For those in the Portland, Oregon area, the Northwest Film Center is hosting “An Evening with Joanna Priestley” on Saturday, January 28th. The event is part of the Center’s Northwest Tracking series celebrating its 40th anniversary.  Priestley is one of my favorite filmmakers who I’ve written about before. (See my article I wrote for Skwigly here and here.) 

The program includes world premieres of two animated films, Out of Shape and Eye Liner, previews of which are embedded below.

Priestley says Out of Shape is the result of a “two month collaboration with terrific sound designer Marc Rose.”

“Eye Liner,”  she notes, “explores archetypes of the human face, patterning and cultural effigies that echo facial features.”

For more information on the screening and Priestley visit the Priestley Motion Pictures website, where you can also order DVDs and even one of her flipbooks.

For those in the Atlanta area, ASIFA-Atlanta will be hosting two programs of international animated films on Saturday, December 10th, at the High Museum of Art’s Hill Auditorium, 1280 Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta. The announcement says to

Expect an outlandish assortment of stop-motion, 3D, mixed-media and claymation shorts from Atlanta and beyond. A  Q&A  with  the  animators  will  follow  each screening.

The 2:00 pm screening is for kids while the 8:00 pm screening is for ages 14 and up. The full schedule is available here.

This year’s celebration of International Animation Day by ASIFA-Atlanta is being held this year on November 6th, at the Five Spot, in Atlanta’s Little Five Points Area. As usual, the screening, which is free, will include a selection of films from around the world, including works from Portugal, Australia, Brazil, and Korea.

This year’s poster was designed by Ihab Shaker, which as the ASIFA-Egypt website notes, is the first time ASIFA-International chose “an artist from Africa or the Arab world” for this honor. Shaker began his career in Egypt in 1968, but also spent much of his career in France, where he worked for Paul Grimault.

Photo of Ihab Shaker from the ASIFA-Egypt website.

The Atlanta branch of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Animation Department will be having its first public screening of its student work on Friday, April 9th, at the the Earl Smith Strand Theatre in Marietta,
Georgia. The program will feature the world premiere of
Jaguar McGuire (and his Cat), a 4-minute short done as a group project, as well as other undergraduate and graduate films. The
screening will be followed by Q&A with the filmmakers.

Tickets (Public: $8.00; students: $5.00; SCAD: $2.00) are available at the door or can be ordered online through the Strand’s website here.

The Plaza which opened in 1939 is finally celebrating its 70th birthday in style with screenings of classic films from 1939, including 35mm prints of the Fleischers’ Gulliver’s Travels and Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, plus Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz and Planet Outlaws (the 1953 feature version of the 1939 Buck Rogers serial). The event kicks off on Friday evening, January 15th, at 7:00 p.m., with a gala party featuring Turner Classic Movie host Robert Osbourne followed by a screening of the Capra film at 8:45; the next two feature screenings of Gulliver and Mr.Smith; other screenings and events will be held the following two weekends. Check here for further details and to buy advance tickets.

ASIFA-Atlanta will be hosting a special screening of Adam Elliot’s stop-motion feature Mary and Max at the Plaza Theatre, Wednesday Monday, November 16th, at 8:00pm. This is the much-anticipated followup to Elliot’s Oscar-winning short, Harvie Krumpet and has not yet been given a theatrical booking in the Atlanta area. The film was made available through the courtesy of IFC Films. Admission is $5 for ASIFA-Atlanta members and $10 for everyone else.

On October 28, 1892, Émile Reynaud opened his Théâtre Optique at the Musée Grévin in Paris, using a version of his Projection Praxinoscope; in addition, to being the first theatrical presentation of a motion picture (though it did not use film), it also represented the public presentation of the first animated movies. Though cinema historians usually see Reynaud accomplishment as an interesting sidebar in film history, many in the animation community see it as the beginnings of animation; as such, ASIFA chapters around the world celebrate it as International Animation Day. And ASIFA-Atlanta is celebrating it this year with a screening of films selected from ASIFA chapters around the world at the Woodruff Arts Center‘s Rich Auditorium and presented in association with the High Museum of Art. Admission is free, though it is suggested that you reserve a free ticket at the ASIFA-Atlanta website.

