You can see Bill Plympton’s frame by frame restoration of Winsor McCay’s 1921 seven minute long masterpiece at the 35th Portland International Film Festival.

It will screen on Feb. 18 at 12:30 PM as part of SHORT CUTS II: INTERNATIONAL TIES.

Bill Plympton’s love of animation history is all over his recent coffee table book memoir Independently Animated: Bill Plympton: The Life and Art of the King of Indie Animation.

Oregon Cartoon Institute is proud to count Plympton among its earliest and most enthusiastic supporters.

Oregon Cartoon Institute is holding its second public meeting on Sunday, Feb. 12, at 2:00 PM at 5th Avenue Cinema.

All friends and fans of Oregon Cartoon Institute are invited. If you think you might belong to this group, you do.

The agenda includes a brief introduction to the all volunteer Institute, and a discussion of what is up next. We’ll have announcements from the Mel Blanc Project and the Homer Davenport Project, some proposals to consider, and some hand outs to take home.

Reminder: last time the Institute met, Dennis Nyback supplied home made refreshments.

This year our featured attraction is a rare screening of The Clay Baker, a stop motion animation short by early Portland filmmaker Lewis Clark Cook (1909 – 1983). We will also screen a ten-minute profile of Cook, made for OPB in the early 1980’s by Portland artist Jim Blashfield.

Michele Kribs, who was trained by Cook to succeed him as head of Oregon Historical Society’s Moving Image Archive, will be in attendance.

In the photo above, use of which was generously made possible by the Oregon Historical Society, Lew Cook is 15 years old. That is his own 35mm camera. A doting aunt, knowing that he was in love with the movies, bought it for him. He quit selling newspapers and went to work as a newsreel photographer.

Top Four Reasons You Might Want To See The Clay Baker:

4. Cook made his living as an independent filmmaker using more tricks than you can imagine. Just as Bill Plympton turned down Disney, Lew Cook turned down Warner Brothers. He chose independence. Besides Plympton, the other Portland filmmakers who followed Cook’s lead include Homer Groening, Will Vinton, Joan Gratz, Jim Blashfield, Gus Van Sant, Rose Bond and  Joanna Priestley.

3. The Clay Baker was made “in the 1920’s” which means Cook could have made it anywhere between age 11 and age 20. Come help us sleuth out clues as to whether this is the work of a hard working child or an uninhibited adult.

2.  No one else you know has seen this film.

1. Will Vinton credited The Clay Baker with inspiring him to consider clay animation. Who knows what it will inspire you to do!

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This event is a partnership between Oregon Cartoon Institute, Oregon Historical Society and 5th Avenue Cinema.

Thank you to Kerry Tymchuk, Michele Kribs and Scott Rook of Oregon Historical Society.

Thank you to Heather Petrocelli of 5th Avenue Cinema and PSU’s Public History Interest Group.

Look at it this way. You can travel to Europe to catch the program of experimental shorts Grand Detour sent on tour, or you can stay home and go to their very first Experimental Film Festival in May 23 -27.

And if you’re going to go to the festival, you might as well get some EFF swag. That’s what the Kickstarter campaign is for. Get your hands on an EFF approved volcano kit and a DIY telephone, among many other things.

Check it out!

Justin Koleszar doesn’t believe in making movies by himself.

He drives a dagger through the heart of soul shriveling isolation with Film Networking Meetups.

As he puts it:

Wanted to remind everyone that this event is tomorrow night! You can join us at Rontoms for the best night of your life or you can stay home and make yourself a pot pie. Your choice.

The Meetups are CROWDED. Portland Film and Video Networking, which sponsors them, has 788 members. 788 filmmaking connections!

Rontoms is located at 600 E. Burnside.

Hey! Laika isn’t the only place in Portland where animators rearrange reality to suit themselves. Numerous kitchen tables, guest rooms, basements and garages serve as studios for independent artists working in the world’s most expressive medium.

How can you see their work? Animator Svenn Bonnichsen has curated his second festival of Portland animation – just for your viewing pleasure.

Portland Animation Now!

short films from 20+ Portland animators

Dates:  Jan 27 and 28 @ 7pm

Runtime:  90min

Tickets:  $8 general admission

More info:  www.nwanimationfest.com

Discover Portland’s powerhouse animation scene…

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Portland Animation Now! showcases 20+ short films from local independent animators. Including both masters and remarkable amateurs, this is a line-up of new works and seldom-seen gems you won’t find anywhere else.

Highlights include:

Eyeliner by Joanna Priestley (dubbed “the queen of independent animation” by Bill Plympton): A playful exploration of the organic geometry and archetypes of the human face.

