Lucky 14

Klementhro's adventures continue with two more upcoming festivals I can cheerily reveal. Following last month's Hungarian screening at Busho, in roughly another month's time the film will return to Budapest as part of the 14th Anilogue International Animated Film Festival's competition programme. The programme specifics have not yet been announced but the festival runs from November 23rd to the 27th with event highlights including screenings of Michaël Dudok de Wit's The Red Turtle and Claude Barras's My Life as a Courgette.

The first (possibly only) screening of 2017 will be a little closer to home, as part of the 14th London Short Film Festival. Out of the 80+ public outings our ginger rafting enthusiast has seen, UK festival screenings have been something of a rarity, so it's very nice that, whether or not this proves to be the end of his journey, Klementhro will eventually wash back up on British soil. Small victories and such. No programme specifics for this festival either right now, but I'll be sure to keep you all up to speed on both fronts.

Briggsian Delight

For our sixty-first episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we meet Roger Mainwood, director of the much-anticipated animated feature adaptation of the Raymond Briggs classic Ethel & Ernest, out in UK cinemas this Friday. Roger’s industry experience includes Kraftwerk: Autobahn, Heavy Metal and The Wind in the Willows as well as the prior Briggs adaptations The Snowman, When the Wind Blows, Father Christmas and The Snowman and the Snowdog. Also returning to the podcast is the movie’s Art Director Robin Shaw, who previously served as Assistant Director on The Snowman and the Snowdog and is currently co-directing the upcoming We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
Also discussed in this episode: First impressions of the new DreamWorks offering The Boss Baby, the overwhelming social media response to the short film Borrowed Time, Signe Baumane's uncompromising review of The Red Turtle and The Simpsons joining forces with Google Spotlight Stories.
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"Can't pay? We'll literally do everything in our power to not have to take it away, 'cause I got these bad knees, see..."

These days my fictional creation Klementhro, once thought to be a bit of an out-to-sea loner, has way more of a life than I do. As such he has a pretty packed few days of galavanting hither and thither ahead of him while I sit at home watching Can't Pay repeats and praying the various After Effects renders I have cued up don't crash.

Klementhro, the comparative socialite, will be enjoying a rare US outing at the SoDak Motion Festival this Thursday, October 27th. Screening alongside work by some excellent filmmakers including Tomer Eshed and fellow Bristol School of Animation grad Simon Acosta, the film will play in the festival's Animation Competition 6:30pm at the South Dakota Art Museum.
Some miles away on the following night, the Nuit du Court Métrage tour will take the film to La Chaux-de-Fonds, where the evening's proceedings will kick off around 8pm at the Cinéma ABC.
The night after that (October 29th, not to condescendingly imply you can't do basic addition) the tour is headed to Neuchâtel, again looking at an 8pm start at the Cinéma Studio.

On top of all that, the Brazilian animation fest Anima Mundi has unveiled its full programme and, as previously indicated, Klementhro is among the official selection! From tomorrow onwards it will screen as part of Shorts 5 in such fine company as Joost Lieuwma's Paniek! and the times/venues for the Rio de Janeiro screenings (there'll be more in São Paulo next month) are as follows:

• 25th October: 10pm, Cine Odeon - Centro Cultural Luiz Severiano Ribeiro
• 26th October: 6pm, Livraria Cultura
• 28th October: 3pm, Cine Odeon
• 29th October: 5pm, Cidade das Artes - Teatro de câmara
• 30th October: 6pm, Cine Odeon

Ooh, hang on. I think they're about to finally take something awa- no, false alarm. As you were.

Anatomy Lesson

In the latest episode of our Intimate Animation podcast Laura-Beth and I meet award-winning Concordia graduate filmmaker Lori Malépart-Traversy, whose student short Le Clitoris has generated a great deal of buzz since it premiered in June of this year.  The film uses traditional 2D animation techniques to tell the story of the oft-misunderstood clitoris and how its standing in society has changed over the centuries, from the patriarchal attitudes of the Catholic Church to the dismissive theories of its ‘Enemy Number 1’ Sigmund Freud.

Having won the Audience Award at Womanimation! and Best International Student Short Film at Animasivo, the film’s ongoing festival run includes showings at Ottawa, Anima Syros, KROK, FAFF, Anim’est and the TIAS Animation Showcase, with upcoming screenings at Anima Mundi, KLIK! Amsterdam Animation Festival, DOK Leipzig and Sommets du cinéma d’animation.
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"...ma perlomeno ha un remo..."

The next date for Nuit du Court Métrage - or Notte del Cortometraggio, as it happens - will be October 21st in Lugano. This stop will have an earlier start of 7pm at the LUX Art House, for 'aperitivo con DJ' - pretty swish! As ever Klementhro will be part of the Happy Aging program that will begin at 9:45pm. 
Grazie!

Bonnes Nuits

More meandering for our man Klementhro, as he continues to paddle his way through unsuspecting Swiss territories! If you happen to be in our near Morges in Switzerland on October 14th then why not mosey on down to the Cinéma Odéon for 8pm and check out the Nuit du Court Métrage programme? From the feedback that's been trickling through I gather these nights have proved great fun, so I'm very happy to be along for the ride. More tour stops to come!

Golden Oldies

For our sixtieth episode of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we’re proud to feature an interview from this year’s Canterbury Anifest in which Skwigly contributor Neil Whitman meets Peter Firmin of Smallfilms, the production company that brought the UK such timeless classics as Bagpuss, The Clangers, Noggin the Nog and Ivor the Engine. Joining Peter is Daniel Postgate, son of the late Smallfilms co-founder Oliver Postgate who has actively continued and commemorated his father’s legacy through the recent Clangers revival, presently in production on its second series.
Also discussed in this episode – the staying power of animated preschool classics, the end of a modern TV animation era as Adventure Time and Archer draw to a close, Disney’s questionable propensity toward ‘live-action’ remakes of their animated features plus a preview of the exciting events on offer at this year’s forthcoming edition of the Manchester Animation Festival.
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