1 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Malcolm Turner Greetings to fans, first-timers and the animatedly curious. DIRECTOR Despite the crazed improbability of it all, MIAF is still here doing its thing. It certainly suffers from the so-called ‘bumble bee’ syndrome. That is to say, on paper there’s no way Melbourne International you can prove it will fly. Somehow though, Air MIAF has found a way to bump down the Animation Festival runway, limp into the air (barely missing the trees) and splutter up into the clouds. Dunno how we do it, to be honest. It certainly wouldn’t happen without the support of ACMI, Screen Australia and each and every one of the sponsors. Nor would it happen without the core crew who give up a great deal of their time and varying slivers of their sanity to make this thing work. And it definitely wouldn’t happen without the filmmakers. It surprises alot of people (including me sometimes) just how many short animated films are being made. We get over 2,000 entries every year and the vast majority of them are made for the simple reason that somebody has felt compelled to create them – in much the same way that a painter feels compelled to paint a picture or a playwright feels compelled to create an imaginary universe, populated with a fictional tribe who have something on their mind they want to share. Animation, as a technological achievement, surrounds us and is woven into so many elements of our daily lives. It is a workhorse technology that is pressed into service by any number of plump jockeys who vie for our scarce and shattered attentions as we go through our day. It features in so many of the signs and billboards you would have passed on your way into this cinema. If you have a better mobile phone than me (and the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggests that 97.4% of you do) then you probably cop a fair bit of dodgy animation on a more or less constant basis. If you watch TV, you’ll see it not just in the ads (some of which is stunning, some of which would burn holes in buckets) but in the very DNA of the TV experience – at times channels seem incapable of even bringing up the printed name of the presenter without some sort of dancing squiggle heralding this profound announcement. Even the mundane pedestrian lights are now being animated. And, of course, gaming as we know it just simply couldn’t exist without the human ability to animate. God bless those opposing thumbs. As a species we can be clever buggers when we set our minds to it. But all of this describes a menagerie of captive animation. Some of it might be really pretty and some of it might be able to run fast but it’s owned by an agenda that keeps it on a tight leash. I like my animation free-range – to be fed on a diet free of toxic motivations and to breathe air that doesn’t have too much factory dust in it. Sure, it has to scratch around alot harder to find its nourishment and it risks an early death from living rough in an often chilly and unsheltered environment but it just tastes better than the stuff that comes from the feedlot. And although the science isn’t conclusive on this, I reckon it’s better for you as well. So here’s to the animated 2,000 who fill my mail box every year. Here’s to the crazy fools, the wild-eyed story tellers, the extroverted mouse jockeys, the introverted locked-in-a- room-by-myselfers, the puppeteers, the painters, the sketchers, the abstract seers and the message sayers; the magic believers, the alternative reality searchers, the I-just-created-my- own-universe mini-gods and the I’m-gonna-show-you-how-it-works demi-gods; the visionaries, the sanity-challenged and the alternatively sane; the over-caffeinated, the under-understood, the imagination harvesters and the idea miners; the mild, the wild, the cool and the crazy … here’s to the artists that created this festival. Not all of you actually got into the festival but every one of you put your hand up. Selected or not, your contribution helped build the platform that MIAF stands on – it was a piece of the puzzle that helped me see the big picture of the animation scene, which I need to bring this festival together. That counts in my book, and it’s worth a toast. So … Audience, please meet your artists. Artists, here’s your audience. I hardly did anything, really. My only job is to get you guys together. I’ll leave you on your own now so you can get to know each other. And I’ll be sure to turn the lights out when I close the door. 10 11th MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL ESSENTIAL FUNDERS AND PARTNERS SCREENING PARTNERS Presenting SIGGRAPH Wrap-Up Presenting Careers Forum Presenting Best of the Fest PREMIER SPONSORS SUPPORTING SPONSORS 11th MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL 11 CAST&CREW &THANKS DIRECTOR Malcolm Turner CO-DIRECTOR Nag Vladermersky FESTIVAL