Talk to the Snail

Images from Jean-Christophe Lie’s “L’Homme a la Gordini”

I’m back from the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Hats off to Chris Robinson, Kelly Neall, and the team behind the screens for organizing another fine festival. Also, thanks to Dave Levy who invited me to sit on a development panel along with Linda Simensky, Fran Krause, and Heather Kenyon. It went well, and I used two different dating analogies in answering questions.

It was a strong crop of shorts this year, I think. However, even though I took advantage of the screenings-on-demand, I still fell short of seeing all the animation I would’ve liked to have seen. Favorite films? Again, I didn’t see nearly everything (I missed the Student Screening, for example), but I’d give the blue ribbon to “L’Homme a la Gordini”, the first short film by Jean-Christophe Lie, and a cartoon I wished would’ve gone on longer. I also enjoyed pretty well Adam [Read more…]

Hey, remember that anthology we produced 700 years ago called Random! Cartoons? Well, one of those thirty-nine shorts - “Call Me Bessie!” - is being screened in this year’s New York Television Festival, “the industry’s first recognized independent television festival, providing a platform to elevate the work of artists creating for the small screen”. As part of of the festival’s family block, Bessie and Al can be seen this Friday (9/25) at 6:00 p.m., then again on Saturday (9/26) at 1:15 p.m. Both screenings will be at New World Stages located at 340 West 50th Street.

A big hats off to creators Diane Kredensor and Dana Galin along with their cast and crew on jobs well done. If I were in Manhattan, I’d be there with (cow)bells on.

– Eric

From Thursday. Here’s the set.

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From yesterday. More here.

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10/29/09 – An Evening with R. Crumb

2/4/10 – Neil Gaiman

4/23/10 – Titans of the Graphic Novel: Harvey Pekar and Allison Bechdel

UCLA has announced the 2009/2010 calendar for its UCLA Live series. There are a handful of nights I’ll definitely be there for, but the cartoon/comics/comix-related evenings look like special events indeed. Individual tickets go on sale July 22, but you can get a season subscription here.

– Eric