Toot

 toot

 ASIFA SF President Karl Cohen has a new outlet for your animation news that needs more attention.  From the ASIFA newsletter:

“CINE SOURCE MAGAZINE,” A GREAT REASON TO TOOT YOUR HORN ABOUT YOUR WORK by Karl Cohen

I’m writing a monthly column about animation for the Bay Area’s new media publication and I mainly cover local news. The magazine is available both as a paper edition with color photos and on the web here. Your newsletter will continue to carry more and longer local news items; Cine Source will reach a much wider audience. Let the world know what you are doing. Send news items to karlcohen@earthlink.net.

POSTED BY PowellMason ON 06.28.08 @ 11:00 pm | 0 Comments

What’s On the Upload?

 

FilmClick is an online film community created to "connect filmmakers, crewmembers, actors, and film enthusiasts to encourage true filmmaking, whether it be independent, amateur or commercial film." Sounds promising, let’s hope it pans out. Regardless, there are some interesting films to see, including a fair number of animations, like Brainstorm by Forrest (above).

The FilmClick website is hosting a film festival to showcase the original work of filmmakers, whether it be from a film student, an amateur, or professional production companies. Over $5,000 in cash will be awarded. Films must be uploaded to FilmClick, and once accepted, must be available for the public to see. The deadline for submissions is 11:59pm PST on June 30, 2008. Check out their website for details. (And thanks to Mike at Berkeley City College for the lead).

POSTED BY CaliforniaKid ON 06.25.08 @ 7:00 pm | 0 Comments

G-L-B-Toons June 21-28

 

Frameline’s 32nd SF International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival includes a few films with crossover appeal to CableCartoon readers—they’re animated! (Or at least, unconventional..not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

June 21 at 11am and on June 29 at 2 PM at the Castro, Pat’s First Kiss (Canada; Director: Pat Mills), the true story of the filmmaker’s first kiss with a stranger he met overseas. In the Fun in Boys’ Shorts program.

June 22 at 10:30am, Castro Theatre, Buddy G, My Two Moms, and Me (USA; Director: Margaux Towne-Colley) Join the fun with Buddy G, his mom and mommy, in the adventure of "The Lost Rings", the premiere episode of a new series. World Premiere in the Family Fun program.

June 22 at 6:15 pm, Victoria Theatre, Unca Trans (Canada; Directors: Allyson Mitchell, Christina Zielder). Set in an agrarian future, the title character pontificates about gender theory and activism back in the 2000’s. It is in the Transtastic program.
 
June 26 at 9pm, Roxie Film Center, the  “Deep Lez Film Craft” shorts program includes Unca Trans and several films with some form of stop-motion in them. Part-animated films include 4 works by Allyson Mitchell from Canada. In Candy Kisse big-eyed girls and bubble text tell a stop-motion animated tale of woe and lousy relationship negotiations. If Anything Should Happen is a meditation of female rage. A girl in various animal states is seen licking her wounds. In Pink Eyed Pet, love can cause infections even topical treatments won’t cure. Also in the program is My Life in 5 Minutes. It is a photo slideshow with illustrations and animation interspersed.
 
June 28 at 3:30pm, Castro Theatre, Operated By Invisible Hands (USA; Director: Nicole Brending) is in the Dyke Delights program. Two antique dolls confront their secret feelings for each other after a night of unforgettable passion. World Premiere. More information can be found at www.frameline.com,

POSTED BY CaliforniaKid ON 06.20.08 @ 6:12 pm | 0 Comments

Nina Sings No Blues

 

Sita Sings the Blues, written, directed and animated by Nina Paley, has won first prize (Cristal) for Best Feature Film at the Annecy Animation Festival in France. Nina, as local cartoon fans may remember, moved to Santa Cruz back in 1988 to create her own independent comic strip Nina’s Adventures which ran in alternative weeklies for five years. She graduated to a syndicated strip, called Fluff, but ultimately, she grew frustrated with the mainstream comics scene, and by the late 1990s had begun to experiment with animation.

For the past five years, in her new home in Manhattan, she’s single-handedly created Sita, a retelling of the ancient Indian epic The Ramayana, which tells the story of Rama and explores the concept of dharma. Nina made the potentially controversial choice of retelling the story from the point of view of Rama’s wife Sita, leavened the story with insights from a tumultous time in her own life, and created a brilliant 72-minute film. Congratulations Nina!

POSTED BY CaliforniaKid ON 06.16.08 @ 5:17 pm | 0 Comments

Have a Psychotronix Saturday

 

Host Robert Emmett (of KFJC-FM’s popular Saturday morning program The Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show) presents a fitting send off to Foothill College’s Room 5015 by hosting another Psychotronix Film Festival.

The Psychotronix presents only 16mm films—the vinyl of movies! From the rich history of forgotten films comes ancient commercials, kooky cartoons, bizarre movie trailers, incredibly strange short subjects, and other detritus from the first hundred years of filmmaking. This is a rare opportunity to see oddball films too obscure, weird or uncommercial for today’s audiences—even though they were intended for mainstream consumption back in the day. In other words, laugh at the past now, because the future will be laughing at us.

