ASIFA-Colorado News

January 24, 2003                                 

Volume 1,  Number 1

New & Noteworthy

ASIFA-East Screen

Board Excerpts

Upcoming Events

February

March

Thereafter

Festivals & Conferences

Ours

Others

Non-Sequiturs

The Critic

 

 

 

 

New & Noteworthy

·        ASIFA-East Festival Screening

Last night, Jan. 23, at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, ASIFA-Colorado presented the ASIFA-East 2003 Festival Video.  Turnout was amazing, with over 85 attendees.  Critiques of the screening can be found in Non-Sequiturs below.

The evening started off with the board introducing themselves and describing their positions.  By 7:30pm the video started and with a small break the video completed by 9:30pm.

·        Board Excerpts

It was difficult to get so much business accomplished in so little time.  The board held a brief meeting before the event and here’s what happened.

*      The board spent some time reviewing the web design which includes a flash animation that will be swapped monthly to keep viewers coming back for more. 

*      After that there was the matter of event costs.  Quite a few options were discussed, the board agreed to discuss it more.

*      Event planning happened next. Kevin presented several speakers he was pursuing and he will move ahead with trying to nail down dates with these speakers.  Kevin also presented his plans for an annual festival, a committee was formed.

Upcoming Events

·        February

February 26th at 7:00PM come see Edson Williams -
Feature Film Special Effects Supervisor and Artist
.

·        March

Will we finally get Evert to speak?

Festivals & Conferences

·        Kevin presented his initial thoughts on an Annual Animation Festival for Denver.  He was quickly joined by Judy and Ed to form a committee for further investigation.

·        Other festivals to be displayed.

Non-Sequiturs

·        The Critic

The screening opened with statement films of the 9/11 incident.  These animations were intended to show the feelings of the artist shortly after the horrific incident occurred.  The animations were deep and solemn.  But there was a broad range that depicted the many aspects of 9/11.  Snap showed the oppression some may have been feeling, while This is You on War Media showed the impression of the coverage.  Towards Ground Zero presented an eerie stop-motion of how people feel as they head to the disastrous site.  Some, such as Voices of Spring with its accelerated images and Change and My Thoughts on September 11, 2001, offered signs of hope.  And lastly, Three Blind Mice pushed a statement that we cannot continue seeking an eye for an eye.

 

Student films came next.  Shadowplay seemed to provoke further images of 9/11 even though the storyline was about Hiroshima, the carnage and the cleanup.  Ash Sunday was outstanding and interesting with its mix of hand drawn and pallet knife painted images that merge in the end.

 

Commercials were next on the video.  Captain Linger gave everyone a much needed good laugh with its King of the Hill type animation.  Merry Little Christmas and Christmas Song presented music videos of well known Christmas songs in a cheerful, homey manner.

 

Sponsored films provided flash animations like Dad, I’m Not Gay!, a light-hearted short about a girl and father’s obsession with causes.  Utica Zoo, about a bear and his friends going overboard while trying to get some free food, gave everyone a laugh.  Probably the funniest short of the evening, The Narrator that Ruined Christmas, was an SNL stop-motion that parodied Rankin and Bass’s classic Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.  Burl Ives is turning over right now!

 

Independent films ranged the gamut as well with a unique title sequence called Robot Stories and In Transit, providing the feeling of subway motion.  The Dignified Devil and Shirley Temple and Drunky: In Through the Out Door were both well animated visions involving alcohol and casual sex.  Bill Plympton offered Parking a typical Plymptoon about man vs. nature.

 

Lastly, Best in Show, was The Mousochist a funny cartoon about a mouse and the cheese that makes him.  All in all the animations were entertaining and there wasn’t any squirming that usually accompanies a long uninteresting short.  The Award Winning  Films picked out by ASIFA-East well picked and deserved to be on the video.