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Ursula 1000 – Rocket by Eric Kilkenny: A love story told as a fever dream involving stolen works of art, dualistic robot terminators, and a giant floating head who seriously needs his moustache trimmed.

Ruby Rocket, Private Detective by Sam Niemann & Stacey Hallal: It had been a long night and Ruby Rocket, Private Detective needed a stiff one—then HE walked in.

Missionary by Mike A. Smith: Geopolitical allegory as cartoon slapstick, featuring eggs and fearsome hand-on-stick technology.

Old-Time Film by Barbara Tetenbaum & Marilyn Zornado: Handset type, printer’s ornaments and antique engraving come to life in the first film created entirely through letterpress printing.

Operation: Fish by Jeff Riley: After a series of goldfish abductions, a secret agent is dispatched to bring the fishnappers to justice, and possibly save the world!

Portland Animation Now! is being presented as part of Fertile Ground, a city-wide festival of over 100 new Portland-generated arts events.

That’s Santa Fe University Art and Design (SFUAD), to you! Eyre will be chairing the Moving Image Arts Department.

From Native American Times:

“I am thrilled to hear of this inspired appointment,” said Robert Redford. “Chris Eyre is a successful and authentic voice in cinema and perfect for this position. His vision and imprimatur on this program will be profoundly valuable in ways that Chris, alone, is uniquely positioned to fill,” continued Redford. “His influence on a new generation of storytellers will be significant.”

Chris Eyre grew up in Klamath Falls. He studied film ( actually, I think, television) at Mt Hood Community College before heading off to NYU film school. It was in New York that Smoke Signals, his first project, drew the attention of future mentor, Robert Redford.

Congratulations, Chris!

]]> http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2012/01/chris-eyre-named-head-of-sfuads-film-dept/feed/ 0 http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2012/01/joanna-priestleywhitsell-auditoriumjan-28-2012-700-pm/ http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2012/01/joanna-priestleywhitsell-auditoriumjan-28-2012-700-pm/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:55:35 +0000 Anne Richardson http://www.talltalestruetales.com/?p=18473

Where did Joanna Priestley get her title “Queen of Independent Animation”? From Bill Plympton, King of the same. At the suspenseful and highly competitive Art vs Commerce Animation Smackdown which took place at the Platform Festival in 2007, Bill and Joanna went mano a mano.

Bill’s account:

…Joanna Priestley, famed Portland animator, came on stage wearing a robe and boxing gloves, and smacked me around on stage. She showed three abstract films, alternating between my three favorite funny films, including Signe Baumane’s “Teat Beat of Sex”, which even made Joanna laugh. Joanna’s husband was the score-keeper (he had an applause meter) and she stacked the crowd with her friends, so naturally she won – just barely, though, with a score of 6.5 to 6. But it was such a raucous success, we believe that we’ll return for Round 2 next year.

If you missed the smack down in 2007, you can catch Joanna at the Whitsell Auditorium on January 28, 2012 at 7:00 PM. This evening of films, which includes FIVE premieres, is part of Northwest Film Center’s Northwest Tracking series.

The program includes EYE LINER (2011), a meditation on facial recognition; SPLIT ENDS (2012), which probes perception and cognition through the use of multi-layered patterns inspired by wrapping and wallpaper designs; CHOKING HAZARD (2012), a whirlwind tour of best intentions gone awry in the recycling of plastic; DEAR PLUTO SLIDESHOW (2011), an amusing behind-the-scenes look at the making of DEAR PLUTO (2012), a tribute to everyone’s favorite planetoid from the poem “Pizza” by Taylor Mali; and MISSED ACHES (2009), a witty commentary about proofreading and the indiscriminate use of spellcheck, written and narrated by poet Taylor Mali.

Joanna Priestley will be there, of course.

Film archivist Dennis Nyback began collecting short music films to show Seattle audiences at the Rosebud Movie Palace in 1979. He fell in love with what he saw: celluloid 16mm time capsules of forgotten performers playing forgotten hits by forgotten composers. On Jan 8, 2012 at 5th Avenue Cinema, he takes off his film archivist hat and puts on his pop music historian hat to present a program inspired by Oregon Historical Society’s wonderful Oregon Rocks exhibit.

The Oregon Rocks exhibit comes down on March 4, 2012.

