Posts tagged with ‘art animation’
Micro Interviews with 12 Japanese Animators
It’s been a great year for SECONDS UNDER THE SUN, a touring programme of short Japanese art animation I put together in order to get unknown or under-appreciated work in front of eager audiences. It has screened in Toronto and Winnipeg, and will be featured this Saturday in Montreal’s newest micro-cinema Blue Sunshine. SECONDS features 12 established and emerging animators that employ techniques from sand to hand-drawn, stop motion puppet to digital. It highlights artists from a variety of generations and the subject matter covers a range of emotional landscapes: quiet contemplation of the miniscule, death in the family, grotesque humour, and the ineffable space within relationships.
Here are the bios of the participating artists and some bite-sized interviews for your reading enjoyment!
2010 New Year’s Greeting, 30sec (2010)
Komoko-chan’s Coffee, 4min 17sec (2008)
Born in 1978, Naomi Nagata makes music videos and her own works in stop- motion animation using sand and paper cut outs. Since 2002 she has been involved in event planning and operation as a member of the animation screening group “animation soup”.
Favourite childhood toy: When I was child, I liked playing outside more than playing with toys. But, when I play inside, my favorite toy was Family Computer.
Do you like coffee? Yes.
How long it takes you to brush your teeth: Hmm….about 5 to 10 minutes.
The Demon, 8min (1970)
Born in 1925, from an early age Kihachiro Kawamoto was captivated by the art of doll and puppet making. After seeing the works of maestro Czech animator Jiri Trnka, he first became interested in stop motion puppet animation and during the 50s began working alongside Japan’s first stop motion animator, the legendary Tadahito Mochinaga.
LOST UTOPIA by Mirai Mizue
An animation using the Paradise Lost tale of Adam and Eve as the motif.
New indie DVD label CALF frolics in the green pastures of Japanese art animation
Nobuaki Doi read many minds when he founded CALF, an independent DVD label with a mission to connect Japanese art animators to their international audiences. The label plans to unleash the first release at the end of August with a starting lineup of Mirai Mizue, TOCHKA, Atsushi Wada and Kei Oyama. This is pure kid-in-a-candy-store news!
Check out the CALF website for more info on these amazing artists and when their DVDs will be hitting the virtual shelves.
