I was working in the trade-show area at the NAC during much of the festival for my employer , Cecropia Games , showcasing the new interactive animated video game , "The Act" (click the link to see a trailer) .
I'm happy that Cecropia sent me to represent them in the booth along with my colleague from Cecropia's Orlando,FL animation studio , animator Anthony Michaels. We were joined by Cecropia's CEO and creative director , Omar Khudari , and also Sherri Belski and Brenda Nashawaty from Cecropia's Lexington, MA office. The trip was an unexpected perk and turned out to be a memorable experience for me. (a big "Thank You!" to Omar for asking me to come to Ottawa)
I came back from Ottawa re-invigorated in attitude and love for animation. I really enjoyed running into old friends (some very unexpectedly) and in general it was a good feeling being back in the town where I got my start professionally in animation 22 years ago (see the photos of Ottawa I posted in the link below).
Even though I had to stay in the Cecropia booth for much of the festival, I still managed to squeeze in a few screenings , including the Awards show and screening of the award-winning films on Sunday night. One of the best events was the seminar on "The Genius of Bob Clampett" , hosted by John Kricfalusi , with a panel consisting of local Ottawa animators Jessica Borutski and Nick Cross , honorary festival president Mark Langer , and I think one of the animators from Copernicus Animation Studios who's name I missed (anyone know ? Please tell me in the comments so can correct this) . This , along with the screening later that night of several of Clampett's greatest cartoons made at Schlesinger's was a highlight of the festival for me. John K and Co. preached the Gospel of Clampett with many fine film clips and personal anecdotes/reflections about Clampett's influence on their own work and on animation in general (and why modern day animation should pay more attention to the example set by Clampett and his collaborators ).
I missed the screening Toon Town: 65 Years of Animation in Canada's Capital 1: Short Films which featured the work of the aforementioned Jessica Borutski and Nick Cross , so I was very sorry I missed the world premiere of Nick's film "The Waif of Persephone" . I'll have to buy the DVD when Nick makes it available someday soon (click on the link to his blog) .
It turns out that Nick is a friend and admirer of Graham Falk, as I am , so we have that in common. I didn't get time to do more than just stop by after the Clampett seminar to say "hi" to Nick, but hopefully if I get to go back to Ottawa next year I can buy him a drink and spend a little more time getting acquainted (maybe we can even coax Mr. Falk to attend ? ) I''ve only recently found Jessica Borutski's blog , though I have known of her work from the quirky, beautifully drawn short "I Like Pandas" , which I saw on the internet last year .
The pandas film also screened at the Ottawa retrospective which I missed , but it's still available to view online on YouTube (click the link) . Check out Jessica's blog for great designs . Beautiful stuff.
She and her partner Chris Dainty were pitching a show at the Television Animation Conference going on during the Ottawa festival and I hope they had great success with it . These Ottawa animators are the proof that animation is alive and well in Canada's capital city . I'm inspired by all of them.
I've already expressed my enthusiasm for the films "Jaime Lo - Small and Shy" by Lillian Chan and "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" by Michael Sporn in my first post about Ottawa down below , but I also enjoyed the Kafka inspired "The Man Who Waited" by Theodore Ushev .
In the promotional films category I was glad to see the finely crafted United Airlines "Dragon" spot directed by Jamie Caliri on a big-screen. It received "Honorable Mention" . I really thought "Dragon" should have won as the best promotional film award , instead of the winning Fed-Ex spot "Stick" (which was clever) directed by David Hulin , but, hey, no one asked me.
I enjoyed the winner for best Experimental/Abstract Animation "Jeu" by Georges Schwizgebel which impressed me for , in the words of the Ottawa judges: “ the McLaren-like celebration of colour and motion.” or something like that ... "Jeu" wasn't really so much abstract as it was semi-abstract or maybe "non-linear" storytelling , whatever . Beautifully drawn and colored. The NFB website says : "In Jeu, the filmmaker sets the viewer down in a landscape whose scenery constantly morphs and mutates. This helter-skelter world evokes the chaos of modern life."
Yeah, what they said.
I was happy to see the excellent student group film from the Gobelins School, "Le Building" by Marco Nguyen, Pierre Perifel, Xavier Ramonede, Olivier Staphylas & Remi Zaarour , win as the Best Undergraduate Animation . Every time I see something from the Gobelins school I am amazed that it is "student" work . So accomplished and well-crafted .
I also enjoyed the photo collage Flash animated "It's Jerry Time: The Brute" which won in the Animation Short Made for the Internet category.
(complete list of winners HERE )