MANAGER Helen Gibbins PROGRAMMERS Malcolm Turner & Nag Vladermersky CONTENTS CURATED PROGRAMS Malcolm Turner STUDENT JURY the students of Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW EVENT CO-ORDINATOR (ACMI) Joanne O’Hara ARTWORK ILLUSTRATION Susi Allender TRAILER John Lewis PRINTED PROGRAM DESIGN Helen Gibbins CATALOGUE DESIGN Lin Tobias (La Bella Design) CATALOGUE EDITOR Liz White AUSTRALIAN CATALOGUE NOTES CO-ORDINATION Liz White WEBSITE Helen Gibbins SPONSORSHIP Zadia Lenders (Go2Girl) THE ACMI CREW Richard Sowada, Joanne O’Hara, Andre Bernard & the ACMI Tech Crew, Vivianne McIllwane and the Front Of House Crew TECHNICAL PRODUCTION (ACMI) Tack Lim INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM ONE 16 ARCHIVING John Lewis JUDGES – INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM TWO 18 Andrew Hagan, Justine Wallace, Dan Torre INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM THREE 20 JUDGES – AUSTRALIAN Carol Beecher, Pam Readford INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FOUR 22 SPECIAL THANKS INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FIVE 24 Terri Dentry (let’s get these films made), Susan Stamp (you have to make that film Sue), INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM SIX ABSTRACT 26 Hugh Thorn (every year we leave it so late!!), Liz White (sage advice and a true believer), INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM SEVEN LONG SHORTS 29 John Lewis & Janette Goodey (congrats on the funding, I want your film at MIAF 2012, consider INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM EIGHT SUPINFOCOM 30 it invited), Steph Brotchie, Shirrah Comeadow, INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM NINE CUT-OUTS 33 Rosea Capper-Starr, Matt Dravich (pleased to know you’ve got my back Mattie), Lin Tobias LATE NIGHT BIZARRE 36 (you are honorary Posse), John & Scott at Arena, Michael Walls, Clare Kitson, Marcy SIGGRAPH WRAP-UP Presented by RMIT 39 Page, Madeleine Belisle & Danielle Vau at the NFB, the Il Luster Crew, Nicolas Schmerkin KIDS PROGRAM 41 and the Autour de Minuit team, The Salford Lads Club (caffeinated inspiration on demand), INSTALLATION PROGRAM 42 Deb Szapiro (keeper of the faith), Anj Malik at The Departure Lounge, Joe & Richard at The MUSIC VIDEOS 42 Shop Cafe (you take make 7am starts worth AUSTRALIAN SHOWCASE 46 the trauma), Michelle Baginski and ... Andrew Hagan (partner in crime) PANORAMA PROGRAMS 54 PROGRAMMING THANKS BEST OF THE NEXT 58 POLAND Mariusz Frukacz at OFAFA, Agnieszka Piechnik ANIMATION 101s 60 & Anja Sosic at Platige Image, Zofia Scislowska & Krzysztof Gierat at Krakow Film Foundation, CAREERS FORUM Presented by HOLMESGLEN 60 Jan Naszewski & Anja Sosic of New Europe Film Sales, Piotr Kardas & Damian Sasiak at FOCUS ON POLAND 64 Se Ma For, Andrzej Bednarek at Film School Lodz SPECIAL GUEST TEE BOSUSTOW 68 ANIMATE Gary Thomas, Abigail Addison at Animate Projects UPA PROGRAM 70 SIXPACKFILM RCA 25th ANNIVERSARY 73 Dietmar Schwärzler, Gerald Weber & Maya NEW YORK WHO’S WHO 75 McKechneay at Sixpackfilm NEW YORK WHO’S WHO SIXPACKFILM TRIBUTE PROGRAM 77 The one, the only, JJ Sadelmaier, the THE ‘ANIMATE PROJECT’ COLLECTION 79 incomparable Signe Baumane, the wonderful Andy and Caroline London plus the Londonette, LE LAB D’IMAGES 81 Bill Plympton (thanks for dinner, I’ll buy next time) Colin Barton, John Canemaker, Jane FEATURE FILM SKY SONG BY MATI KUTT 83 Aaron (whose films we HAVE to show one day), George Griffin (a living legend), David Sheahan, FEATURE FILM GOODBYE MISTER CHRISTIE everybody at the Filmmakers Co-op BY PHIL MULLOY 84 RCA 25th Professor Joan Ashworth, Jane Colling INDEX FILMS 86 UPA Tee Bosustow, Rita Belda, Leah Tuttle, INDEX FILMMAKERS 88 Jim Harwood 12 11th MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL 11th MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL 13 THE OFFICIAL CLOSING NIGHT AFTER PARTY Sunday 26 9.00pm MISTY BAR When the lights go up at the end of the Best Of The Fest, join us for one last hoorah at Misty Bar. You know you want to! There’ll be time to ponder (or argue) the judges’ choices, declare your faves and imbibe some colourful drinks ... with fruit and little umbrellas stuck in them. Oh Yeah! 16 11th MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL INTERNATIONALPROGRAM#1 One of the best moments in programming In 2008, I saw a stop-motion film called White Hair MIAF is receiving the annual graduation Luis (again at Fantoche), which just UK, 5’25, 2010 reel from RCA (Royal College of Art) in amazed me. I invited it that night. Alas, try London. They have their grad screenings as I might, I couldn’t connect with the DIRECTOR: Yuka Takeda PRODUCER: Animation Staff, in late June and I usually try and pick up filmmakers, a trio of Chileans who seemed Royal College of Art my copy hot off the press when I’m in to have no fixed abode.