1 DIRECTOR’s ANIMATION MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL 14TH MESSAGE Malcolm TURNER DIRECTOR Melbourne International Animation Festival Life is full of paradoxes. By nature and instinct I possess The year that Chris Landreth (maker of Bingo, Ryan, a passionate faith in democracy and yet I loathe and Sub Conscious Password to name a few) was here, I have virtually no faith whatsoever in the concept of took him out to dinner and we wound up talking about collective decision making. how the festival comes together. Basically I told him I cannot stand people and organisations who cannot or that for me MIAF is 70% about the films, 20% about the Lwill not make decisions. At its worst and largest, it filmmakers and 10% about the audience BUT that the powers, empowers, fuels and funds a veritable army audience sat at the tip of the hierarchy of priorities. of chair warmers, ticket clippers and self-protectors By this, I think I mean that at heart I will program the charged with gathering all the information to be passed films that I think should be shown BUT as the MIAF FESTIVAL up the line in such a form that the person at the far, far milkshake starts foaming, I will start factoring in the distant end of that line can only really say yes or no to audience experience. the “advice” that lands on his or her table, utterly For starters, I definitely believe that as best as can be secure in the knowledge that they gather the glory done, the final selections should approximately represent when the outcome is good or deflect the tomatoes the overall tone and style of the entire submissions using the “I was acting on best advice” shield should collection and I am the only person in the loop foolhardy things not go so well. enough to have offered to watch all 3,000 of them. The concept, of course, is that the more people that These things vary year to year in really unpredictable contribute, the wiser and more informed the final ways. One year there were an extraordinary amount of decision will be. How on earth this absurd homily has black and white films submitted. Average running time survived in the teeth of hundreds of years of experience is another factor that informs the final selection process. baffles me. The last known example of this really Specific techniques have inexplicable ebbs and flows, happening was probably the drafting of the American as do genres and subjects. The audience relies on Constitution – and even the benefits of that weren’t MIAF to present a reasonably accurate snapshot of the exactly spread evenly. international animation scene and those things are all components of that. That said, I took a bullet for the Generally, the collective decision making process works crew and protected you all the year there was a bizarre in the exact opposite direction. Some fabulous idea uptick in the number of films about butterflies. enters the system through the forward orifice and by the time it’s been digested, sliced and diced, re-coloured Being free to make these sorts of decisions allows me and re-flavoured, it’s usually not in such great shape by to build the festival as I travel. I can arrive at the the time it next sees the light of day. We have all whiffed National Film Board of Canada in the morning and after the odour of a feature film that has been ‘finessed’ by assessing all their new films within the sanctum of that committee, dry-walled by focus groups and gussied up great creative cavern, often in conversation with the on the cheap by an audi of contract marketers. And it filmmakers and the producers, walk out of there in the don’t smell good. evening with everything I need in the bag. This same thing plays out at any number of the distributors, Although perhaps not on the same scale, film festival schools and studios I visit in my annual travels. It’s selection panels harbour all the finest qualities of this easier, faster, fairer and gives everybody in the loop psychosis. Another paradox is that I quite enjoy sitting certainty. It also gives me a sense of the ‘flavour’ of the on them. They almost inevitably come with a free airline festival months out and that can be immensely helpful ticket, a lovely hotel room in some exotic (or at least in shaping the curated programs, accepting or declining tolerable) city, some excellent hospitality and a coterie similar films for competition and even publicity and of minders. They are, by and large, very pleasant marketing. It can even allow me to build specific experiences and even when the odd one does turn into curated programming streams for festivals one, two a shoot-out of thrown chairs, slammed doors and multi- even three years in advance; I purposely held back lingual insults regarding the shortage of functioning Nadia Micault’s film Sonata from last year’s festival so brain cells possessed by certain members of the panel, that I could build an entire symposium topic and guest they still look bloody good on the CV. program around it for this