Bedside Literature

I'm very excited to announce the official release date of the latest Skwigly book - Intimate Animation - by myself and the incredible Laura-Beth Cowley.

In recent years, there has been a surge in animated projects that have pushed boundaries, broken taboos, prompted discussions and wowed festival and online audiences alike through compelling storytelling and unmatched artistry. Join Ben Mitchell and Laura-Beth Cowley of Skwigly Online Animation Magazine and the Intimate Animation podcast as they take you on a tour of the landscape of contemporary animated films that deal with themes of love, intimacy, relationships, anatomy and sexuality – and the incredible artists behind them.

Through research and firsthand interviews with trailblazers such as Signe Baumane, Andreas Hykade, Ruth Lingford, Michaela Pavlátová, Bill Plympton and Joanna Quinn, as well as newer voices including Sawako Kabuki, Renata Gąsiorowska, Will Anderson, Sara Gunnarsdóttir, Michaela Mihalyi, David Štumpf, Levi Stoops, Lori Malépart-Traversy, Anna Ginsburg, Veljko Popovic, Joseph Wallace, Renee Zhan and more, Intimate Animation looks deeply at how animation has been used to present elaborate and complex concepts relating to love and sexuality.

Exploring the role animation has played in sex education, self-discovery, the body, lust and love, as well as how the medium can be used to visually represent emotions, feelings and concepts not easily described in words nor depicted through live-action filmmaking, Intimate Animation is the ideal book for professional animators, filmmakers, enthusiasts, researchers, academic and students of animation and film studies interested in the themes of love and sexuality.

The book will be released March 27th and is available to pre-order now (use code LP96LCNPH at checkout through this month for a whopping 20% off!)

Update (nah, that isn't satisfying)

Hi there folks, it's been a minute. In fact I don't think I've ever gone over a month without finding some excuse to talk about myself on here. So, y'know, time to overcompensate. 

Over in Skwiglyville we have ourselves a new, (mostly) Annecy-focused episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast featuring animation royalty Joanna Quinn. Joanna's been one of our biggest supporters in every respect since the earliest days of Skwigly and we've been eagerly waiting for an excuse to bring her on the podcast (although she has appeared previously on a podcast minisode from back in the days of BAF) since before it even started, so what better than to discuss hers and Les Mills's long-gestating new Beryl film Affairs of the Art? On top of receiving the Special Jury Distinction for Direction at Annecy the film, co-produced by the NFB, has won awards at Clermont Ferrand, Animafest Zagreb and Kaboom among others and is easily one of the most technically stunning films doing the rounds this year. Download link here or stream it below:

Also discussed in this episode are Annecy shorts highlights, Mikey Please and Dan Ojari's upcoming Aardman/Netflix special Robin Robin, Erick Oh‘s immersive short Namoo, Marq Evans’s Will Vinton documentary ClayDream, Alberto Vázquez‘s Unicorn Wars, Jorge Gutierrez’s Maya and the Three, Netflix’s adult animation slate including the stop-motion anthology series The House and the announcement of Robert Morgan's feature film debut Stopmotion.

Our new interview series Animation One-To-Ones is coming along nicely with our latest episode welcoming back the uniquely wonderful Anna Ginsburg, who previously appeared on Intimate Animation to discuss her film Private Parts. Since then she has done some brilliant work including What Is Beauty? for CNN, A Love Hate Relationship for Breast Cancer Now (which recently screened as part of Annecy's Commissioned Films programme) and Typically for Bloody Good Period alongside fellow Intimate Animation alum Caitlin McCarthy. You can download the podcast here or watch below:

We have a whole bunch more of these planned for the foreseeable, so to be sure that you don't miss any you might want to go ahead and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

We also have the tenth and, for the time being, final episode of Visible in Visuals up on the site, in which organisers Tanya Scott and Hodan Abdi discuss what progress has been made and what still needs to be done with a panel of contributors - Bimpe Alliu, Mohamed Orekan and Paula Poveda-Urrutia - who were instrumental in getting the series off the ground. Download forevs or stream to your heart's content:

It's been a real privilege to have been able to give this series a podcast platform through Skwigly and if you've not yet listened I strongly urge you do so. Fingers crossed that it will continue in some form once they've had a regroup as there are many more discussions that I'm sure need to be had.

If you're in more of a readin' mood than a listenin' mood then prepare to be effervescent with excitement that my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films is available at 20% off until August 1st as part of the Routledge/CRC mid-year sale. Another CRC book worth checking out is Andrijana Ružić's Michael Dudok de Wit: A Life in Animation, a thoroughly-researched overview of the director's filmography and working process that I enjoyed a great deal (you can read my full review here). There are also a couple of recent interviews you might want to check out, including my catch-ups with Claude Cloutier (Bad Seeds) and Michelle Kranot (The Hangman at Home/We Are at Home), who have both made stunning new work worth keeping your eyes open for.

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Since my last post I actually clocked that the end of April marked ten years of my involvement with Skwigly, beginning with my first book review of Bill Plympton's autobiography, followed shortly after by an interview with the man himself. I hadn't planned on doing more for the site (much less one day taking it over) and, given how crucial discovering his work had been to my switch of career direction from graphics to animation and films, meeting Bill felt at the time like everything coming full circle. But, as is often the case in life, it turned out to be the beginning of something far grander. The current team would eventually take it over a couple years later and I'm hugely proud of what we've grown it into and the wealth of relationships that have branched out from it. I posted up a bunch of memories that stood out over on my Instagram including crossing paths with other inspirational figures Joanna Quinn, Signe Baumane, Peter Lord, Billy West, Rosto, Richard Williams, Tomm Moore and some previously unseen footage of chats with Adam Elliot (another crucial artist who helped shape my career direction) and a then up-and-coming Rebecca Sugar, not to mention the ongoing relationships with organisations such as the NFB and Cardiff Animation Festival and some unexpected excuses to sit down with folks outside of the animation sphere like Kaada, Charlie Kaufman and Caroline Thompson.

