ASIFA-SF & Cartoon Art Museum Present
Booksigning and presentation Tuesday, Dec. 8

The Cartoon Art Museum welcomes author Darrell Van Citters for a special presentation on the creation of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol, the first animated Christmas special. Van Citters will sign copies of his new book following his presentation.

Mr. Magoo and Charles Dickens may have seemed like an odd match at the time but Americans of a certain age will remember that the pairing resulted in bit of pure magic. Produced by the renowned UPA studio, and directed by Warner Bros. vet Abe Levitow, the musical program introduced Mr. Magoo to adult TV viewers and launched a subsequent prime-time series (The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo).

Van Citters, a nationally renowned animation director who has worked with Warner Bros. and Disney, and currently heads Glendale, Calif.-based Renegade Animation, delves into his subject with the discerning eye of an inside expert and the zeal of a die-hard fan. He is thoroughly convincing in making the case that Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol deserves a place on everyone’s holiday shopping list—along with copies of his wonderful new book.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009, from 7:30pm to 9:00pm • Free and open to the public

The San Francisco International Animation Festival
Wednesday Nov. 11 thru Sunday Nov. 15

The news of the week / month is the SFIFF’s fourth annual animation festival—which keeps getting bigger and better every year. Long time fans of the form will remember how we used to have to wait all year for single program (like the legendary Tournee of Animation or even Spike and Mike) but now we get days of animation. How cool is that?

 This year’s offering includeseverything from the big-ticket studio films like The Fantastic Mr. Fox to avant-garde artworks like  A Dream of Lovers and 2 Blessed 2 Be Stressed (by Lawrence Jordan, who will manipulate his projector in time to the soundtrack!) to a demo at the SF Apple store (Data in Motion: Information Design and Animation) to international entries like A Town Called Panic (stop-motion, based on a cult Belgian TV series) and historical works (Walt Disney’s silent start-ups, the legendary Alice films.)

There are many more films, programs of shorts, the best of the Annecy show and a few live events, including a Kickoff event on Wednesday and Opening night film and party on Thursday, which has sold out in past years, so get your tickets now! For a full list of films, times and venues, visit the festival website.

Opening Night film and party $20 general, $15 members.  10-Pack $115 general, $90 members.  Box office online at www.sffs.org, or call 925-866-9559. Full schedule and information: www.sffs.org.

Best of ASIFA-East Screens Friday, Nov. 6
7pm • San Francisco Exploratorium

 It’s another busy month for animation fans and we’re kicking off the local events with a FREE screening of the winners of the 40th annual ASIFA-East Animation Festival. The longest running animation competition in the US, is predictably, a strong show—if you can make it there (in NYC) you can make it anywhere, right?

You can put in your two cents and be a judge—ASIFA-SF is giving away $200 in prizes based on the voting by audience members, so come on down and watch a great show with excellent student films, fine shorts by PES, Bill Plympton, Janet Perlman, 2 Bay Area animators (David Chai & Michael Jantze), a beautiful ad made with colored salts (!), lots of humor & much more.

Admission is free, everyone is invited, so join us at the Exploratorium’s McBean Theater. As a bonus, president Karl Cohen will be showing —in glorious 16mm—a mint print of Richard Williams’ title sequence from The Charge of the Light Brigade, a 1960s masterpiece. 
A list with more illustrations of the awards winners is at www.asifaeast.com,

New from the National Film Board of Canada

As of October 8, 2009, NFB.ca will feature exclusive programming as part of Get Animated!, with new shorts joining over 150 NFB animation productions already online. New titles include The Brainwashers and Subservience, puppet-animated films from two-time Jutra award-winner Patrick Bouchard, as well as Iriz Pääbo’s HA’Aki, a highly inventive and unorthodox look at hockey.

Also added: Tzaritza and Drux Flux by Theodore Ushev; Here and There by Diane Obomsawin; Uncle Bob’s Hospital Visit; by Prince Edward Island animator JoDee Samuelson; Engine 371, a short about the construction of Canada’s transcontinental railroad by Kevin Langdale; and Forming Game by Alberta?s Malcolm Sutherland.

Animation Express Get Animated! will feature the national launch of the 2-disc set Animation Express, a dazzling collection of 26 films by animation innovators. These include Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski?s Oscar-nominee Madame Tutli-Putli, Cordell Barker’s Runaway and Claude Cloutier’s Sleeping Betty, winner of 20 awards including the Genie Award for Best Animated Short. A deluxe Blu-Ray edition of Animation Express features 13 extra titles, including the Oscar winners Ryan by Chris Landreth and The Danish Poet by Torill Kove. Animation Express will be available for purchase at all Get Animated! screening venues, at a discounted price. Animation Express is distributed by Mongrel Media and Metropole Distribution.

