Stephen Parr’s Oddball films hosted a party on Saturday for ASIFA’s David Chai and Arne Wong. On a small screen behind thousands of stock film cans, several shorts were screened to the delight of many ASIFA members and friends. Arne Wong co-producer of the CG film “Thru the Moebius Strip” narrated a personal slide/video presentation of his recent trip to the Annecy film festival. Arne was in Annecy promoting “Love and Sax,” a series being produced by Strange Frame in Hawaii. Shelley Doty, co-creater of the series,played a song on her guitar before the slide show presentation. The pictures featured “Thru the Moebius Strip” co-producer,designer,cartoon-legend Jean “Moebius” Girard,Nik and Nancy Phelps and a host of other festival-goers and media fair booth/party footage. Contrasting alot of festival coverage I have seen, Arne included a lot of his personal insights into the trip outside of the actual festival, including footage of him and Moebius’s son traveling to a “seedy” part of town to participate in a late night blues jam. These bits of narrative added to a unique personal home movie feel that made the festival a more tangible experience for me, having never been. He closed his presentation with an extended trailer for “Thru the Moebius Strip,” China’s most expensive animated film.
Following Arne Wong’s presentation, David Chai screened “Stoopid Movie,” and “Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot,” an endearing short he produced with his students from San Jose State about a young girl who helps others in need with her highly accident prone foot. The evening closed with “Rabbit” a amazing short that recently won two Best Short Film and Best Film at the Cutting Edge in the 2006 British Animation Awards, and “Astronauts” a dark comedic short that had the audience oohing.
A big thanks to all involved that made the evening a success!
