harvey, London; Michel Ocelot, Paris

BEST FEATURE FILM:

FREE JIMMY – Christopher Nielsen – Norway

ANIMATED SERIES:

Jury: Paco Rodriguez, Barcelona; Sunita Sttruck, Hamburg; Priit Tender, Tallin

BEST ANIMATED TV SERIES (sponsored by EM Entertainment) – 2,500 Euros

HAIRY SCARY: NO.33 – Wolf-Rudiger Bloss – France/Germany

UNDER COMMISSION:

BEST COMMISSIONED WORK – (Sponsored by Mackevision) – All inclusive trip to Siggraph, Los Angeles)

SONY BRAVIA: PLAY DOH – Darren Walsh, Frank Budgen – Great Britian

ANIMATION SCREEN PLAY:

BEST GERMAN LANGUAGE SCREENPLAY FOR A FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED FILM (Sponsored by the Evanglical Church in Germany) – 5,000 Euros

DER LETZTE NEANDERTALER (THE LAST NEANDERTHAL MAN) – John Chambers

HONORABLE MENTION GRAND PRIX:

Energie (Energy) – Thorsten Fleich – Germany

HONORABLE MENTION :

MILK TEETH – Tibor Banoczki – Great Britian

HONORABLE MENTION YOUNG ANIMATION:

Dionysos – Jorg Weidner, Anke Spath - Germany

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from Sita Sings the Blues

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The big event of the day was the awards ceremony and I believe that the juries did an excellent job, so without further ado the winners are . . .

GRAND COMPETITION

Jury: Joanna Quinn (Great Britain), Moustapha Alassane (Niger), Caroline Leaf (USA/Canada/Great Britain), Igor Kovaljov (Russia/USA) and Danijel Suljic (Croatia)

GRAND PRIZE (best short film in the festival) - festival statue, cash award of 2.500 Euros, and honorary presidency at the next festival

THE PEARCE SISTERS - Luis Cook, Great Britain
“For its original and unique graphics and direction which pulls us into the bleak world of two misfit characters.”

GOLDEN ZAGREB PRIZE - festival statue and cash award of 2.000 Euros

THE RUNT - Andreas Hykade, Germany

“The jury has given the Golden Zagreb to the film we consider the second film of the festival for it’s strong, simple, clear design and direction which delivers a powerful and shocking message.

ZLATKO GRGIC PRIZE (best first production apart from educational institutions)- Festival statue and cash award of 1.500 Euros

HEZURBELZAK,THE COMMON GRAVE - Izibene Onederra, Spain

“For its anarchic stream of consciousness to pursue her stream of vision”

THREE SPECIAL PRIZES AT THE DISCRETION OF THE JURY -

KJFG NO.5 - Aleksei Alekseev, Hungary

“For it’s excellent humor”

FORECAST - Adriaan Lokman, The Netherlands

“For best non-narrative film”

MADAM TUTLI-PUTLI - Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, Canada

THREE SPECIAL MENTIONS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE JURY

SONY BRAVIA:PLAY-DOH - Frank Budgen and Darren Walsh, Great Britian

“To a visually surprising commercial”

THE BELOVED ONES - Samantha Moore, Great Britain/Uganda

“For it’s message, told in a personal, accessible way”

SHE WHO MEASURES - Veljko Popovic, Croatia

“For using 3D animation in an organic and handcrafted way”

STUDENT COMPETITION

JURY: Regina Pessoa (Portugal), Helena Klakocar Vuksic (The Netherlands/Croatia), Saeed Tavakolian (Iran), Erik van Drunen (The Netherlands), Nedzad Begovic (Bosnia Herzegovina)

“We traveled through an artistic universe in 78 films. We enjoyed the quality and diversity and we are confident about the future of the medium”

DUSAN VUKOTIC PRIZE (Best Student Film) - a Dusan Vukotic Medal and 1.000 Euros

THE IRRESISTIBLE SMILE - Ami Lindholm, Finland

“For it’s charming and effective humor and simplicity of design. The pleasure and fressness of the animation with touching dramatic details leaves no spectator indifferent”

3 SPECIAL MENTIONS AT THE JURIES DISCRETION:

BETON - Ariel Belinco, Michael Faust, Israel/The Netherlands

“For the artist’s engagement clearly executed, beautifully designed and animated. The film has a strong voice”.

CAMERA OBSCURA - Matthieu Buchalski, Jean-Michel Drechsler and Thierry Onillion, France

“For its fresh, outstanding and innovative approach of the medium. It brought the members of the jury in an imaginative world where anything is possible”.

CAN YOU GO THROUGH? - Banj Ju-Young, Republic of Korea

“For a strange but intimately intriguing universe, elegantly designed”,

FILMS FOR CHILDREN COMPETITION:

Children’s Jury: Patrik Horvat, Paloma Quinn Mills, Anja Sever, Anna Sagadin, and Andela Zapcic

BEST CHILDRENS FILM:

MY HAPPY END - Milen Vitanov, Germany

“It was a hard choice, because there were so many great movies and in the end we had to choose only one. After a lot of hard thinking we came to the decision to give the main prize to the movie which had the most origional story, smooth and unusual animation - which all fitted the profile we were looking for.”

3 SPECIAL MENTIONS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE CHILDREN’S JURY:

ANIMATOU - Claude Luyet, Gerorges Schwizgebel, Dominique Delachaux-Lambert, Claude Barras and Remero Andreani , Switzerland

OKTAPODI - Julien Bocabeille, Francois Xavier Chanioux, Olivier Delabarre, Thierry Marchand, Emund Mokhber and Quetin Marmier, France

KJFG NO. 5 - Alexey Alekseev, Hungary

AUDIENCE AWARD MR. M, FOR BEST FILM IN GRAND AND STUDENT COMPETITION:

KJFG NO. 5 - Aleksei Alekseev - Hungary

BEST FILM - at the discretion of the animation and new media student jury:

SKHIZEIN - Jeremy Clapin, France

OUT OF COMPETITION AWARDS:

LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - Priit Parn, Estonia

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN ANIMATION THEORY - Clare Kitson, Great Britian

AKADEMIA SZTUK PIEKNYCH w KRAKOWIE - Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland

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Renowned Croatian film maker Bardo Dovnikovic at the filmmakers' lunch

Filmmakers' drawings at the Cinema Central, where the student competitions are screened

Dennis Tupicoff and Nancy

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Clare Kitson at opening night

Pritt and Olga

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Publisher John Libbey

Restoran Dvorishche, Animafest Zagreb artistic director

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Following the lunch many of us took the funicular up to the old town for the opening of Portuguese filmmaker Regina Pessoa’s exhibition of original studies and designs for her film Tragic Story With a Happy Ending. The exhibit was beautifully presented, showing the various steps that she went through to create her award winning film. The setting in the Campana Latrunculorum (The Bell of Theives) was equally charming. The 13th century tower is located at the site of the old city wall and the bell was rung every night to signal the closing of the city gates.

Regina Pessoa and Abi Feijo at the opening of the exhibition

There was a special evening screening of the Lotte Reiniger silent classic The Adventures of Prince Achmed with live piano accompaniment. Three screening sessions will be devoted to African animation and five screening sessions of Anima Docs, the hybrid form mixing animation and documentary. The first two parts of the International Competition were also screened. Just in case my readers don’t think that I am having any fun, I was out with a group of young animators from all over the world at a bar that stayed open until 5 AM for us. More tomorrow.

late night in Zagreb with an international group of young animators

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