Oktoberfests

This month is turning out to be a positively cray-cray one for film screenings, starting today at the aforementioned Goden Kuker-Sofia festival where “The Naughty List” is screening at the Arena West Cinema as part of the 1pm Films For Kids competition program “Through The Eyes of a Child”. It’s also part of the Ukrainian touring festival KROK which wraps up on Monday and the German touring festival Film Sharing, which has its final stop on the 21st in Mainz at the Capitol & Palatin, starting at 8:30pm.I can also confirm that, as well as Berne, it will be part of the Cologne, Cape Town and Vienna editions of the Shnit International Shortfilmfestival as part of "Shnit Animates 1", showing at the following times/places/venues:
•Cologne, Germany
Friday 7th, 9pm Alte Feuerwache 1
Sunday 9th, 2pm Kölner Filmhaus 1
•Cape Town, South Africa
Friday 7th, 4pm Labia 2 (I’ve never been to that particular venue but it sure sounds like a lovely place)
•Vienna, Austria
Thursday 6th, 6pm Burg Kino 2At the 6th Vilnius Film Shorts, it goes under the mildly scary title “Nepaklusniųjų Sąrašas” in the "International Competition V" at 3:30pm on Friday 14th at the “Skalvijos” Kino Centras and 4pm on Saturday 15th at the Kino Pasaka.Also on the 15th it’ll be the closing film of the “Männer” section of Emmentaler Filmtage in Switzerland, showing at 2pm, 4:30pm and 9:30pm and the following day (16th, to condescendingly imply that you don’t know what fifteen plus one equals) at 12:30pm, 4pm and 6:45pm – full programme here.Then on Monday 17th it’s on in Romania at the Comedy Cluj International Film Festival during their 3:30pm Animation screening at the Cinema Florin Piersic, repeated 11am Friday 21st at the Cinema Arta.Following in the footsteps of “House Guest” back in ’09, it’s up for the Delta Film Award at Manchester’s Festival of Fantastic Films on Saturday 22nd.A particularly nice bit of news to round off the month is that it will screen alongside my previous film “Ground Running” at FLIP International Animation Festival in Wolverhampton on the morning of the 28th, which just happens to be my birthday. I know, you don’t have to say it: I’m adorable. FLIP was also the first festival (of, I’ll be honest, a lot) to turn down my work and help steel me against the concept of film rejection, so to have two shorts in at this point is quite validating in a cyclical sort of way.
Phew. Okay, that’s enough deplorable self-love for one post. All that’s left is for me to apologise for using the term ‘cray-cray’ in the first sentence: I’m sincerely, profusely sorry. It won’t happen again.

Lions and orgasms and validation, oh my!

So it’s been roughly twelve months since I finished “The Naughty List”, and I’m happy to say that in its first year out there it’s managed to score a nice round thirty international screenings. This is a really happy feeling as it’s roughly the same amount of outings that “House Guest” took twice as long to accrue, plus I’m still at the helm of my own distribution and am getting this stuff out there and seen without any sales/studio representation. I’m sure plenty of auteur filmmakers and indie animators out there know what a dreary uphill struggle the process can be at times, so all the festivals and networks, big and small, who have seen value in what I’m trying to do mean a lot to me. Go go pantsless Santa!The thirtieth event in question is Cluj-Napoca’s Comedy Cluj International Film Festival, which makes for the second time the film has been shown in Romania. Maybe they get a kick out of the anti-consumerism angle. Well, maybe they would if there was one, it certainly isn’t a deliberate theme of the film. I’m the biggest consumer I know; The inside of my apartment looks like a Forbidden Planet tradeshow – toys, film posters, standees, no women in sight, you name it. Anyhoo, the festival goes from October 14th to 23rd.While I’m a-typin’, I may as well point y’all in the direction of a couple more pieces I did for Skwigly. One is an interview with established animation veteran Ruth Lingford, former RCA lecturer, two-time Animate Projects director and current Professor of the Practice of Animation at Harvard, which I’ve heard is kind of a big school. Her most recent film “Little Deaths” was produced as part of their Film Study Center fellowship. It’s something of a stream-of-consciousness visual affair, not ordinarily my thing except A) this one’s about orgasms and B) Daffy Duck’s in it. Kind of.Truthfully it’s a really interesting film with a lot to like, not least of which the soundtrack which interweaves conversational snippets wherein a variety of contributors attempt to describe sexual climax and its associations. It makes for alternately fascinating, amusing and unexpectedly poignant viewing.Another interview is with Alois Di Leo, one of the NFTS graduates from last year whose student film “The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion” is, frankly, a pretty masterful piece of work. Bucking a lot of the less positive trends among younger filmmakers today, it very deftly deals with a story (a deaf boy retreats into a fantasy state after developing an imagined affinity with lions) that could easily lend itself to hackneyed sentiment or audience pandering. Instead the narrative unfolds very matter-of-factly, so the moments of humour and emotion occur completely organically. As it progresses it sort of slaps you upside the head, but not in a contrived way.Both filmmakers had a lot of interesting things to say about the process and how they regard their craft, so I’d advise any of you with animation/filmmaking impulses to give them a read:
A Conversation with Ruth Lingford – “Little Deaths”
A Conversation with Alois Di Leo – “The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion”
There are more features/interviews/reviews a-comin’, some of which I’m pretty excited about. Insufferable braggart that I am, I’ll doubtless link to them here, so stick around folks.