Paul Bush: Film Retrospective
Having a background in fine arts, the experimental filmmaker Paul Bush is interested in exposing the artificiality of the film form and experimenting with the human perception. He claims “It's at the edges that film tends to reveal itself as an artificial construction – it tends to be when you hold shots too long or if you start breaking it down to the single frame. They're at completely different ends of the spectrum, but they're actually achieving a similar thing, which is to reveal the artificiality of film.”
And while Paul Bush is meticulously breaking down the materiality of the film form to its most basic and pure elements, the essence reveals itself. No matter if he uses scratching-on-film, object animation or pixilation, the chosen technique cannot be separated from its content. Hence in a Paul Bush film, as the old premise says, “the material” and “the form” go hand in hand.
The clash of realism and stylization makes his early experimental scratch films His Comedy, Still Life with Small Cupor The Albatross “mythic documentaries”. While realism is evoked through the original live action footage and soundtrack, the engraving-like scratches with their limited set of colours on the black surface of the film stock give an eerie and abstract effect.
In his frame-by-frame pixilation and object animated films, Paul Bush can reveal or contradict such complex, philosophical concepts as Wittgenstein’s idea about certainty (Furniture Poetry), the condition of schizophrenia (Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), the debate of formalism and evolutionism (While Darwin Sleeps), the notion of beauty (Lay Bare) or the true nature of sexuality and eroticism (Busby Berkeley’s Tribute to Mae West).
Being a professor of visual arts and filmmaking, Paul Bush included in his retrospective an animated lecture on his ars poetica (Paul Bush Talks). But be aware that experimenting with film is no picnic! The filmmaker himself can also easily fall victim to what began as an ordinary exercise in pixilation.
Anna Ida Orosz
animation historian, program curator of Primanima Festival Hungary
Mauro Carraro: Film Retrospective and Programme
Meet Mauro Carraro, this 32-year-old Italian-born animation artist who was trained in Italy and Southern France and now lives “in-between” the two countries, in Switzerland. Being a grandson of a sculptor, and a son of an architect, he turned his inherited skills in drawing and sculpting into distinctive, illustrative 3D worlds.
Having studied at Supinfocom Arles in France, where one can learn the commercially most up-to-date digital technologies, Mauro found a challenge for himself. How could he give life to the barren appearance of the newest CG technique of 3D through the reinforcement of traditional, non-photorealistic imagery?
Mauro refers to his unique style as »sensitive 3D«. What makes his films unmistakable is the combination of his casually drawn illustrations and impressionist water-colours, together with the comical nature of character animation, and the physically smooth dimensions of digital 3D. He has a natural instinct to capture the atmosphere as well as the details of places which make life funny, absurd, or magnificent. If you invited him to a traditional bullfight in Arles, sent him to walk the El Camino or woke him up for an early morning open air concert at Lake Geneva, he would most probably translate his new experiences into his next short film with the help of animation.
Of course, Mauro is not the first contemporary animator with an artistic 3D rendering style combined with emotionally engaging stories. The list, which was curated by Mauro himself, starts with the films of two of his fellow Supinfocom graduates, Philippe Grammaticopoulos with his graphic, black-and-white sci-fi nightmares and Bastian Dubois with his 3D watercolour animated diaries. It continues with another French author, Jérémy Clapin's melancholic and absurd stories realized with a limited colour palette; and the realistic and painterly visions of the Polish Tomasz Bagiński from Platige Image Studio.
Come and let Mauro’s captivating, “sensitive 3D” world impress you!
Anna Ida Orosz
animation film historian, programmer of Primanima Festival Hungary
Chris Landreth: Film Retrospective and Programme
When Chris was a young boy, he was given a battery of psychological tests to determine what he might be when he grew up, and was confusingly found to have “Mixed Brain Dominance”. When Chris later discovered computers, he found that while he used a tablet with his left hand, he used a mouse with his right. This mixed-up brain behaviour has since become a staple of Chris's career path.
For example, Chris flexed his left brain to receive an MS degree in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois, in 1986. After this, he helped develop Particle Image Velocimetry, which has since become a fundamental way of measuring fluid flow. But soon enough, Chris's right brain asserted itself. He discovered computer animation and created his first short film, The Listener (1991), which won him notoriety on MTV's “Liquid Television” that year. Chris decided then that animation was the best way to entertain both sides of his brain equally.
In 1994, Chris joined Alias Inc., where he defined, tested and abused animation software as it was being developed. Chris's work was a driving force in developing Maya 1.0, in 1998, now the most widely used animation software in the world. During this period Chris directed the end in 1995, and Bingo in 1998. In 2004 Chris released Ryan, which quickly became one of the most celebrated animated short films of all time. It pioneered a style Chris calls “Psychorealism”, using surreal CG imagery to show the psychology of its characters. Ryan received the 2005 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, and over 60 other awards.
In 2009, Chris released The Spine. Chris's latest film is Subconscious Password, a psychological exploration of how we remember the names of old friends. It premiered at the Annecy International Animation Festival, where it was awarded the Annecy Crystal.
Chris continues to be obsessed both with new techniques in CG, and new ways in telling stories with these techniques—as both hemispheres of his brain continue trying to outdo one another. He is an expert in Facial Animation and has developed a course called “Making Faces”, which he has taught at Dreamworks Animation, Seneca College, the University of Toronto and the École George Méliès in Paris.
Joni Männistö: Film Retrospective and Programme
The first part of the program centres on films I've been involved in as a director or an artist. I started studying animation at the Turku Arts Academy in 2006 under the guidance of Priit Pärn. The school focuses on visual expression, storytelling and traditional animation techniques. During the studies the students make three films. The first two aren't allowed to have any dialogue. It's important to learn how to tell a story using only images and movement. This is how I still make my films. The third one, the graduation film, can be made in any technique and can include dialogue.
The Trap (2008) is my first school film, a puppet animation directed in a group. It was a way to learn the whole filmmaking process without the need to struggle with everything by ourselves. Instead we were struggling against each other. I made only two films during my studies. Swarming (2011) wasn't supposed to be my graduation film, but it took me years to make this hand drawn animation. It was surely worth the effort since it's been my most successful film so far, having won over 20 international awards and special mentions altogether.
Thanks to the success of Swarming I got to make my first professional film Electric Soul (2013) as part of the SICAF 2013 Short Film Production Support Program. I went back to stop motion, but this time I used recycled computer parts to create a city full of life. It was a step towards more abstract and improvised animation, which I continued with the next project. Re-Cycling (2014) involved 10 animation artists from different European countries and we each made a one-minute animation directly on film, using our own styles. The latest film I was involved in is also a film made in a collective way. Wormhole (2016) was a real-life human experiment and an effort to make a complete story with eight directors and writers.
For the second part I've mostly chosen films by filmmakers who influenced me in one way or another before and during the studies. Films that opened my eyes even wider for what animation can be. There are no limits when it comes to stories, visuality, movement and techniques. Everything is possible.
Joni Männistö
Sarah Saidan: Film Retrospective and Programme
Animation is poetry in motion. At least that is the kind of films I have always admired the most. This selection of films includes some of the ones that have influenced and inspired me during the time I was studying animation in Iran and after. I still continue to learn from them.
Sarah Saidan