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The fact of the matter is that's just the tip of the iceberg and there are a ton of other wonderful memories I didn't have time to post up, such as organising an interview and fan Q&A with legendary Jan Švankmajer; speaking with inspirational talents Bob Jaques, Stephen DeStefano and Jim Gomez for a Ren & Stimpy special; literally hundreds of chats with artists whose work I love (see the big ol' list under Skwigly Interviews on the right there); getting to bring on my amazing friends who've been smashing it like Jo, Jane, Lauren, David, Phil, Mary and Matt; driving folks nuts with Steve's MAF quizzes; interviews conducted in lightning storms; bringing my dad on the podcast to chat about his work on Yellow Submarine; curating programmes for Encounters, BAF, MAF, CAN and CineMe; working with other festivals including Animafest Zagreb, ITFS Stuttgart, DAFF and Anima; appearing on TV to talk about dirty cartoons with Steve; teaching the world to sing in Brussels; teaching the world to sing in Manchester; even being stranded in Geneva waiting for a bus to Annecy after my flight from Bristol was delayed by 4+ hours has, by virtue of the folks I met along the way, become a fond memory...just about.

It isn't all roses though and unfortunately doing this kind of work means you occasionally encounter the odd nutjob or angry little raging bellend. And sometimes someone you admire when you first meet/interview them turns out to be, well, not so admirable. While those stories do make for better anecdotes, I'll save them for me memoirs. What is clear is that those instances are completely eclipsed by the comparative wealth of joyful moments and that's an important thing to hold onto. 

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More important than anything else is that it was through running Skwigly that I met my favourite lady person Laura-Beth when she came on board as a contributor and eventually our main Features Writer. I'd never have suspected that indulging what started as a hobby for niche animation journalism would have brought somebody so wonderful into my life and she continues to surprise, impress and inspire me every day.

Fun fact: our marriage was such a legendary event within the animation world that acclaimed director Wes Anderson included a replica of our wedding venue in his stop-motion adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox...nine years previously.

Now go follow her Insta if you haven't yet because it's much more interesting than mine. 

"Run over your knees with my bike"?

After a mere eleven-month hiatus Laura-Beth and I are back with a new episode of our Skwigly podcast series Intimate Animation! In this one we chat about some SAS Conference highlights, Disney menstruation films, the time I had naked people sellotaped to my stomach, the body-positive work of Joanna Quinn and Anna Ginsburg - not to mention Henry Winkler's dubious/horrifying ability to ad-lib. We’re also very pleased to welcome independent Croatian director Veljko Popović, who has followed up on his belting film Planemo with the fantastic Cyclists, a somewhat racy (eh?) tribute to the work of artist Vasko Lipovac that will be playing at Encounters next week. Give 'er a download or a streamy stream:
Speaking of Encounters, don't forget there are TWO screenings that will be featuring my new film Sunscapades, and tickets are on sale now:

• Wednesday September 26th - Animation 2: Happy Sad (2pm)
• Thursday September 27th - Comedy 2: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous (8pm)

I better see you there, or you're dead to me! LOLZ!
I'll also be participating in two panels during the festival, the first of which - Animation Today 1 - will be at 4pm on the 26th, with the second - Short Film Today 2 - at noon on the 27th. Festival passholders can book to attend either of these from 9am on the day, and all of the screenings and events take place at the Watershed here in Bristol.

Before then my preceding film Klementhro will be part of Romania's Kinofest International Film Festival that takes place in Bucharest, Oradea, Cluj and Timisoara from September 21st-23rd. I'm hazy on the specifics as to when and if it's part of a dedicated screening programme but it's definitely part of the festival's online competition if you fancy giving it some love.

Lastly but not leastly, the continuing adventures of Laura-Beth's film Boris-Noris will see it screen at the Anim!Arte International Student Animation Festival of Brazil next week. There will be several screenings in the coming months but the first will be on Wednesday 26th as part of Session 11 which kicks off at 3pm in the Cúpula Galileu Galilei planetarium in Rio de Janeiro. You can download the full line-up here.

Bits and bobs. Mainly bits.

After a warm response to episode one, Laura-Beth and I gleefully soldiering on with our new Skwigly podcast series Intimate Animation. In this episode we discuss the effectiveness of animation in conveying sex-related topics such as Project Consent and work by filmmakers including Sam Morrison and Ruth Lingford.
We also meet talented director Anna Ginsburg whose Random Acts/It's Nice That short film project Private Parts is screening at both Encounters and Ottawa next week. There are some keen insights from Anna that we're really happy to be able to share and on the whole I'm feeling very positive about this new endeavour which, as always, you can stream above or direct download.

As well as what you hear in the podcast segment we also discuss Anna's other work (will put up a written feature going into these soon) and her recent travels. As it turns out, Finland's Turku Animated Film Festival that she just returned from had, unbeknownst to me, included Klementhro in one of its guest programmes Ship Ahoy! that took place on the unfortunately named S/S Bore. As best I can tell this was in association with its screening in the Czech Republic back in April, so much belated thanks to them!

While the film is screening from tomorrow through to Saturday at Ukraine's Linoleum Festival I've also gotten wind that it will be part of South Dakota's SoDak Motion Festival that takes place in late October. Stateside screenings have always been something of a rarity for me so that's very pleasant news indeed. More specifics when I get 'em.