Niemals mehr gesehen

Seems like a nice bunch.

Just a reminder that I'm headed to ITFS Stuttgart tomorrow for a weekend of animation-oriented Germanic merriment. Hope to see some of you there! Should you be about don't forget that Klementhro will screen as part of International Competition 5 which will take place this Saturday, 9pm April 30th at the Gloria 1 and again at 11am on Sunday (May 1st) at the Metropol 2. I'll also be at the Filmmaker Talks at 1pm on the Sunday, if any other festival guests wish to check it out and take me to task it will be held at the Café le Théâtre.
Some other events I'm really looking forward to include a filmmaker focus on the wonderful Špela Čadež and a presentation of recent projects from the Animation Workshop, not to mention the remaining competition and panorama screenings that include some films I can't wait to see on the big screen by the likes of Bill Plympton, Rosto, Theodore Ushev, Anni Oja, Izabela Plucinska, Joost Lieuwma and Daan Welsink. Wunderbar!

"Zip up and let's dance..."

In the latest episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we welcome the highly prolific and acclaimed Dutch animator/multimedia storyteller Rosto. With musical origins that date back to the early nineties, Rosto’s interactive graphic novel project Mind My Gap began in 1998 and has since spawned a number of multi-award-winning animated shorts, including (the rise an fall of the legendary) Anglobilly Feverson, The Monster of Nix, No Place Like Home, Lonely Bones (the concluding chapter of Mind My Gap) and his most recent film Splintertime, which branches off into the continuing adventures of the metaphysical band Thee Wreckers.
Fresh from So Far, So Evil a recent exhibition as part of Animateka Aniweb exploring the Mind My Gap universe that took place at the Museum of Moden Art in Slovenia, Rosto’s Splintertime is still going strong, recently picking up a hat trick (Jury Award, Student Jury Award and Audience Award) of prizes at the European Short Film Festival of Bordeaux with upcoming screenings at this year’s edition of ITFS Stuttgart.
Also discussed in this episode: Skwigly anxiety dreams, forehead breasts, upcoming features (The Secret Life of Pets, Angry Birds and the extremely necessary Emoji movie), animators that push the limits and more!
Stream the latest episode below or direct download here.
To catch up on the podcast so far be sure to visit the Podcasts section of the site and, so as not to miss out on any future episodes, you can subscribe on iTunes!

Riptide

Schaffhausen sightseeing

Lonesome, paddle-dependent Klementhro's journey is ever-continuing, with more upcoming screenings imminent. First off we have the next two stops of the Short Film Nights tour in Switzerland, which will see the film playing in Winterthur at Kino Kiwi Loge this Friday April 22nd, then again the following night in Schaffhausen at Kino Kiwi Scala. Visit the tour's official website for full time, venue and ticket info.

Also this Saturday (April 23rd) Klementhro will screen again at Ukraine's Kyiv International Short Film Festival in a repeat showing of their Animation Madness selection that originally took place last month, so if you missed it the first time and happen to be in the area then swing by the Kinopanorama at 2pm (the English listing says 4pm but I think that's a typo) and check 'er out!

Storm a-brewin'

The glut of April adventuring for our unlikely lad Klementhro is about to kick off good and proper, so here's a quickie roundup of where and when to catch him.

The next stop of the ongoing Kurzfilmnacht Schweiz tour throughout Switzerland will be Biel/Bienne, a city so nice they named it twice, evidently. The programme will kick off at Kino Rex at 8pm on April 15th - more info here.

As mentioned previously, the film will be playing at the Skepto International Film Festival, kicking off their Skeptyricon screening that also takes place on the 15th, at 10:25pm. The screening will play simultaneously at the Hostel Marina and the Auditorium Comunale in Cagliari. I'm very pleased to see it will screen alongside such excellent work as MANOMAN and Mute by recent podcast guests Simon Cartwright and Job, Joris and Marieke respectively.

Later on in the month I'm informed the film will get its Stateside debut at Kraken Con, a cartoons, comics and cosplay convention that takes place in Oakland, California. The film will be included in the event's inaugural animation festival which kicks off 2pm on Sunday 24th at the Oakland Convention Center, keep your eyes on their website for more info as it comes.

I can also now confirm that Klementhro will indeed be part of ITFS Stuttgart's official selection this year. This is wonderful news as I was able to attend the festival in 2011 when they included The Naughty List and had such a good time I swore to myself I'd be back the following year with a new film. Instead it's taken five years, but hey, I get there in the end. The film will screen in the International Competition 5 programme at 9pm on April 30th at the Gloria Kino (screen 1) and again at 11am on May 1st at the Metropol (screen 2). I'll be in attendance for those dates so if anyone else plans on being there give me a shout!

Visdüm Tooten

Still need painkillers but at least the swelling's going down

After months of needless delays I've finally had my shitting bastard wisdom tooth pulled. It's been a thorn in my arse every few months for the past couple years and I was cheerfully informed in my drooling, post-extraction haze that the removal couldn't have gone worse and as such the inside of my head has so many stitches Jennifer Chiaverini could write a goddamn novel about it. I was hoping to get to keep the tooth afterward so I could occasionally take it out and taunt "Haha, shithead, I beat you in the end!" but apparently it came out in like fifty different pieces that then each splintered off into fifty more different pieces, so I was denied even that simple joy. As such I find myself nursing a more swell't head than usual and taking painkillers to the point of potential liver damage. Luckily I have the new Don Hertzfeldt Blu-ray to take my mind off it.

While I was stoned off my gourd at the clinic yesterday the latest Skwigly Podcast went up, this one featuring Felix Massie who is presently working at Nexus on the latest Google Spotlight Stories project Rain or Shine. This comes on the heels of some highly-acclaimed work such as Keith Reynolds Can't Make it Tonight and the particularly excellent In The Air is Christopher Gray.
Also discussed amongst Steve and myself are the usual pertinent industry issues such as which is the better Batman and why 'College Jock' and 'Tube Steak' are both in my search history. It's a fun one, bung it on and brighten your day, why doncha?
As always you can direct download and/or subscribe.

I also spent last weekend gleefully revisiting the old 90s video game chestnut Day of the Tentacle which has been reissued with updated graphics (blessedly it's the same design and animation, just traced over for HD resolution purposes) and all sorts of goodies. I've also put up a review of the original game and its new incarnation that in part borrows from an earlier post on here. All in all my appreciation for the subject remains the same as it did in 2007.

Some more Klementhro news - the film's next stops on the Kurzfilmnacht Schweiz tour will be this Friday 8th in Baden-Wettingen with the evening's screenings kicking off at 7pm at the Kino Orient, with another showing the following evening (the 9th, which to be fair most of you could have worked out yourselves) in Aarau at the Kino Center Schloss, again starting at 7pm.

More immediately, however, the film will play tonight in the Czech Republic at the Prague Rock Café at 7:30pm as part of AniScreen's series of thematically-curated screening nights. I clocked this by happenstance at the last minute so apologies for the short notice, but to whoever might be reading this in Prague (it's a very light shade of green on my stats map, I'll concede) that fancies something to do tonight then swing on by!
A bit of a tease to end on is that I cheerily note a certain handsome, wall-eyed ginger appears to show up in the pocket guide for this year's edition of ITFS Stuttgart. What might that mean, I asks ya? Stay tuned...