Before that happens, Dennis Nyback will present a supplementary program about Oregon’s first generation of pop musicians.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When George Olsen was discovered in 1922 by Fanny Brice in Portland, his hometown, he was leading his band – George Olsen and His Music – in the Multnomah Hotel. Fanny brought him to New York. His peppy, infectious arrangements supplied the soundtrack of the Jazz Age. A huge national recording star, he also made it into the movies – on the soundtracks to some of the most lavish early musicals.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Del Porter followed George Olsen to Broadway, appearing in Girl Crazy in 1930 and, as one of “The Foursome” in Anything Goes in 1934.  The above clip shows The Foursome (at  4:53 – 6:18) singing and playing their trademark ocarinas. Porter is the one who plays multiple instruments.

But Porter’s real contribution to American pop culture began in 1941 when Spike Jones, the drummer for Porter’s band The Feather Merchants, took over and renamed the group Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Porter remained with the City Slickers, as composer, arranger, performer and lead vocalist. Porter was from Newburg, Oregon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of the three Oregon musicians Dennis Nyback will profile, Lee Morse is the most forgotten. She is also, paradoxically, the most prescient. Her sound, a unique amalgam of country and blues, was 40-50 years ahead of its time. Dennis Nyback, the first music historian to investigate Lee Morse as a jazz vocalist, will present a condensed version of the paper he presented on Morse at the 2010 Pacific Northwest History Conference. Lee Morse was born in Union County, Oregon.

Bottom line: If you want to learn about the musicians who pre-date Oregon Rocks, you can get a crash course on Jan. 8 at 2:00 PM at 5th Avenue Cinema

Come and get it!

Oregon Pop Machine is free and open to the public.

Tim DuRoche laid down the challenge. “Have you read Robert Johnston’s book?”  I hadn’t, but, after a summer of listening to the Mel Blanc Lectures, it was time.

Johnston’s book, The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question Of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, takes the political temperature of Portland’s middle class during the city’s rapid growth at the turn of the century. Small business owners Frederick and Eva Blank were part of that population spurt, arriving from San Francisco in 1915 with their two sons, Henry and six year old Melvin Jerome.

In his award winning book, Johnston examines four civic leaders – Will Daly, Harry Lane,Lora C. Little and William U’Ren – who helped shape Portland’s political landscape during that period. Princeton University Press describes The Radical Middle Class this way:

By examining in particular the independent small business sector or petit bourgeoisie, using Progressive Era Portland Oregon as a case study, Robert Johnston shows that class still matters in America. But it matters only if the politics and culture of the leading player in affairs of class, the middle class, is dramatically reconceived

Johnston puts the concept of middle class under a microscope. What is the middle class, and how does it differ from the working class? Is there a line? Where do we draw it? Examining Portland’s voting records, precinct by precinct, Johnston found working class interests receiving unexpectedly wide support.  During this period, where one might expect to find the “middle class” small business owners identifying upwards with the interests of management, Johnston instead found the voting records indicating the opposite – the owners of small businesses identified downwards, and supported the unions.

What impact did this deep populist streak have on the young Portlander who would later become one of our country’s most skilled pop culture practitioners?

On Feb. 8, 2012, Robert Johnston will come to Portland to sit down with Anne Richardson, director of the Mel Blanc Project, for an onstage conversation to explore this question. We will be joined onstage by PSU professor David Horowitz, author of The People’s Voice: A Populist Cultural History Of Modern America.

Thank you to Thomas Luckett, chairman of PSU’s History department, and to John Rowe, of PSU’s Phi Alpha Theta, for partnering with the Mel Blanc Project to make this event possible. Thank you to Carl Abbott for overseeing the matchmaking.

The final Mel Blanc Lecture, an onstage conversation between Robert Johnston, Anne Richardson and David Horowitz, will take place on Feb. 8, 2012 at 7:00 PM.

It is free and open to the public. Find us in PSU’s Smith Center 333.

Thank you, Tim DuRoche, for the kick in the pants!

(Yes, this post is cross posted at  www.melblancproject.wordpress.com.)

John “This Is What True Self Acceptance Looks Like” Waters came out of the closet as a fan of Oregon filmmaking in his Top Ten For 2011 film list in Artforum.

Three of his ten are Oregon films.

#2 on Water’s list: Mildred Pierce

Qualifying criteria: Portland screenwriter Jon Raymond’s first collaboration with Portland director Todd Haynes.

#6 on Waters’ list: If A Tree Falls: The Story Of Earth Liberation Front

Qualifying criteria: Brooklyn filmmakers Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman followed their subject, an environmental activist, to Oregon.

#9 on Waters’ list: We Were Here

Qualifying criteria:  Like Todd Haynes, David Weissman is now a Portland director. Up until We Were Here, he was based in San Francisco. (Perhaps he maintains dual citizenship.) He co-directed We Were Here with Bill Weber.

John Waters is obviously begging for a invitation to come out to the Rose City and see what’s going on – let’s invite him!

Click here to view the embedded video.