Keepin' your minds occupied

Good gravy these weeks are spinning by quick - yet at the same time life has slowed to an interminable crawl. What a fun little paradox. 

If, like me in all of my adorableness, you're inching incrementally closer to having just about effing had it and could do with some distraction then you might want to pencil in the next Cardiff Animation Nights. This will be their ninth online edition and, while I'm bummed it's been over a year since we last got to do it in person over at Kongs, you've got to give the team props for keeping their community spirit alive and kicking. As with some of their previous editions Laura-Beth and I will be including some exclusive Skwigly filmmaker Q&As, so be sure to tune in to their YouTube channel 8pm on February 25th and check it out.

If you haven't swung by Skwigly in a while it's worth mentioning that we're still churning out our interviews with some of the industry's best and brightest. Among the filmmakers we've featured over the past year or so whose work has qualified for this year's animated short film Oscar nominations are Frank Abney (Canvas), Nadja Andrasev (Symbiosis), Jordan Canning/Howie Shia (4 North A), Michael Govier/Will McCormack (If Anything Happens I Love You), Shoko Hara (Just A Guy), Steven Clay Hunter (Out), Andreas Hykade (Altötting), Max Lang/Daniel Snaddon (The Snail and the Whale), Catherine Lepage (The Great Malaise), Jean-François Lévesque (I, Barnabé), Arnon Manor/Timothy Ware-Hill (Cops and Robbers), Louise Mercadier/Frederic Even (Sororelle), Michaela Mihalyi/Dávid Štumpf (SH_T HAPPENS), Robin Shaw (The Tiger Who Came to Tea), Benjamin Morard/Frederic Siegel (The Lonely Orbit), Josephine Lohoar Self (The Fabric of You) and Soetkin Verstegen (Freeze Frame). Much gratitude as always to the folks for giving us their time as well as Laura-Beth and our other brilliant Skwigly team members Aaron, Nathan, Martyn and Amy for pitching in with the interviews.

This week also sees two animated NFB productions screen at Clermont Ferrand, one of the biggest festivals around - if it passed you by a few months back you can read an interview with Daniel Gray (co-director of T.O.M. and teeth, a prominent case study in my book Independent Animation) about his film HIDE, plus the festival marks the premiere of the incomparable Joanna Quinn's long-awaited new Beryl film Affairs of the Art. Check out parts one and two of Steve's chat with Joanna and writer/producer Les Mills and look out for an extended interview as part of a future Skwigly podcast.

Something else that might serve as a welcome diversion is the upcoming BBC series Chris Packham's Animal Einsteins, a six-part look animal survival skills. I'm not sure if I can elaborate on what specifically my connection to it is right now, so for the time being just take it as a general recommendation. I mean, who doesn't love animal stuff? That'll kick off on February 21st on BBC2.

End o' month bits o' business

Following on from episode one, the second Visible in Visuals podcast has gone up today in which panelists Esther Ajibade, Bimpe Alliu, Mel Garber, Mohamed Orekan, Rizwan Rafiq, Tanya J Scott, Ash Wu and Beverly Yeang are chaired by Hodan Abdi to discuss the question “Why is fair and diverse representation within animation important and how can we improve it?”

In this panel, representation within animation content – and how these representations impact the audience watching it – is discussed from a POC perspective. Download here or stream below:

To get in touch with – or learn more about – Visible in Visuals you can follow them on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and email visibleinvisuals {at} gmail.com.

While you're on Skwigly you might want to catch up on some recent interviews as it's been a minute or two since I've mentioned any on here. Recently I spoke with Cliona Noonan when her film was part of the Cardiff Animation Nights August screening; her film Wet & Soppy has since been released online and nabbed a Vimeo Staff Pick so give it a watch and learn more here. 

I was also able to catch up with Daniel Gray whose previous film teeth (co-directed with Tom Brown) was a major case-study in my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films. In our latest interview he discusses his spooky solo follow-up HIDE, made in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada, La Cellule Productions and CUB Animation, in anticipation of its premiere at the Ottawa International Animation Festival last week.

Two other NFB productions screening at OIAF this year are Robin McKenna's Thanadoula as well as 4 North A, which brings together the talents of Jordan Canning and animator Howie Shia (whose previous work we've covered includes BAM and Marco's Oriental Noodles). They're all visually stunning pieces and well worth learning more about, so give the interviews a read and keep your eyes peeled for the films as they're sure to be hitting the festival circuit in a big way.

More nifty news for Laura-Beth Cowley's The Gift in that it is among the Finalists in the Salem Horror Fest's Wicked Shorts programme that takes place this weekend! You really couldn't imagine a better pairing. Looks like there's a lot of great things on to sink your teeth into so take a peek at the full programme here.

Mad Marchness

So far we're on one post per month in blogland; available time in which to jot down my pithy observations has been scarce, to say the least. Any floating nuggets of assumption that this year would prove less busy than my hair-thinning 2015 have been well and truly flushed away at this point.
I don't think there'll be anything I'll be able to show for the current contract I'm on for a good little while but here's a roundup of what's been happening elsewise.
The last few Skwigly podcasts have boasted some excellent animation guests, including:
Australian indie director Elliot Cowan (The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead) in episode 43...
...Louis Hudson and Ian Ravenscroft of Dice Productions discussing their career and recently released Nickelodeon short DuckManBoy in episode 44...
...not to mention Dan Gray and Tom Brown of Holbrooks, whose wonderfully grim short teeth was one of my top picks of last year, in episode 45:
Treat yourselves and get caught up!
As far as written features go, there are two recent interviews with NFB filmmakers Sarah Van Den Boom whose tremendous film In Deep Waters is an exploration of ‘Vanishing Twin Syndrome’; a constant sense of incompleteness that can stem from our time in the womb. I'm also very happy to once again speak with Theodore Ushev, this time on his latest film Blind Vaysha, an adventurous stereoscopic piece adapted from a short story by Georgi Gospodinov, shortly after its premiere at Berlinale in February.

I'm also incredibly happy to have interviewed Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind writer Charlie Kaufman on his first animated feature Anomalisa, a truly atypical stop-motion film that comes out this weekend in the UK. It may not be for everyone but it's such a breath of fresh air midst all the generica doing the rounds. Also interviewed is co-director Duke Johnson, whose acclaimed credits include Community and Mary Shelley's Frankenhole. The film is out tomorrow throughout the UK, I highly recommend you check out the listings to see if it's playing near you.
That's all for now. Hopefully see you again before another month goes by...