year. Decisions of this type MIAF doesn’t have one of those. Doesn’t have a board can be made instantly and consultation and the seeking either. Can’t afford them for starters. But the wilful of partially informed approval only chokes off the lack of a selection panel perhaps makes the selection potential that they offer the festival as an event, the process opaque, sometimes contradictory and, in the filmmakers as creators and the audience. view of some, unfair. I have some great people around me who provide a lot Does MIAF play favourites? I don’t know. How is that of extremely valuable advice and insights which I take defined? MIAF definitely supports a number of specific on board and am happy to be swayed by. I also try to filmmakers who I believe Australian audiences need to keep a look out for, ’fess up to and fix my mistakes. know about even in the years their films might not hit Some might say that a formal selection panel would act the mark of previous works. Does that mean that a as a safety net to catch those mistakes but MIAF, like “better” film winds up getting pushed off the trolley to every circus, is a lot more fun to watch without one. make room? I hope not, but it might. I have tried to create a festival structure that has lots of programming options available to me for films that get caught in these nets and I devote lots of the brain cells at my disposal to be aware of these potential issues as they whirl around me during programming time. It is one of the reasons MIAF (almost uniquely among animation festivals) has an Abstract Showcase, for example. 6 FESTIVAL ESSENTIAL FUNDERS AND PARTNERS 14TH MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL 14TH BLEND SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATION PARTNER WORKSHOPS PRESENTATION PARTNER BEST OF THE NEXT SCREENING PARTNER INDUSTRY PROGRAM LAUNCH PARTNER CAREERS IN ANIMATION FORUM PRESENTATION PARTNER PREMIER SPONSORS 7 CONTENTS ANIMATION MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL 14TH PAGE CAST&CREW &THANKS OFFICIAL OPENING NIGHT FILM: Sonata Nadia Micault 11 DIRECTOR Malcolm Turner INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM ONE 12 FESTIVAL CO-DIRECTOR Nag Vladermersky FESTIVAL MANAGER Helen Gibbins INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM TWO 14 ADMIN ASSISTANT Perri Hunter INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM THREE 16 EVENT CO-ORDINATOR (ACMI) Reece Goodwin INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FOUR 18 DIGITAL CONVERSION (ACMI) Tack Lim VOLUNTEER CO-ORDINATOR (ACMI) INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FIVE 20 Ruth Green CATALOGUE DESIGN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM SIX 22 Lin Tobias (La Bella Design) PUBLICIST SUPREMO INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM SEVEN: Abstract Showcase 24 Eleanor Howlett / Sassy Red PR BLEND: SYMPOSIUM SCREENING 26 RENDER TECH SUPREMO Ben Ommundson LATE NIGHT MACABRE 28 ARTWORK Helen Gibbins WEBSITE Helen Gibbins LATE NIGHT BIZARRE 31 TRAILER Nathaniel Scott helped big time by Neil Sanders, Damien Clarke, Ivan Dixon KIDs PROGRAM 34 TRAILER MUSIC The Sizlacks 36 ALL CATALOGUE NOTES & ARTICLES BY INSTALLATION Animation Malcolm Turner except Australian Showcase MUSIC VIDEO COLLECTION 38 Introduction by Trent Ellis AUSTRALIAN SHOWCASE 39 GUEST TRANSPORT ET EL Jaimie Clennett BEST of the NEXT Michael de Martino INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE ANIMATION 51 EXCELLENT VOLUNTEERS FEATURE: CHRIS SULLIVAN 56 Julia Browne Consuming Spirits Fiona Dalwood Shirrah Comeadow FEATURE: ELLIOT COWAN 58 ALL the ACMI Classification volunteers The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead ALL the ACMI Festival volunteers PANORAMA CATEGORY BY HIMSELF Andrew Hagan INTERNATIONAL & AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS 59 SORELY MISSED Liz White ANIMATION 101s: MEET THE FILMMAKERS 65 JUDGES 3 DAYS IN PARIS 66 Andrew Hagan Jilli Rose SACREBLEU STUDIO Showcase 72 Carol Beecher QUICKDRAW Animation SOCIETY (QAS): Sabrina Schmid Laura Leif 30th ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM 74 80 ACMI CREW SOUTH AMERICAN Showcase Richard Sowata, Andre Bernard and the ACMI NORMAN McLAREN INFLUENCES 84 Tech (Projection) crew, Vivienne McIllwaine and the entire Front Of House team, Peter BLEND: SYMPOSIUM 87 Selinger, Aaron Rowlands, Tim Bright, David and the Optic staff WORKSHOPS 89 PRINTERS John Hinkson and Arena Printing INDEX FILMS 100 BIG THANKS (SUPPORT) Rosemary Woodcock, Jeremy Parker, Kelly Bosman, Kim Edwards, Sue Stamp, Terri Dentry, Michael Hunt, Anj at The Departure Lounge, Jim at Classic Copy, Mel Roach, Shawn Miller, Philip Watts, Peter Viska, Emily O’Hara, John Piper, Richard at PC Metro, Sara and David (and everybody) at Open Channel, Nick Pagee 8 MIAF SCHEDULE 19-29 JUNE 2014 THU 19 C2 7.00pm OPENING NIGHT SNEAK PEEK GALA SCREENING 15+ FESTIVAL FRI 20 Cube 9.30am RENDER ANIMATION CONFERENCE DAY 1 15+ C1 6.00pm FEATURE: THE STRESSFUL