As mentioned on the fantastic CartoonBrew blog, the equally fantastic Super7 shop in Japantown is hosting a party to celebrate their new storefront tonight. I haven’t seen the new place yet,(apparently it is next door to the old shop) but I am excited to see it. Super7 is one of my favorite shops in the city, and I am sure the new place and this party are going to be a smash. Pixar artists will be signing the new Afterworks book and word is there will be stormtroopers handling security. uhhh, super excited over heah.

SEE THE BEST OF ASIFA-EAST 37TH ANNUAL COMPETITION (2006)
FEATURING “FUMI’S BAD LUCK FOOT,” BEST OF SHOW AWARD WINNER,
PLUS NEW WORK BY BILL PLYMPTON, MICHAEL SPORN AND OTHER
NOTED ANIMATORS
Chris Albrecht, Acquisition Manager of Atom Entertainment, will say a few words about how to submit work (they actually pay you to show your work).

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 22, 7:30 PM
The Exploratorium’s McBean Theatre, Free, public invited

This show was quite an honor for David Chai who teaches at San Jose State as Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot beat out Bill Plympton’s Guide Dog and other fine works by New York animators for the top prize. David not only won the top prize, his Stoopid Movie!!! came in 3rd in the independent film category. The ASIFA-East show is our nation’s premiere animation competition as it honors independent animators, professionals and students. This year several VIPs flew in from Los Angeles to attend the screening and to party after the main event. Heather Kenyon from Cartoon Network was there along with Ron Diamond from Acme and others from the coast. Linda Simensky (PBS Kids) came up from Washington, DC. People from the Rooftop Film Festival, Tribeca Underground Film Fest, Red Shift Festival, NY Television Film Festival and other events were there along with several distributors.

Come see the only Bay Area screening of this important event. After the show you can vote for your favorite films. $200 in cash prizes will be sent to the winners.

Program
BEST IN SHOW
Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot -Thunderbean Animation/David Chai
INDEPENDENT FILMS
1st Place Guide Dog – Plymptoons
2nd Place Milch – Acme Filmworks/Kovalyov
3rd Place Stoopid Movie!!! – David Chai
Excellence in Experimental Techniques Urban Animals – Karl Staven
Excellence in Animation Crossing the Stream – Skip Battaglia
Excellence in Soundtrack Robot Dance Party – Will and Fran Krause
Excellence in Design Siniestro – Dancing Diablo
Excellence in Writing/Humor Tony Cartoons – Sean McBride
SPONSORED FILMS
Over 2min.’s 1st Place The Man Who Walked Between the Towers – Michael Sporn Animation
Over 2min.’s 2nd Place Art Faces – Magik
Over 2min.’s 3rd Place Baby Steps – Magik
Excellence in Education Pinky Dinky Doo: “The Legend of Twigfoot” Cartoon Pizza/Sesame Workshop
Over 2min.’s Excellence in Animation Dr. Seuss’ “The Sneetches” – DMA
Over 2min.’s Excellence in Design PBS Cheesybreadville – Dancing Diablo
COMMERCIALS
1st Place Ottawa Signal Film – Animation Cowboys
2nd Place Bacardi: “Limon” – PES
3rd Place United Airlines The Meeting – Acme Filmworks/Tilby & Forbis
Excellence in Humor Save The Republic – Flickerlab
Excellence in Animation Pass The Pinha – Elanna Allen/Nick Jr
Excellence in Design Oxygen Design – Dancing Diablo
STUDENT FILMS
1st Place Onnazuri or: Men, Women, and Capitalism – Yusuke Murakami
2nd Place Juxtaposer – Joanna Davidovich
3rd Place She She She She’s a Bombshell – Ben Levin
Honorable Mention Coqui -Nelson Diaz

Sunday, Sept. 13, A MADCAT RETROSPECTIVE Outstanding 16mm films shown over the last 9 festivals. Includes animated work by Chelsea Walton, Andrea Stoops and others at the El Rio

Tues. Sept. 19 MOTION STOPPED: AN EVENING OF ANIMATION “Take an erotic musical tour of the sensual and obscure, go behind-the-scenes at Norman McLaren’s innovation animation and explore cut-out, puppet, hand-drawn and computer animated worlds. Live music by Stormy Night.” Includes work by Jae Jung Ahn,
Stacy Steers, Stine Gonsholt, Jelena Girlin, Mari-Liis Bassovskaja, Johanna Spoerri, Amy Lockhart, Eva Ovijanovic, Marie-Joseé Saint-Pierre, Samara Halperin, Suzanna Buehl and the U.S. premiere of The Carnival of the Animals by Michaela Pavlåtovå (2006 11min). At El Rio, doors open 6:30pm. Free BBQ! Movies 8:30pm. Rain or Shine.
3158 Mission St @ Precita 415 282-3325 must be 21. Dress warmly!

Animator and animation historian John Canemaker will be hosting two lectures at the Pacific Film Archive on Saturday, Aug. 26th. The first lecture at 5 p.m. will be discussing creating animated films on serious subjects. Canemaker will include his Oscar-winning short, “The Moon and the Son” (2005) and “John Lennon’s Sketchbook”(1986). The second lecture at 7:30 p.m. celebrates the centenary of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo, Canemaker will give a presentation based on his biography “Winsor McCay: His Life and Art.” You can find ticket and direction info here. Please go, it won’t be the same without you.

The Animation Show is looking for information and images dating back to start of ASIFA and the international film festival Annecy. The touring festival The Animation Show which brings an annual tour of animated short films from around the world to arthouse theaters across the US and Canada is currently working on a documentary film detailing the history of animated short films over the last 100 years. We cover a lot of ground from J. Stuart Blackton to Walt Disney and the formation of the UPA. ASIFA plays a very large roll in this timeline both as an organization for animation and for starting festivals such as ANNECY and Zagreb and we want to detail our history accurately. We’ve already filmed a number of animation historians and animators including Jerry Beck, Mark Kausler, Irene Kolartz, Mike Judge, and Bill Plympton and now are looking for images dating back to the birth of ASIFA and ANNECY to visually represent what our historians explain. We would love your help and will of course credit your findings in the piece.

The documentary will be featured on our next DVD release which is being distributed by MTV and Paramount Pictures this winter. We’re hoping to introduce an entire new audience to these wonderful short films and short film history. If anyone has information and images dating back to this time period please drop me a line when you have a chance, and thank you for your time!

Robert May
Animation Show
www.animationshow.com
818-973-7602

Come celebrate the release of the third issue of “Tales Of Mere Existence”, the freakishly popular comic/animation series by local cartoonist Lev. the new book is called “The 7 Habits of Highly Negative People”, and it’s a mighty feast of gleefully cynical thinking indeed.
Througout the night, Lev will be showing episodes of “Tales” old and new, including several that play on Comedy Central’s “Jump Cuts” show and broadband channels. Also showing will be many of Lev’s earlier pre-”Tales” works, many of which have not been screened in several years.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 12TH, 7:30p.m.-10:00p.m.

540 Club, 540 Clement Street at 6th, San Francisco, Ca

For more info visit www.ingredientx.com

Originally uploaded by eastaltus.

Arne Wong and David Chai have nice smiles.

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!