The NFB is Canada’s public film producer and distributor (aka the National Film Board of Canada) which creates social-issue documentaries, auteur animation, alternative drama and digital content that provide the world with a unique Canadian perspective. In collaboration with its international partners and co-producers, the NFB is expanding the vocabulary of 21st-century cinema and breaking new ground in form and content, through community filmmaking projects, cross-platform media, interactive cinema, stereoscopic animation—and more. Since the NFB?s founding in 1939, it has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies. In 2009, the works of NFB animation pioneer Norman McLaren were added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Registry.

The NFB’s new website features over 1,000 productions online—visit and start watching.

Henry Selick presents his stop-motion masterwork

On Sunday, Oct. 11, 5:30 PM  Focus Features, ASIFA-SF AND ASIFA-Hollywood cordially invite you and your family (limit 4) to a special 3-D screening of Coraline. Immediately after the screening please join us for a Q & A and light reception for director Henry Selick.

At the AMC Metreon 16 & IMAX, 101 4th St (at Mission) 3rd floor, SF. RSVP (818) 777-3623 

Can’t make it to SF? Want to delve more deeply? The Mill Valley Film Festival is presenting, on the same day, INSIGHT: HENRY SELICK AND THE ART OF Coraline, a 90-minute illustrated talk by Henry about the making of his remarkable feature.  Sunday, Oct. 11 at 3:15 pm, Rafael Center in San Rafael. Visit the Mill Valley Film Festival website for tickets and more info.

The Walt Disney Family Museum Opens Oct. 1

It may seem a little unbelievable that this unique and oh-so-special attraction is opening in San Francisco. Los Angeles, Marceline, MO or Kansas City, even, would seem more likely. But go ahead, pinch yourself and call us plumb lucky. This museum, dropped into the middle of the historic Presidio, is a treasure trove of multi-media, obscure family momentos and tons of film and animation history. Not to mention a shrine to one of the great innovators of the 20th century. So book your tickets and get on down to The Walt Disney Family Museum. It’ll probably take more than one visit to take it all in. PLUS, there will be regular screenings of Disney films in the museum campus theater—starting with Fantasia (1940) which runs thru Oct. 17.

A Heinz Edelmann Tribute
September 17, 8pm• SF State University

Heinz Edelmann was a top illustrator for German magazines when he was tapped to design Yellow Submarine in 1968. His remarkable art direction helped make George Dunning’s film one of the standouts of animation in the 1960s, and his legacy remains influential 4 decades later. Edelmann passed away this summer at the age of 75, and ASIFA-SF, in conjunction with the SF State Animation Club, offers this tribute to his work (along with a nod to that fab foursome who have also been making news AGAIN this week.) The program will include the complete Yellow Submarine, plus Braverman’s Condensed Cream of the Beatles and The Making of Yellow Submarine, all projected in glorious 16mm from rare, original prints.

At SFSU’s Coppola Theater (Fine ARTS BLDG. RM. 101) FREE• Public invited!

 Two cool shows at the PFA

The Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley has two-count’em-two fascinating programs of unusual, experimental and alternative animated films, including classic pre-psychedelia by Oskar Fischinger and new works as well. Shut off the TV and go see:

Tuesday, Sept. 1, ESSENTIAL VISUAL MUSIC; RARE CLASSICS includes: R-1 ein Formspiel (Oskar Fischinger c. 1926-33), Komposition in Blau (Fischinger, 1935), three Charles Dockum Mobilcolor films from 1952 and 1966, Muntz TV Commercial (Fischinger, 1952), Mood Contrasts (Mary Ellen Bute, 1953), Cibernetik 5.3 (John Stehura, 1960-65, screened digitally), Turn, Turn, Turn (Jud Yalkut, 1966), Single Wing Turquoise Bird Light Show Film (1971), Tanka (David Lebrun, 1976), Celebration (Jules Engel, 1978), 3 Arctic Flowers (Engel, 1978), Mobiles (Engel, 1978). 75-min, 35mm, /16mm, digital. 

Tuesday, Sept. 8 SPEECHLESS: RECENT EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATION: work by Martha Colburn, Lori Hiris, Ken Jacobs, Lewis Klahr, Kerry Laitala, Scott Stark, Jim Trainor, Fae Yamaguchi (U.S., 2006–2009, 72 mins) Kerry Laitala and Lori Hiris in person Eight vibrant and haunting artist-made films represent a range of avant-garde animation, from cutout collage and puppet animation to 3-D images and chalk drawings. 

Both shows start at 7:30pm, and admission is $5.50 for members, $9.50 for adults. For directions to the Pacific Film Archive and more info about these and other programs, visit their website.  

Academy of Art Prof shows his stuff

Tony Claar has posted half a dozen amusing animations on YouTube. They are all under a minute in length.  They show off his ability to create very delightful looking, silly characters. Tony studied animation at the Zagreb Studio (Fulbright Scholarship) after studying with David Hilberman at SF State. We love him not just because he’s talented, but because he continues to champion tradititional animation (not that there’s anything wrong with that new-fangled CGI stuff. We like it all!)