This Tuesday, October 20th, at 7:30 pm,  in conjunction with ASIFA-Atlanta, C. Martin Croker returns to the Plaza Theatre, in Atlanta with the second of his Bizarro Sat Morn! shows this season, featuring a program of cartoons on 16mm, which has been described as "An oddball mash-up of nostalgia and bits of o’ weird-o coolness," featuring films from the 20s through the 90s. This Halloween show will feature films by Ub Iwerks, Paul Julian, Bill Justice, Max Fleischer, Hal Seeger , Jack Davis and others.

While you’re at it, check the theater’s website on how to make a tax-free donation to help restore "Atlanta’s oldest continuously operating cinema," which dates from 1939.

Meanwhile, if you’re the Los Angeles area, on Monday, October 26th, the CalArts Downtown Center for Innovative, Performing and Media Arts, at 8:30 pm, will present the world premiere of Christine Panushka and Beto Araiza, Mosca and the Meaning of Life. 

It is described as

a groundbreaking multimedia piece in which animated characters leap off the screen and join up with a live performance crafted by award-winning filmmaker and animator Christine Panushka and theater and spoken word artist Beto Araiza.

Mosca and the Meaning of Life questions our belief systems, customs, and social values, the truths and lies with which we live out our lives, motivated as much by misinformation and desperation as by hope. The program also includes The Sum of Them, Singing Sticks and other films by Panushka, as well as an excerpt of Biting the Pillow, a performance by Araiza.

Christine Panushka is a valued colleague, whose is not only a leading independent animator and educator, but an unsung pioneer of Internet animation with her groundbreaking (and much missed) Absolut Panushka website.

Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts is presenting a program of “Stop Motion Films from the Savannah College of Art and Design” tomorrow, Saturday, October 3rd, at 8:00 pm. According to the Center, the program, curated by SCAD Professor Hal Miles features

… a collection of award-winning stop motion animated short films created by students and faculty of the Savannah College of Art and Design. The showcase includes Seed by Bennett Cain, No Him, No Me by Eric Urban, Forever I Love You by Selene Mendez Hunnicutt, The Chained Elephant by Lorena Rother, The Madness of Being by animation professor, Hal Miles, and much more.

On Friday night, July 10th, ASIFA-Atlanta put on a screening of locally-made animated films at the Woodruff Art Center’s Rich Auditorium. The event, which was made possible by the High Museum of Art, was put on as part of the 21st Annual Society for Animation Studies Conference being held that weekend at the Atlanta campus of the Society for Animation Studies. It was curated by ASIFA-Atlanta President Brett W. Thompson, who has now posted his introduction  to the screening (see above) as well as the question and answer period that followed with some of the artists who worked on the films (posted below).  Unfortunately, because of technical problems, there is a gap between parts 1 and 2, and the end of part 2 is missing.

The final program included the following films:

Animation Draw 1 — ASIFA-Atlanta; Happy and Strickly in “Fuzzy Business” — Robert Paraguassu / Bark Bark; Vice Versa — Jacques Khouri; White Cow — K.A. Callahan / Kristin Jarvis; Avery Matthews — Richard Ferguson-Hull / Steve Vitale, Turner Studios / Cartoon Network; Blossoming Flower, Smooch, Lick — Bradley Bailey; They Must Be Very Hungry — Bryan Fordney; Mouse and Cat — Joe Peery; As Seen on TV! — Lee Crowe; Traveler of the Horizon — Hamid Bahrami; Cornpopalypse — Graham Shirley; Death of a Matriarch — Takuro Masuda; Animation Draw 2 — ASIFA-Atlanta; A Day at the Beach — John Ryan; Fluidtoons — Brett W. Thompson; Stubbe Peter — Kristin Jarvis; Curtains — Amanda Goodbread; Juxtaposer — Joanna Davidovich; I Will Enjoy — Theodosia Burr (Em Kempf); Code Monkey — Jennifer Barclay; Animation Draw 3 — ASIFA-Atlanta; Get Got — Bryan Fordney; Busted — Matt Maiellaro.

Starting Wednesday, August 26th, ASIFA-Atlanta, in conjunction with the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, will be putting on Animation Attack! 2009 . Most screenings will be at the Midtown Art Cinema, in addition to a special screening of Bruce Bickford’s 47-minute, psychedelic clay animated Cas’l (see excerpt below), accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by Omelet, at Eyedrum on at 11:00pm.  There will be screenings of selected short films at the Midtown on August 26th at 8:30pm  and Thursday, August 27th at 9:30 pm, as well as a showing of Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues at The Five Spot. A full schedule can be found here.

