Roundup: February 2022

My pals at the Manchester Animation Festival have kicked off a new series of year-round social/screening events MAF Presents, which began earlier this month with their first programme They Love Me, They Love Me Not that kindly featured my latest film Speed. If you're up North be sure to keep your eyes on their site and socials for updates on upcoming events as I'm sure you're itching to get back into the swing of that whole human contact thang.

On a similar note, the wonderful Cardiff Animation Nights gang have resumed their in-person events as well as carrying on the online screenings they started during the pandemic, so be sure to follow what they're up to as well. Even more exciting is the return of the Cardiff Animation Festival, whose third edition will take place at their usual Chapter Arts venue April 7th-10th, knock wood, with an online version going through to the 24th. There'll be more specific programme info to come but in the meantime I can confirm I'll be there to host the filmmaker Q&As and Laura-Beth Cowley's recent project Crafty Witch is among the festival's official selection as part of the Shorts 7: After Dark category. Pop it in your schedules!

Also on the events front, the biennial British Animation Awards - on which I mucked in as preselector/jury - will be happening on March 10th at the BFI Southbank with signal events in Bristol, Cardiff, Salford and Stirling if a Thursday night trek to London isn't doable but you still want to check out the festivities. All being well I'll be at the main event so hopefully will see some of y'all in the big smoke; I won't hug you but we can affectionately exchange finger-guns. Otherwise be sure to check out their site for the various viewing and ticket options they have.

Before any of that will be Speed's inclusion as part of Anima Brussels next weekend. Since the announcement of the official selection I now know it will be part of the second Animated Nights block on Saturday, March 5th, kicking off at 10pm in Flagey Studio 4 and 10:30pm at Palace. I'm properly gutted that I won't be able to make it in person as seeing Sunscapades as part of the same programme a couple years ago was an absolute blast, but right now the faff of getting in and out of Belgium would just be too disruptive to make it feasible. Fingers crossed I'll make it back over there before too long.

Following on from last month's UK streaming release of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, it will be traveling further afield as of March 1st with its arrival on streaming platforms in the US, Canada and Australia. It's a job I have a lot of fond associations with and it's really nice that all the hard work the crew put into it will get some wider visibility. Check out what viewing options are available to you here.

Over on Skwigly I've delved a bit further into the production of the incredible Netflix film The House (the directors of which I interviewed last month) via an interview with Nexus Studios producer/co-founder Charlotte Bavasso. As well as discussing the film itself we also go into the early days of the studio and what the future may hold - it was a real treat to chat with her and I hope you find her insights as inspirational as I did.

Having been out of print for a little while I'm pleased to see that We Still Care A Lot, the tribute album I contributed to in honour of the late Chuck Mosley, has finally gotten itself a digital release. You can check out the full album over on Bandcamp.

Not a whole bunch else I can explicitly talk about but if you happen to be one of those trendy youngsters who lurk about on TikTok you might want to go ahead and follow this little IP that's on the grow. The keen of ear may even detect a familiar vocal performance in the video below:

Finally, these pipes have gone viral.

'We Still Care A Lot' out now

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A post shared by Ben Mitchell (@benlmitchell) on Oct 31, 2019 at 3:28am PDT

Some not-so-Halloweeny but quite splendid news today in that the long-gestating tribute album to the late Chuck Mosley of Faith No More, Cement and VUA is out now.
Perhaps surprisingly my contribution (with some help by the wonderful Laura-Beth Cowley) isn't a Faith No More cover but one of my favourites from VUA, Nameless. I was overjoyed to get to meet him during his (sadly final) UK tour when he played just up the road at Bristol Bierkeller and see him do his version of the song live:

We Still Care A Lot features various artists paying tribute as well as a posthumous appearance by Chuck himself and I'm really proud to be a part of it. Head over to Murder Boy Music and grab yourself a copy.

Hey WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT huh?

The various dedicated Faith No More blogs I keep track of have let me know that the band's second (though often presumed first) album Introduce Yourself is a sobering thirty years old today.
I have a special fondness for this one, primarily as it was the first full album of theirs I ever bought (roughly 21 years ago) but also because, despite predating the era of the band where they teetered on mainstream fame, it genuinely boasts some of the best songs they ever wrote, at times reaching the same musical heights as their magnum opus Angel Dust.
To mark the occasion here's me foolishly attempting to cover one of said tracks onstage a few years back in loving tribute:
I was blessed enough to meet singer Chuck Mosley when he played in a Bristol a few months ago and treated us to an acoustic medley of songs from Introduce Yourself (as well as a fantastically bizarre instance of him covering the Mike Patton-era Faith No More track 'Take This Bottle').

Cheers to my boy Lee for taking what will be one of my favourite photos probably until I die.

Not really much else to say other than enthuse that if you've never encountered it before why not go ahead and treat yourself to a listen?

"Chasing the night away..."

It's a double-screening for our lad Klementhro this Friday in Switzerland! Continuing the fabulous Nuit du court métrage tour the film is part of, there will be two simultaneous showings in Yverdon (at the Bel Air cinema) and Sion (at Cinéma Arlequin), both of which kick off at 8pm.

