It’s been three months since ASIFA-SF launched the CableCartoon, and your conductors are figuring out all the switches and levers in the driver’s seat. So it’s time to remind members of a benefit you can take advantage of.

One of the missions of the CableCartoon is to strengthen our community and make connections easier. The Member Gallery on the ASIFA-SF website is a place for you to post a link to your website or blog. More links increase traffic to your site and make it easier for search engines to find you. Mainly, it’s a great way for all members of ASIFA to get to know each others’ work in between meetings. (And if you used to have a link on last year’s page but it’s missing now, please send us an update. Stuff happens.)

Just send a 96 x 96 pixel gif (like the ones shown above) along with your url to editor@asifa-sf.org and we’ll add you to the page. C’mon in, the internet’s fine!

Back in the day, you could sit in your car, or bring a chair to sit outside, and watch movies "magically" projected onto a giant screen. Now you can relive those halcyon days of yesteryear with a decidedly 21st century bent. The 14th Annual Brainwash Drive-In/Bike-In/Walk-In Movie Festival is showing a wild variety of shorts this weekend including:

The Drill by Dan Seneres (Survival, control, and revenge in a post-apocalyptic world.)
Psych Burn by J.X. Williams
Human Park by Mick Cusimano (Dinosaurs go to the human zoo.)
Wiffle Ball by Jim Ford (It’s just a game. Seriously.)
Dead Boyfriends by Xstine Cook (Fire! Blood! Puppet Death!)
Severely Spaced by Mark McGothigan & Ure Thrall (The Cosmos redistributed.)
Optech 1 by Dan Monceaux (Deceptively simple Op Art-inspired audio-visual immersion.)

Sound is broadcast into your car or boom box using the wonder of frequency modulation ("FM")—in stereo! Admission is $9 each nite and each program is different. While not strictly an animation festival, it ain’t mainstream fare, either. Shows start at 9:00 p.m. this Friday & Saturday, July 25th & 26th. Visit here for program details. Go to the Alliance for West Oakland Development Parking Lot, 1357 5th St. at Mandela Parkway, Oakland, CA. See a map with directions here.

The Adventures of Prince Acmed (1926, Germany, Lotte Reiniger) is the earliest surviving feature-length animated film. Reiniger created an intricate cutout silhouette animation technique to depict the fantastic adventures of Prince Achmed on the magic island of Wak Wak. And let’s not forget—in an industry dominated by men—it’s a rare film created by a woman. You can see it on the big screen this weekend, one day only, at the Castro Theater!

Lotte Reiniger is the auteur of all of her films, but she is barely remembered today. She loved kids, and rewarded her youthful audiences with challenging but sensitive interpretations of classic fairy tales, new stories and even operatic motifs—all of which played well in the early years of cinema and on television. While in England she performed live shadow-puppet performances, and wrote a definitive book about the art of silhouettes. This is a rare and wonderful opportunity to see a film not only remarkable for its achievement as children’s entertainment, but for its animation craftsmanship, and its creator’s vision.

Presented by the Silent Film Festival at the Castro Theater in S.F., it screens this Sunday, July 13, at 10:30am. “Live Piano Accompaniment by Donald Sosin.

Hey friends and fans of animation, don’t forget ASIFA-SF is having a private screening tonight, Wednesday July 9, at the Exploratorium starting 7:30pm! We don’t mean to be coy, but this feature-length documentary about an important bit of animation history has not yet secured its distributor—so we need to be somewhat discreet. But members can bring a guest and if you want to see what’s going on you can also join ASIFA right here!

Bruce Conner, a San Francisco-based artist known for his assemblages of found objects as well of stock film footage, passed away Monday afternoon. Conner moved to S.F. in 1957 and quickly found his place within the city’’s vibrant Beat community, often borrowing from the town’s Victorian history and mashing-up the the two worlds with assemblages of scraps salvaged from various found materials. He worked in the visual arts, in both 2 and 3 dimensions, but CableCartoon readers will no doubt best remember his legacy in film. While he did not create original footage, Conner still manipulated his found images with the timing and precision required of animation.

Connor’s first film, entitled A Movie (1958), was an avant-garde creation that juxtaposed footage from B-movies, newsreels, soft-core pornography, and other fragments, all set to a musical score. (A Movie was selected in 1991 for preservation by the U.S. National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.) His pioneering work broke many of the rules in traditional narrative film, and set the stage for future generations to experiment with film storytelling and art. Along with his friend Stan Brakhage, Conner paved the way for filmmaking that was more visceral and intuitive than anything old Hollywood could imagine (but that style would eventually be co-opted and rendered almost—-if not quite—commonplace by the subsequent sound and fury of MTV music videos and ADD-editing for summer blockbusters.)

By way of comparison, his 1981 film Mea Culpa, is a work of sampled (before that word existed) animation for a sound collage by David Byrne and Brian Eno. It is serene, amusing, thoughtful and ahead of it’s time—even as is it refers to footage from decades past. (Conner’s films are ditributed by Canyon Cinema, a S.F.-based, independent film cooperative.)

Conner was active in the 1960s Bay Area counterculture scene, designing light shows for performances by Family Dog at the Avalon Ballroom, and in the ’’70s focused on drawing and photography. Art-world recognition resumed in the ’’80s and continued to the present: Conner was included in the 1997 Whitney Biennial, the subject of a touring survey in 1999–2000, and is featured in the current Carnegie International. At Conner’s request, there will be no funeral. He is survived by his wife, American artist Jean Conner, and his son, Robert. (Thanks to K.C. and Art Forum for assistance with this post)

The Animation Show is a showcase for some of the world’s greatest independent animated short films.  They currently license animated short films for a variety of programs including theatrical and DVD collections, iTunes and web channels and for television (via MTV). Launched in 2003, the Show is the first festival of animation created and produced with actual animators at the helm. A sister series of high quality Animation Show DVDs now supplement the theatrical tour with additional insights and brand new lineups of films–while the main Show remains a unique and unforgettable annual program that is usually gone forever once it is out of theaters.

Every year the Show works diligently to put animated shorts into more theaters than any festival in American history: giving these filmmakers the wide exposure their work deserves and sharing their short masterpieces on the big screen, where they belong. The Animation Show was started as an annual feature-length theatrical compilation of short films from
around the world, originally curated by Mike Judge and Academy Award nominated animator Don Hertzfeldt.

And now it’s coming to the Bay Area for one week only. Starting July 4, the Lumiere in San Francisco and the Shattuck in Berkeley will be running the Show; filmmakers are rumored to be in attendance on Saturday July 5. Films include the U.S. premiere of shorts from the prestigious French animation college Gobelins, animation great Bill Plympton premiering Hot Dog, stop-motion superstar PES with instructional cooking treat Western Spaghetti, Corky Quakenbush with his irreverent Yompi, Georges Schizgebel with the gorgeous Jeu–and more!

For the full story, check out www.animationshow.com 

 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.

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).

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,

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.