SFIAF: Zap your peepers with animated wondersTrailer for Sita Sings the Blues, which opens the San Francisco International Animation Festival on Thu/13
At last the third annual San Francisco International Animation Festival is upon us -- and this year seems to be the best yet, what with the recent explosion of seriously entertaining animated feature films. Gone, mostly, are the slightly entertaining but also slightly masturbatory jaunts through the latest software capabilities. Gone, mostly, too are low-fi mumblecore-like doodles that half-heartedly combine anti-narrative blahs with dime-store angst. (Although one short, "Fantaisie in Bubblewrap" -- with the voice of Scarlett Johanson of all people -- could be said to be the epitome of such: individual pop-bubbles casually yet disturbingly bemoan their fate as one by one they're eviscerated by a shapened pencil.) That little piece of ennui/terror is included in the "Control Freaks" program of shorts, and is nicely balanced out by Australian Dennis Tupicoff's "Chainsaw" -- a 24-minute violently sexual hoot that rotoscopes a poetic descent into love and madness in the bush. Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner are implicated.
Huge on the hipster list will be Friday night's "Play it by Eye" program, which showcases a delightful menu of indie rock and dance videos that utilize animation. Tunes by Chemical Brothers, Gnarls Barkley, Chromeo, and Hot Chip all make appearances, as well as this little gem
Grizzly Bear, "Knife"
In this squinty YouTube world of ours, it's a rare chance to see these melodic whoppers fill the big screen. The above vid was directed/conceived by former Bay Area-based geniuses Encyclopedia Pictura, who get an entire documentary on Saturday afternoon. Here the EP studio is making their breakout vid for Bjork's "Wanderlust":
But a couple of the features are really what turned me on.
Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues -- which she wrote, animated, directed, produced, and served the coffee for. (The heroic reason for this becomes clearer as the movie progresses.) Sita is dazzling -- equal parts impish, hypnotic, and heartbreaking -- and bursting with several different animated styles. It's been described as "Betty Boop meets Bollywood," which is true -- it uses the songs of the great Annette Hanshaw, Victrola diva of the '20s and 30s, to great effect -- but it also goes beyond that in its touching, madcap retelling of the ancient Indian Ramayana saga.
And I'm extremely stoked for the critically acclaimed "Waltz with Bashir" -- a psycho-animated journey through one former Israeli soldier's scattered memories of the Lebanon war and the slaughters of Sabra and Shatila, directed by Ari Folman, whose recurring nightmare memories it's based upon. I haven't seen it yet, but my friends in Israel are rapturous about it. Here's the trailer:
SFIAF runs Thu/13 through Sun/16. Complete festival schedule is available at www.sffs.org
digg •
del.icio.us •
sphere •
google
•