Would that I could be at either myself - as it happens that particular night I will be gleefully seeing Chuck Mosley (or Mosely, depending on which album sleeve you read) in concert as he's had the good manners to come to Bristol and play just down the road from me. Mr. Mosley was the predecessor to Mike Patton as the original vocalist for Faith No More, a band I may have voiced some enthusiasm for once or twice. Although the band found major fame after his tenure they undoubtedly made some amazing music together and I count plenty of the tunes he sang on as amongst my favourites. Also 'Introduce Yourself' was the first Faith No More album chubby li'l me was able to save up enough pocket money to afford and so it will always hold a special place in my heart.
The show is part of his ongoing European tour and proceeds are going to the homeless charity Crisis, so any Bristol folks out there should definitely swing by the Bierkeller this Friday night.

Meanwhile my Encounters/Skwigly Q&A sessions continue today as I meet attending filmmakers whose films screened as part of the animation programme It’s Only Natural - Lissi Muschol (Producer, The Wild Boar), Cartoon d'Or nominee David Dell’Edera (Dir. Balcony), Simon Scheiber (Dir. The Lighthouse) and Tomek Ducki (Dir. Emily King: The Animals).

Listen below or direct download. It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.

Summer Nights

Some general updates to keep you lovely bunch up to speed.
Firstly I'm really happy to see that mine and Laura-Beth's recent coverage of the stop-mo segments of The Little Prince caught the attention of the film's director Mark Osborne:

Amazing coverage of the genius team behind the stop-mo seqs of #TheLittlePrince! See and hear how it came to be! https://t.co/qgI6oB1wal

— Mark Osborne (@happyproduct) August 10, 2016

Even this many years in, it's still very validating to see people appreciate what it is we set out to do and I'm very proud to have been among the outlets for the team to discuss their process. If you didn't catch the episode you can give it a download here!

Montrealites - don't forget that Animaze kicks off today! Be sure to swing by the Museum of Fine Arts (Maxwell Cummings Auditorium) for Friday's 3pm Human Nature screening and catch Klementhro alongside some smashing films, or check out the full festival programme to see the other nifty stuff they have going on over the weekend.

From September on it's looking like a very busy few months for the film as far as international screenings go - between tours, festivals and special events my buddy Klementhro will be pestering audiences all over the globe through November. The furthest away looks to be Brazil's Anima Mundi who today announced their official selection and it looks like the adorable, paddle-dependent fool cut the mustard! This will be my third Anima Mundi inclusion so much love to the programmers. The event is set to take place in Rio de Janeiro late October and São Paulo early November, will keep you all posted.

In the more-immediate future, following the aforementioned Busho Festival in Hungary on September 3rd the film will get probably its quirkiest screening as part of the Fantoche International Animation Film Festival's Bagno Popolare 'spa film programme' on the 8th and 9th at 9pm. This will see a variety of water-themed films projected by a thermally heated outdoor pool - The Bäderquartier - where viewers/bathers can relax and unwind. Other great films include Julia Pott's Belly, Tomek Ducki's Baths and Thomas Stellmach/Maja Oschmann's exquisite Virtuos Virtuell, one of the major case studies included in my new book Independent Animation.

On that note, a few of you who pre-ordered it or ordered it when it first came out have been wondering when it will arrive - I'm still trying to determine that, but having made some enquiries the general consensus seems to be that the UK street date (good gracious, aren't I hip?) for the book is August 29th, for those who like to buy their books the traditional way. You can of course buy it online from all good retailers and the CRC website itself. So the date retailers are listing may be an indicator of when copies are being dispatched but if I learn any more concrete information I'll be sure to let you know.

Also just a reminder that I'll be speaking about the book and other related animationey outpourings at Animation Super Grill at Cardiff's KIN+ILK September 3rd. There's still time to pick up tickets and I've gleaned that thanks to some recent sponsorship the early bird price has been frozen, so considering the variety of events on offer it's a steal! The following Monday (5th) I'll also be talking about the book at the monthly local meetup Bring Your Own Animation Bristol. There's a lot of discussion points in the book so I'll be aiming to make each presentation unique for those of you who might be able to make both. The night will kick off at 7:30pm at The Lazy Dog, it's a great excuse to show off new animation work for feedback and Jake Hobbs from Wonky (who also helped out with the book) will be speaking as well. Check out their event page for more info and hope to see some of you there!

On a completely separate subject I wanted to leave you all with an old live recording from about five years back where I growl my way through a stab at Faith No More's deep track 'Why Do You Bother'. I've dug this out in honour of tomorrow's re-release of the band's long-OOP debut album We Care A Lot that the song appears on. Originally released 31 years ago before they were signed to a major label, this record often gets overlooked - I myself might not have gotten wind of it had its 10-year-delayed CD release not occurred pretty much exactly as I was getting into the band back in 1995. Even though it's always felt more like a collection of demos from a production standpoint, there are clearly moments of genius throughout, and this song has always been one of my all-time favourites of their entire back catalogue.
Even cooler is that this week they're doing a couple of celebratory shows with Chuck Mosley, the vocalist for their first two albums who's always been (unfairly) in eventual replacement Mike Patton's shadow - but then, isn't everybody? So after you've heard my warbly attempt I'm sure they'll show you how it's really done. Check out the live stream tonight on their Facebook page.