The Animation Pimp

http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/books/books.aspx?iIDArticle=15375

http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/books/books.aspx?iIDArticle=15430

Keep forgetting to link to my Lit Pimp column for the Ottawa Xpress. Been running for almost a year now. Much friendlier than that bastard the Animation Pimp:

www.ottawaxpress.ca/books/books.aspx?iIDArticle=15709

Well, it’s over. I don’t know what to make of it. Pleasantly unusual I told people. as usual i quietly left the closing party without a word. When i got home I was sad that the fest was over. first time i felt that way in at least a decade.

This was a tough one. We had staff problems all year. Logistic challenges because of a change in venues. most of this forced kelly to work even more than usual. By the week of the festival, she was burned out. The day before the festival she had a car accident and totalled our car (she was okay). that night, we found out that guests were stuck on airplanes because of a strange package left lying around (turned out to be luggage). on Day 1, our office secretary decided to stay home. Said it was too hard a job. On Day 4, we were victims (along with some other organizations) of a big heist at the Chateau Laurier. all the a/v equipment we rented and stored in a locked room at the hotel was pinched. It was a pretty major caper. To everyone’s credit, it only delayed the start of our industry day by a couple of hours. A few hours later, one of our drivers quit.

Challenges are a part of any festival, but they were screwy this year.

Which makes it even more incredible that the OIAF went relatively smoothly. take away some transportation problems (which we recognized and will work on) and it was remarkable how successful the festival was given what went on. Absolutely fucking miraculous.

i wish our attendees could see how much goes into to organizing these five days and the sacrifices that are made by our staff.

as for the content, I’m pretty content. I was really pleased with the competition (even if it was dominated by aggressive masculinity in crisis films this year). We also had a good industry balance with Williams, Pixar, Aardman, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Eric Goldberg. real good mix of indie/industry. if you didnt find anything that pleased you, then you don’t belong in animation.

As for the awards, i can’t quarrel with the international short decisions…although for my money Don Hertzfelt’s I am So proud of you is a fucking masterpiece of insanity, tragedy, and absurdity. I got a chill watching that film. Beautifully tragic. Nonetheless, Chainsaw is no slouch.

Now… there will be a lot of criticism of the decision to award Terra the feature grand prix. I was as surprised by the decision as anyone. I certainly felt that the film was worthy of showing in competition, but no, it was not my pick for the prize. But, fuck a duck, good on ‘em.

Anyway…to the filmmakers, attendees, guests etc… thanks. I really enjoyed myself this year. I hope all of you found something too.

Chris Robinson

That’s right kids, not one, but two news books coming out this Fall.

Here’s the blurb for Ballad, which is part of an unofficial trilogy of books that also includes: Stole This From a Hockey Card (2005) and The Animation Pimp (2007).

Here’s the cover pic (done by Theodore Ushev and his partner, Svetla. Ushev also provided about 25 illustrations for the inside of the book)

ballad3.jpg

In 1962, at the age of 19 and with no animation experience, art school graduate Ryan Larkin got a job at the National Film Board of Canada, where he became a protegé of legendary animator Norman McLaren. In the space of five years, he made three acclaimed short films, culminating with the Academy Award-nominated “Walking,” one of the most influential animated films of all time. Thirty years later, when the author first meets Larkin, he’s living on welfare and panhandling for change on a Montreal street corner.

Ballad of a Thin Man explores Larkin’s life, work, and times, illuminating both the particularity of his talent as an animator and the self-destructive impulses that led to his precipitous decline—a tragic trajectory that the author relates to the excesses of the 1960s. In the course of chronicling Larkin’s rise and fall, the author makes connections to his own life—in particular his troubled relationship with his biological father, whom he met for the first time the same week he met Larkin—and contemplates what it means to take responsibility for one’s life and actions.
Ballad is published by Cengage and Animation World Network. It will be launched at the 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival where there will also be an exhibition of Theodore Ushev’s illustrations.

You can read the what, how and why on the site. Emru always has a place in my heart. He published my first animation piece in 1996. So, if you want to hunt anyone down, he’s the man. Hence, it’s all the more essential that you keep this guy up and running. More importantly, he’s a rare breed of animation writers AND he’s a fine human being.

Make the Gods (and me and my dog) smile and go to www.healemru.com.

NFB. Madame Tutli-Putli.

