Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet" at the Detroit Institute of Arts

If you're in the Detroit area this Friday, June 5th, the Detroit Institute of Arts will be showing the animated feature film "The Prophet" based on the poetry of Lebanese author Kahlil Gibran.

The Prophet was produced by Salma Hayek and animated by Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells), Bill Plympton (Idiots and Angels), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues) and Academy Award Winner Joan C. Gratz (Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase), among others.

This will be an outdoor screening, so bring a lawn chair or a blanket. Additionally, this is a free event! So there will be no charge to see the film.

Details on the screening can be seen on the DIA website. There is a Jazz performance at 7 p.m. followed by the screening at sundown--which they have listed at 9:30 p.m.




Hope to see some of you there. :)

Halas & Batchelor, 75 years young

As reported in the article "Halas and Batchelor - 75 Years Old today!" published by Skwigly Online Animation Magazine and written by Steve Henderson, today was the 75th anniversary* of the UK studio "Halas and Batchelor".

From the Skwigly article:

"To celebrate this anniversary of one of UK animation history’s most important studios, a new blog has been set up by Vivien Halas, manager of the Halas and Batchelor Collection, and Jez Stewart, animation curator at the BFI, that will chart the progression and selected highlights from the studio’s history over the next year."

The link to the new blog is here: halasbatchelor75.co.uk. However, be sure to take a moment and look over the rest of the article for more wonderful tidbits about the history of one of Britain's largest animation studios.

If you'd like to know more about Halas & Batchelor, there are many resources listed on the Halas & Batchelor Collection website. Two of my personal favorites are the mini documentaries published on YouTube by John and Joy's daughter Vivien Halas: "John Halas Remembered" (referenced in the Skwigly article),



and "Ode to Joy", which Vivien produced last year to commemorate what would have been her mother's 100th birthday.



You'll find these mini-documentaries as well as films produced by Halas & Batchelor on Vivien Halas' YouTube channel - the Halas & Batchelor Collection.

 *May 14, 2015

International Women's Month Interviews

It's March, and that means International Women's Day (or International Women's Month on my Smudge Animation blog).

If you don't want to wait for the interviews to be migrated over here, below are links to this year's interviews and information about Women working in the field of animation:

March 8
It's March, and that can mean only one thing: in honor of International Women's Day, I post interviews with women animators from across the wide spectrum of animated film. But there's a lot more going in the world of women in animation...

http://smudgeanimation.blogspot.com/2015/03/women-in-animation-2015.html

* * *
March 13
In the Fall of 2013, I met this vibrant young lady from Wisconsin through an e-mail that she sent to ASIFA/Central--inquiring about membership in our organization. With the core group of our members living in Michigan, she quickly became another one of our far-flung members. But Monica hasn't let distance separate her from being a part of the animation community. One of those rare individuals who immediately asks 'what can I do to help', Monica pounced on the chance to help make ASIFA a better organization--notably by volunteering to work on the recently relaunched ASIFA Magazine. During her interview, my expectations were immediately exceeded as I encountered someone with a wealth of experiences that you wouldn't expect to hear from someone so young. The interview only took thirty minutes, but before it was over, I was left wishing for more time to hear just one more story...

Kicking off 2015's interviews, it's a pleasure to introduce Monica Brujenes.

http://smudgeanimation.blogspot.com/2015/03/women-in-animation-monica-brujenes.html

* * *
March 24
I'm going to do something a little different this year. Several times a year, I am contacted by young ladies who have seen these interviews, or the posts on my sister site: 'the Women of Animated Film', or have sat through one of my history of women in animation lectures. They usually ask me for information regarding a specific woman animator for a report they're writing for school or are working on their own historical 'women in animation' sites and ask where I get my info...

http://smudgeanimation.blogspot.com/2015/03/women-in-animation-blue-sky-crew-stories.html

Animated Video: "Saint Joan" by Lucinda Schreiber

Here's a new video that's making the rounds: "Saint Joan", created by Australian animator Lucinda Schreiber.

From her press release:

"Director Lucinda Schreiber has created a hypnotically looping animated music video titled ‘Saint Joan’ for Australian band Husky's sophomore LP ‘Ruckers Hill’. Schreiber is an international award-winning Australian director, animator and illustrator currently based in New York.

Schreiber has magically brought to life Saint Joan’s melodies of love and loss, memory, time and redemption. The video is broken into animated loops inspired by key lyrics in the song. Refined and edited together with connecting animation, the video is seamless from start to finish like an infinite loop.

Created digitally as two-dimensional frame-by-frame animation, a tablet and stylus was used to draw each frame and although it's far from analogue, Schreiber was able to hold onto the warmth and charm of traditional animation, as each frame is lovingly hand sketched. Schreiber shot the live action component in Sydney and worked on the animation from New York.

Lucinda has directed, animated and illustrated numerous projects for clients including Gotye, Saks 5th Avenue, Coca-Cola, NPR, Telstra, MidnightJuggernauts and Kotex. She is represented by Photoplay Films in Australia, Asia and the USA."

The video is below, check it out and when you're done, visit her website to look at some of Lucinda's other work.


Husky - St Joan from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

I especially enjoyed her stop-motion ink and paper animation commercials for Coca Cola and her chalk animation commercial for Saks 5th Avenue. But if you only watch one, definitely check out her commercial for "Telstra" which I've embedded below.


Telstra "It's How We Connect" from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

FILM UPDATE: "Rocks in My Pockets" by Signe Baumane

Well, it's 2015 so let's start out the year right: with an announcement from Signe Baumane about her animated feature "Rocks in My Pockets".

From Signe's newsletter:

"We have exciting news! "Rocks In My Pockets" is going to be released online as Video On Demand and DVD on January 29th! There will be a period of pre-sales starting around Christmas, in case you need a last minute gift for someone you love."

Links to sales can be found on the front page of her website: http://www.rocksinmypocketsmovie.com/.

You can pre-order a rental copy for $6.39 (normally $7.99), pre-order a digital download to own for $15.99 (normally $19.99), and also pre-order the DVD on NTSC for $15.99 +shipping (normally $19.99 +shipping).

Streaming, downloads, and DVDs will be available January 29th.

I went to see Signe's film in Chicago last year, but have been purposely holding off on writing a review until I can see it a second time. There was so much to take in visually that I really want to do her film justice by watching it again so that I can pay much closer attention to the story. So, expect a review in February along with a review of the DVD release.