8 minute read
EVENT Animist – a New Festival
Mari Kivi
The opening of Animist. Priit Tender with Morten Tchinakov and Lucija Mrzljak, the directors of The Stork.
Animist
NEW FESTIVAL
Animist Tallinn kicked off for the first time in August 2021. The new animation festival focuses exclusively on animated films while also aiming at involving different cultural fields. This year, the focus was on anthropology. Festival director Mari Kivi and artistic director Priit Tender share their ideas about the first festival and the future.
By Aurelia Aasa Photos by Anastasia Evanovich, Paavo Kuldkepp, Ida Lepparu
The first Animist festival took place in Tallinn in August 8–21, 2021. Could you summarize the experience? Priit: It’s been a lot of work to start a festival from scratch – you have to create something from seemingly nothing. It somehow feels like calling a certain kind of living being into existence. Such an experience is a most impressive thing. Mari: We could decide ourselves in which direction to move with the festival. I believe that we had never worked so hard before in our lives – but meeting happy guests and foreign visitors gives lots of energy.
What is the most complicated aspect related to organizing of a small festival? Is it the financial side or reaching the audience? Mari: The most complicated thing is to manage with limited finances. Priit: For a festival it is essential to reach the audience. It felt powerful that so many filmmakers came to the event. Peo-
Priit Tender
Q & A with the authors. ple have not traveled due to the pandemic, and many guests visited Tallinn for the first time. Mari: If the festival had taken place in a pre-COVID situation, most people would have planned their festival schedule according to the big festivals. Today, the big festivals have moved into a virtual space or are taking place with restrictions. People came to Tallinn as they wanted to be somewhere physically. Some of them had not traveled for two years. Those who came to the festival felt really happy and liberated. Priit: Estonia as a destination country is important as well. If we were some random animation country, then perhaps people would not come here. Both the past and present of Estonian animation holds great significance.
The jury - Gerben Schermer, Sander Joon and Ruth Lingford - at the ending ceremony. Holding a festival is largely a project of mission. What is your mission? Priit: A certain gap has to be filled in order for animation, as a field of art, to stay alive. I feel a responsibility for Estonian animation culture, that seemed to be half-functional without a festival, and during the past few years the lack of an animation festival became an especially topical subject. Mari: The festival adds so much to Estonia as a well-known animation country. When I visited other festivals, I thought that while we have the production capacity, we still have no festival.
The festival also brings local animation production to Estonian audiences. What is the current state in the field of animation in Estonia? Priit: It is certainly interesting and diverse. There are both old animation studios as well as newcomers. This is a living environment. There are countries where the field of animation lacks both activity and the community. In Estonia, there are filmmakers of various generations.
There is a lot of animated content everywhere from Tiktok and Instagram to the field of advertisement. The skill of watching more demanding short animations seems to be disappearing. Mari: It is not easy to reach the audience, but I believe that without the festival it is mission impossible. While composing our programmes, we aimed at focusing on wider audiences – new Estonian animation was included and there were special programmes for children. Priit: The festival is an important ground for promoting this field of art, to achieve a connection with children and the youth. When animation is brought to the right people, it can involve huge discoveries. The focus of the festival was on anthropology, bringing several representatives of the field to animation. For those crossing beyond their main field of activity, seeing animation films and meeting the filmmakers is a new world full of surprises.
What does short animation as a form of art offer? Priit: In my opinion, short formats have many possibilities thanks to online platforms and VOD. It may not be most popular in cinema, but I see the potential online. And at the same time it depends on
the narration and how it will touch the audience. This is where the show takes off. Mari: I have the feeling that social media promotes short films better than feature films, but I guess everything cannot be sold after all. Lots of people find their way to animation through other fields, such as comic books or illustrations.
This year, the focus of the festival was on anthropology. Will the collaboration with other forms of art and culture continue? Priit: We really wish to find an intersection with some other field every year. That would also be one of the aspects why Animist Festival would differ from other similar festivals. One of the purposes of our festival is to bring together various professionals, resulting in new collaborations and the initiation of new projects. This is an important part of the festival – to be a meeting point where people physically meet and start creating ideas. Mari: The aim of the sub-theme would be much more than a symbolic act or a specific programme – we would like representatives of the field to come as well to hold workshops.
You collaborate with the Estonian Academy of Arts where there is also a department of animation. Is Animist also an academic festival? Priit: The academy is certainly a great partner and a part of the identity of the festival. The academic world also yearns for contact with the real world. The Estonian Academy of Arts wants people from the outside world to visit their building.
Where do you position yourself in the field of animation festivals? Priit: I guess we are currently in the development phase. If a festival has taken place only once, it is too early to decide where the journey will go. Mari: In my opinion, it is important to hold the type of event where I would wish to be a guest. I like to enjoy the process of working with the festival, and not to feel enslaved by it. Priit: In the future there will be the possibility to collaborate with the animation industry, but our aim is not to go down the commercial road. Not every festival has to be multi-functional. If you are not the biggest animation festival in the world then you have an opportunity to choose your own unique profile. There are not that many independent stand-alone festivals in the Baltic countries, most of the festivals are part of larger festival programmes. Also, there are not that many festivals in Scandinavia. We have the niche in a regional sense, and this is a good foundation for the festival to develop.
Anthropologist Carlo Cubero (on the left) and director Andrey Paounov at the screening of Walking on Water.
Why does animation need a separate festival? Priit: We relate more to art than to film. Animation seems to be a film genre, but at the same time it is also a form of art. It is somewhere in between. Animation should not be in a film festival. It should be in an animation festival. There are people who are capable of navigating in both fields, but the reality is that once you are an animation filmmaker you will probably spend your time among other animation filmmakers. It’s great if a film festival’s short film programme includes animation, but without a special animation film festival there is a feeling that something is missing. In the field of animation there are filmmakers of different generations – it is a community. For animation filmmakers, the animation-related events are important – these are the places where contacts, collaborations, and work offers can be found.
Animist also has an international programme. What’s trending now? Priit: What a nice, simple, question that is difficult to answer. As far as I have been involved in programme management, there have been all kinds of themes. COVID-19. Isolation. But these topics do not prevail. Topical films can be made in haste and the results may sometimes turn out not that strong. Great films have universal themes. EF
Festival cocktail at the rooftop of Estonian Academy of Arts.
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