I love the NFB. I am not being forced to say that–even though I know that they are watching me. I think that Mia Desroches, in particular, is really swell and does a great job promoting the english animation department. I’m not so sure about the chick who does the french side, but she’s kinda sexy if you like bulky hockey player types.

They should do something about Bulgarian and Iranians though (and that guy Barry Dingle who works in the cafeteria). They have problems, serious mental problems. But I love the NFB for giving them a home. Everyone needs a home.

I lost the Martine Chartrand interview that was supposed to be used in my Canadian book. I believe that the NFB agents have taken it from me. There is information about boxers and haitians that they do not want revealed.

I love the NFB. They’re the tops.

hmm…well, let’s me be blunt. The best animation short of the year wasn’t even nominated (cause the distributor forgot to submit the film). That film? Koji Yamamura’s Kafka’s a Country Doctor. This was a film with style AND substance. The most original and complex and provocative film in a few years.
The same can’t be said of Peter and the Wolf, Madame Tutli Putli, or that achingly bad Petrov film.They represent everything that is pathetic about the animation world. Technique and style is valued over substance.
Having said that, 2007 was a shitty year for films. One of the worst years I can remember, so hey, if you’re gonna pick five films, you could do worse (except maybe Claude Cloutier’s Sleeping Betty or Elizabeth Hobb’s the Old Man– maybe the underrated film of the year)

I am happy for Suzie Templeton. She’s a decent gal.
Mostly, I’m glad the NFB didn’t win. The Tutli boys are talented but a little to caught up in themselves. They come from a commercial background and it shows. Tutli is slick but lacking in substance. There is great potential there, but over time, Tutli will not stand with the animation Gods.

I’m also pleased that the NFB didn’t win. It pisses me off that they spend THOUSANDS of taxpayer dollars just trying to get their films nominated. I don’t necessarily blame the NFB producers and administrators. They need candy to give to the ignorant bureaucrats who only see the Oscars as an award worthy of more funding. It’s a shame cause like I’ve said before…the Oscar pool is shallow. A truer measure of success is found at the animation festivals in Annecy, Ottawa, Stuttgart etc… It’s a shame that the NFB–or rather their puppet masters–don’t take enough pride in that.

I’d love to know what the NFB spends on the Oscar campaign. I’m sure the public would like to know too.

Meanwhile, time to get back to more pressing things like NHL trade deadline deals.

Americans,  you need to vote for Barack Obama.

Canadian Animation

In 2007, writer Chris Robinson traveled across Canada to meet with some of the country’s leading independent animation filmmakers. Along the way, Robinson muses about the animation art form in Canada and his own relationship to the scene and personalities, many of whom are friends and colleagues. As he travels from place to place he carries along his own private (and sometimes not-so private) struggles with insomnia, depression, identity, cab drivers, hobos and nobos and the shocking murder of animator Helen Hill, who‚s life and work embody many of the themes that colour these conversations.

With the intimate detail of a diary, Canadian Animation: Looking for a Place to Happen weaves together history, memoir and dream into a mesmerizing and candid portrait of Canadian animation, art, doing, drifting and dying.

Lavishly illustrated, the book’s cast includes award-winning animators Marv Newland (Bambi Meets Godzilla), Chris Landreth (Ryan), Chris
Hinton (Nibbles), David Fine (Bob and Margaret, Ricky Sprocket), Wendy Tilby (When the Day Breaks), Anne-Marie Fleming, Torill Kove (The Danish Poet), Claude Cloutier (Sleeping Betty), Janet Perlman (Why Me?) and many more.

Chris Robinson is an Ottawa-based author and the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF). A noted animation
commentator, curator, and historian, Robinson is a leading expert on
Canadian and international independent animation. He is also a frequent contributor to The Ottawa Citizen and The Ottawa Xpress.

His other books include: Estonian Animation: Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy (2006), Unsung Heroes of Animation (2005), Stole This From a Hockey Card: A Philosophy of Hockey, Doug Harvey, Identity & Booze (2005), and The Animation Pimp (2007).

Robinson lives in Ottawa with his wife Kelly and their sons Jarvis and
Harrison. His dog is Molly.

Canadian Animation: Looking for a Place to Happen will be published by John Libbey Publishing and available through Indiana University Press in the Fall of 2008.

The book will be launched at the Ottawa 2008 International Animation Festival in conjunction with a retrospective screening of Canadian independent animators.