There is a $5 donation for an evening of entertainment, though the fine print says $2 for parking on Foothill’s campus. As usual, there will be snax (with an x), fabulous door prizes, special guests, and who knows what kind of surprises. Regulars, and people in-the-know get there early for best seats as the last Psychotronix have been sell-outs! No, this won’t be a tribute to 5015, nor some best-of retrospective. This Psychotronix will continue to feature the new-to-you, off-beat program of amusing and entertaining shorts. While this won’t be the last Psychotronix ever, nor will it be the last Psychotronix in 5015, it is the last event to be held there in the sprung-spring seats and comfy-crunchy carpeting before its year-long renovation.

As Jack Lord used to say at the end of 5-0, "Be there, Aloha!"

The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival is this Saturday night, June 21 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM in Room 5015 on the Foothill College Campus. Get there early - it will sell out!

POSTED BY CaliforniaKid ON @ 3:36 pm | 0 Comments

Toon In…for a Podcast

Tee Bosustow has a name that might ring familiar to animation fans—his dad and brother will be forever associated with the legendary UPA studio. But Tee has found his own calling, an outgrowth of his own work as a film editor and producer. He began interviewing surviving members of the United Productions of America, as part of his documentary project Magoo, McBoing Boing and Modern Art, but has gone on to interview many other players in the animation scene. 

Tee lives in southern California but frequently visits the Bay Area for interviews. You can download his 30-minute podcasts at his website Toon In…to the World of Animation which include a dozen or so Bay Area animation personalities, including Pixar folks Brad Bird, Andy Beall and Lou Romano (top left); UPA vet Dave Hilberman (top right); ASIFA-SF president Karl Cohen and even CableCartoon contributor Joe Sikoryak.

Toon In… is a fantastic resource for animators, fans and students, particularly if you’re chained to a desk or drawing board anyway. Instead of listening to talk radio or top 40, why not get inspired by insightful comments from Jules Engle or June Foray or Derek Lamb or Sharon Coleman (top right) or any of the other 44 subjects so far. (You can also subscribe via iTunes).

And if you want to show your support, why not pick up a copy of Inside U.P.A., a picture book of the studio edited by Amid Amidi that’s of interest to animators and ’50s style mavens alike. The book is a limited edition to help fund the UPA Legacy Project and is available here or on amazon.com.

 

POSTED BY CaliforniaKid ON 06.12.08 @ 5:42 pm | 0 Comments

The Meaning of Shrek

The big art news in San Francisco this week is the opening of the Contemporary Jewish Museum (that big blue cube across from the Metreon and Yerba Buena Gardens on Mission Street). It’s likely to be quite a scene this weekend, but cartoon fans have an extra reason to brave the opening season crowds:

From The New Yorker to Shrek: The Art of William Steig, features a wide selection of original drawings for both his New Yorker cartoons and his children’s books such as Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Doctor De Soto, Amos & Boris, Gorky Rises, Dominic, When Everybody Wore a Hat, and Shrek! (“fear” in Yiddish). Additionally, the exhibition will showcase his lesser known mid-life symbolic drawings, correspondence, and other documentary materials that will shed light on Steig, the man and the artist. From The New Yorker to Shrek: The Art of William Steig was organized by Claudia Nahson, Associate Curator at The Jewish Museum, New York.

POSTED BY CaliforniaKid ON 06.06.08 @ 6:29 pm | 0 Comments

Sketch-A-Thon Fundraiser for Cancer Research at the Cartoon Art Museum



June Cartoonist-in-Residence Tom Beland presents
The Josh Medors Benefit Auction and Sketch-a-thon

Cartoon Art Museum Event:  Saturday, June 7, 2008, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm

Free and Open to the public



The Cartoon Art museum hosts Tom Beland, award-winning creator of the comic book True Story, Swear To God, on Saturday, June 7th  from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, as part of its ongoing Cartoonist-in-Residence program.  Museum visitors will be offered the chance to watch Beland at work and chat with him about cartooning.

Beland is one of several artists who will be participating in a special fundraising event as a benefit for comic book illustrator Josh Medors, artist of such titles as Frank Frazetta’s Swamp Demon, Runes of Ragnan, GI Joe, and 30 Days of Night.  Medors was recently diagnosed with cancer, and Beland and several other artists and comic industry professionals have banded together to help Medors raise money to offset his medical expenses.

Throughout the day, Beland and other artists will be stationed in the Cartoon Art Museum’s lobby, drawing sketches and auctioning off original artwork and memorabilia as part of their fundraising efforts.  All proceeds from the Sketch-a-thon and auctions will go toward Medors’ medical expenses.

About Tom Beland:

Tom Beland is the creator of the six-time Eisner-nominated series True Story, Swear To God, published by Image Comics.  The romance-comedy revolves around a cartoonist who moves from Napa Valley to the island of Puerto Rico, all in the name of love for a woman he met at a bus stop in Disneyworld.  He has also written for Marvel Comics, Bongo Comics, and his work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Spark Generators II, published by the Cartoon Art Museum. 

Beland, 45, lives with his wife, Lily Garcia in the city of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.  Odd fact:  Tom’s brother, John Beland, sang on the original theme song to the Brady Bunch.  Tom was also hugged by Dolly Parton and lived to brag about it.

 

Tom Beland

POSTED BY Mr. Hyde ON 06.04.08 @ 5:52 pm | 0 Comments