ANIMATED FRAMES - Vol.05

A fun & quirky selection of short films by Paul & Menno De Nooijer (Netherlands), James MacSwain (Canada), Karen Aqua (USA), Gil Alkabetz (Israel), Jan Lenica (Poland), Ed Ackerman (Canada), Ferenc Rofusz (Hungary), Sally Cruikshank (USA), Michaela Pavlátová (Czechoslovakia), André Leduc (Canada), Joanna Priestley & Joan Gratz (USA)

PROGRAM

BITZBUTZ  
Gil Alkabetz | 1984 | Israel | 3 minutes   

CANDYJAM  
Joanna Priestley & Joan Gratz | 1988 | USA | 7 minutes

NINE LIVES  
Karen Aqua | 1987 | USA | 7 minutes

MOTHER MARILYN  
James MacSwain | 1997 | Canada | 9 minutes

INSTANT FRENCH  
André Leduc | 1979 | Canada | 1 minute

TOUT ÉCARTILLÉ   
André Leduc | 1972 | Canada | 6 minutes

THE FLY  
Ferenc Rofusz | 1980 | Hungary | 3 minutes

RHINOCEROS   
Jan Lenica | 1964 | Poland | 11 minutes

WORDS WORDS WORDS  
Michaela Pavlátová | 1991 | Czechoslovakia | 8 minutes

RRRINGG   
Paul & Menno De Nooijer | 1992 | Netherlands | 3 minutes

FACE LIKE A FROG   
Sally Cruikshank | 1988 | USA | 5 minutes

5 CENTS A COPY  
Ed Ackerman | 1980 | Canada | 3 minutes

Artist Bios

Israeli animator Gil Alkabetz (1957 - 2022) is fondly remembered for his award winning short films which have screened in festivals and retrospectives around the globe. In the mid-1990's he relocated to Germany, where his work was prominently featured in the 1998 film, Run Lola Run.

Joan Gratz is an American artist and animator. She won an Academy Award for her 1992 short, Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase. Prior to founding her own production company, she specialized in clay painting for Will Vinton's studio working on short films and commercial projects.

Joanna Priestly is a graduate of Cal Arts and an independent animator based in Portland, Oregon. She has experimented with numerous techniques over several dozen shorts and still actively creates both 2D and 3D work.

Beloved American animator Karen Aqua (1954 - 2011) is recognized for her distinctly vibrant body of work. She created a dozen hand drawn short films, often exploring themes pertaining to mythology, transformation and the human spirit. In addition to these independent projects, she also directed and animated 22 short segments for Sesame Street beginning in 1990.

For over 40 years, Canadian artist James MacSwain has been an active member of the East Coast filmmaking community. Based in Halifax, he has taught animation at NSCAD, the Centre for Art Tapes and the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative. He is known for his irreverently queer and uniquely eccentric paper collage animation.

From the early 1970's through the 90's, Québécois animator André Leduc was employed at The National Film Board of Canada where he created numerous playful and stylized short films.

Hungarian animator Ferenc Rofusz won an Academy Award for his short film, The Fly. In the late 1980's he moved to Canada to work for the Toronto-based animation company, Nelvana before returning to Europe in 2002.

Jan Lenica (1928 - 2001) was a Polish graphic designer and animator. Beginning in the 1950's, he became a prolific illustrator among the group of artists designing what are now recognized today as 'Polish posters', a unique movement in graphic arts advertising. His animation style has likewise influenced many.

Michaela Pavlátová is a Czech film director, animator and educator. As a feminist experimental animator, her work explores themes of sex, gender, philosophy and relationality. She currently teaches animation Academy of Performing Arts, Film and TV School (FAMU) in Prague.

Paul & Menno De Nooijer are Dutch artists as well as father & son who have been collaborating since the 1970's, working in animation, installation and performance, frequently exploring themes of alienation, absurdity and surrealism.

Sally Cruikshank is a beloved American cartoonist and animator recognized for her unmistakable style, zany characters and psychedelic worlds she has created through a series of short films from the 1970's & 80's. For decades, she also contributed animated interlude sequences to Sesame Street.

Ed Ackerman is a Canadian animator who explores cinematic language using the materials he finds close at hand: plasticine, photocopiers, 5-year old children let loose in a village with disposable cameras and, most famously, typewriters. He resides in his hometown of Winnipeg where he is a much loved member of the community.