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Event: Annecy
Short-Form Magic This year’s edition of the Annecy Festival offers a rich collection of highly original and inspiring shorts from around the world. Here is a sampler: Darwin’s Notebook Directed by Georges Schwizgebel t’s always cause for celebration when we have a new animated short by Georges Schwizgebel. The Swiss animation master, who is best known for celebrated work such as Jeu, Romance and The Man with No Shadow, is back with a stunning work titled Darwin’s Notebook, which looks back at the atrocities committed by colonists to the people of Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost province of Argentina. Schwizgebel was inspired to base his short on these incidents after visiting an exhibition on Charles Darwin at the Notre Dame University campus museum near Chicago. “There were several documents on this mishap that happened to three natives of Tierra del Fuego that Darwin recounts in his diary,” he says. “But it was only a few years later that I started this project and read other books on this topic that helped me better understand what had happened to the Alacaluf. The initial scenario was changed a lot and arrived at postproduction, and the COVID pandemic also delayed the finish. In fact it took me three years spread over five years to complete the short.” Made for about $250,000, the short’s length expanded from its original planned seven minutes to nine minutes. “I’m still working the old fashioned way, so my tools are paint brushes, acrylic paint and cels. I am using an animation desk with a digital camera and the Dragonframe program instead of a 35mm camera, which is now stored in a cabinet,” the director tells us. He says the toughest part of realizing his vision was the beginning. “The big challenges are the first line tests, to come up with ideas for telling this story without using dialogue and how to move from one shot to another in an elegant way. Then the more the work progresses, the more ideas lead to others. I am most pleased with the music Judith Gruber-Stitzer composed for the film.” Like many animators around the world, Schwizgebel had to deal with the restrictions of working during the pandemic. “It all happened the moment the images were finished for the short, but recording studios were closed. So in the meantime, I started another film at home without having to go to my studio.” The director who has been nominated four times for his work at Annecy, leaves us with a few words of advice for aspiring short directors. “First, be passionate about moving images. The tools have evolved a lot and allow you to make very ugly but also beautiful films. This is what I did not understand when digital animation was first introduced. At the time, I thought it was only useful for video games and the army!”
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No Leaders Please Directed by Joan Gratz elebrated Portland-based animation auteur Joan Gratz is best known for memorable shorts such as the Oscar-winning Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase (1992), the Annecy-nominated Kubla Khan (2010) and Candy Jam (1988). Of course, she has also worked on features such as The Prophet, Return to Oz and The Adventures of Mark Twain. This year, the brilliant artist returns to the festival circuit with the clay animated No Leaders Please, a homage to the works of Basquiat, Banksy, Keith Haring and Ai Weiwei. “I was inspired by the poem by Charles Bukowski,” she tells us via email. “Though he was a cynic and ‘The Laureate of American Lowlife,’ this poem celebrates individualism, change and creativity.” Gratz began animating her short on May 26 of 2020 and finished the visuals on July 29, 2020. “The film evolved from an interest in graffiti artists and their motivations,” she notes. “My animation tools consist of my finger, an easel and oil-based clay. I shoot digitally and then edit in After Effects. I do all the design, animation, editing and producing, and Judith Gruber-Stitzer did the music and effects.” She says one of the advantages of being the producer, director and animator is that she can choose not to have a budget! “I know independent short films will not be profitable, so why consider a budget?” Gratz asks. “I was pleased to make a very short film based on such a powerful short poem read with such eloquence. The most difficult part of the film was to find the right music which did not compete with the words and images. I think No Leaders Please is such a positive film. It is the Just Do It of animated shorts!” The distinguished director, who turned 80 this April, says she is a huge fan of the works of fellow indie artist Theodore Ushev (Blind Vaysha, The Physics of Sorrow). Gratz says she also admires animated features from Aardman Animations and Cartoon Saloon. “As an independent short film director in Portland, during an epidemic, I don’t have a take on the big picture,” she adds. “All I know is that Netflix is producing two features in Portland, which brings together animators, directors, producers and craftsmen from all over the world. If it wasn’t for COVID, I might be enjoying their company!”
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www.animationmagazine.net 28 june|july 21
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