ASIFA-Atlanta is having its local showcase of locally-made commercial animation Blowin’ Smoke this Sunday, June 28th, at 8pm. we have our annual showcase of locally-made commercial animation, at the Five Spot. This free screening is an opportunity to see what’s happening in the local animation industry. ASIFA-Atlanta president Brett W. Thompson writes: 

We’re proud to be showing work from Turner Studios, including an unaired pilot called Avery Matthews by the guys who brought you Harvey Birdman! We are also very happy to be showing work from local studio Primal Screen! Also, for the first time, local studio Awesome Incorporated will be showing work at this event — we may have more material from other local studios but some of it is up in the air. We’ll also be showing work from local freelancer and animator Joanna Davidovich.

As part of the 21st Annual Society for Animation Studies Conference being held July 10-12, ASIFA-Atlanta is putting on a screening of independent and commercial animation, “Georgia Animation on Our Mind: A Screening of Peachtree State Animation,” which is being hosted by the High Museum of Art at the Rich Theatre of the Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, on Friday, July 10th, at 8:00 PM .

When most people think of animation and Georgia, Atlanta-based Cartoon Network is the first thing that comes to mind; though Cartoon Network is represented by Avery Matthews, a never-aired pilot made by Turner Studios [see image above], the bulk of the program is devoted to the work of local studios and filmmakers from the Atlanta and Savannah areas.

The final schedule is still pending but among the other films confirmed include En Transit, an installation piece made for l’Ecole Nationale Supériure d’Architecture de Paris La Villette by Georgia Tech’s Sara Hornbacher, Kenneth Knoespel and Hartmut Koenitz which “uses” footage from Walter Ruttman’s Berlin: Symphony of a Great City [see above] (and other films) to explore the space of cities; Hamid Bahrami’s hand-drawn Traveler of the Horizon, previously shown at ASIFA-Atlanta’s celebration of International Animation Day at the High Museum of Art; Takuro Masuda’s stop motion Death of a Matriarch, made with a grant from the Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts’ Xperimental Puppetry Theatre program; SCAD-Atlanta graduate Amanda Goodbread’s Curtains; SCAD professor Hal Miles’ stop motion The Madness of Being; ASIFA-Atlanta president Brett W. Thompson’s first film, Fluidtoons; and Mouse and Cat, an independent effort by Joe Peery, Turner Studios animation director and former ASIFA-Atlanta president.

Free tickets can be reserved here.

Nina Paley‘s Sita Sings the Blues, the highly-acclaimed animated feature whose distribution has been hampered by copyright problems, will have a special screening sponsored by ASIFA-Atlanta at the Plaza Theatre (1049 Ponce De Leon Ave. Atlanta 30306. 404 873-1939), Wednesday, March 11th, at 7:30 p.m. Prices are $8 for ASIFA-Atlanta members and $10 for non-members and can be bought online through ASIFA-Atlanta’s website.

Paley, an independent filmmaker and comic strip artist, who does not have the resources of even a minor studio behind her, has been raising money to help clear up the rights problem. In the meantime, the film can be seen for free online (as well as downloaded, also for free) coutesy of WNET, the New York public TV station, at channel13.org. For more information on Paley’s plans for the film, check out her blog, or her new Sita website.

Cult animator and Oscar nominee Don Hertzfeldt has been making a series of one-night stands across North America, including an upcoming stop in Atlanta on Tuesday night, November 11th, at the Midtown Theater, under the auspices of ASIFA-Atlanta. He will be showing a selection of his films, including his newest one, I am so proud of you, which is the second chapter to his Everything will be OK. He will be interviewed on stage after the screening and “chat” with the audience. For more information on the screening and how to buy tickets ($10, or $8 for ASIFA-Atlanta members) check out the upcoming events page of the  ASIFA-Atlanta website.

Among Hertzfeldt’s other venues left on his tour (starting November 8th)  are Calgary, Allentown, PA, Rochester, NY, New York City, Denver and Los Angeles. For more details and other Hertzfeldt matters check out his Bitter Films website.