Terri (dir. Azazel Jacobs)

I recently did a count of all the writers who have contributed to Keyframe at Fandor, and was pleased to discover that over 50 different contributors have lent their insights in just the past six months. I’m hoping to expand that number considerably over the rest of the year, with more content of different kinds, from articles to videos to round-table surveys and so on.

As editor, I try to help each piece to become its best and try not to play favorites. But I can’t deny that there are certain entries that are especially satisfying to have on Keyframe. So I thought I’d share a few from the past several weeks that I consider to be standouts:

- “Four Times Truer Than Life: Four Thoughts on Lillian Gish”, by Farran Smith Nehme.  Quoth the Self-Styled Siren:

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that Gish isn’t sexy, considering that she spent her entire silent career playing women (and, in Broken Blossoms, a child) who are desired by men, and often wind up seduced and abandoned. It’s no harder to get past Gish’s thin lips and flowing hair to her beauty, than it is to overlook Garbo’s eyebrows or Clara Bow’soddly drawn mouth.  Do those who find Gish a “silly, sexless antique” (Louise Brooks’ sarcastic phrasing of such criticisms) wonder what the male characters are after? Nowadays, are innocence and purity so despised, or so transient, that no trace of their appeal remains? Surely not. Perhaps in our day, those qualities are so firmly relegated to childhood that modern audiences aren’t comfortable with an erotic attraction to innocence–or, in The Wind, with how a young virgin’s terror of sex can coexist with an equally primal yearning for it.

- Terri is a recent film that I really like, sort of like Wes Anderson without trying to be too twee. We were lucky to have this interview with director Azazel Jacobs, in which tells Nick Dawson what it was like to be schooled in movies as a kid (esp. when your dad is a famous avant garde filmmaker and film school professor). And you can also watch his previous film, Momma’s Man, on Fandor.

- Filmmaker (though I like to think of him as a “cinematic instigator”) Alejandro Adams has started issuing a monthly column on Keyframe, appropriately named “Noisemaker.” In “How You Can Be A Better Filmmaker than Terrence Malick” Alejandro talks about the ways that co-opting movies by audience members can lead to acts of creation more inspired than the original works.

- A month has passed but I’m still thinking fondly of the surge of activity around Fandor’s digital premiere of David Holzman’s Diary. There was a noticeable uptick in the undervalued status of this classic, highly influential but still underseen film, thanks, I dare wager, to the extensive coverage Keyframe lent to the film.

There were many highlights, but the communal centerpiece was a poll of 25 film critics on the best films about filmmaking, with results that had the right blend of “right” and “surprising” (Sunset Blvd. and 8 1/2 are obvious, but Beware of a Holy Whore and Close-Up? Wow!) Perhaps just as good were the personal passion picks expressed across the full listing of the ballots, where everything from Inland Empire to The Last Action Hero got a vote of confidence (and really, aren’t those two films essentially one and the same?)

But there were also a few stand-alone thought pieces on David Holzman, and my favorite was Tom McCormack’s essay that tied the film’s vision of narcissism posting as art into today’s all-encompassing social network echo chamber.

—–

I also enjoyed Brian Darr’s tribute to Douglas Fairbanks, Michael Joshua Rowin’s discovery of the first baseball movies, and Dan Callahan’s appreciation of the “very horny cinema” of Claude Chabrol’s A Double Tour.

More delights are in the works for August. In the meantime, Happy reading, and happy viewing!

and if I want too many things
don’t you know that
I’m a human being

- New York Dolls

So, it’s been a while. I was meaning to post a follow-up to the free screening that closed out the Shooting Down Pictures project. But one thing happened after another to forestall my bringing due closure to this grand, 3-year venture in film blogging and canonic completism. First, it took me a couple of days to get over the hangover of that evening caused by an after-party involving several hours of drinking and karaoke singing of album rock standards. Then, I quit my job and spent the summer in a mythical land where Wordpress is blocked (I could only wish that all the spammers who post junk messages on this blog could be sequestered in that country…).  Then I returned Stateside and entered a completely new routine of blogging for a new site, working as an ambassador for Chinese indie cinema and taking what little time remained to edit my own film. And so here we are, two days into the new year. All this time this blog has been lingering in the back of my mind like an old friend I’ve been meaning to check in with but never get around to, which further compounds the feelings of procrastinatory guilt accumulating over what is surely a simple exercise. So at last… let’s do this.

As for that screening, it went well – good turnout of mostly familiar faces, friends and cinephiles who either wanted to celebrate a significant passage in my personal life as a movie lover, or just wanted to see what the delectable images of Terence Davies’ The Long Day Closes looked like projected on a big screen off a mediocre DVD. Fearing collective disappointment from the crowd, I started off with a choice passage from Freddy Got Fingered to put things in perspective: at least we weren’t watching that (though a couple wiseacres seemed disappointed).

I still haven’t done a proper post mortem on what it is that I got from Shooting Down Pictures. One of my biggest supporters in this project, Michael Baute, asked me this question several months ago, and I still feel that I owe him a response (as well as a completed version of the video essay on the exquisite film Under the Bridges that I started with him and Ekkehard Knoerer 20 months ago[!!!]). Michael specifically asked me what it taught me about film canons, to which I don’t have a very positive response. As I became more familiar with the breadth and depth of cinema through time, place and genre, the 1000 films on the They Shoot Pictures list seemed increasingly incomplete, insufficient and misrepresentative as a canon. At this point I’m not even sure how good of a starting point it would be for someone wanting to educate themselves about cinema. On the one hand it’s good to have a basic, common vocabulary of films that represent cinematic concepts and values everyone should understand. But when one considers all that’s missing…

I’ve expressed my misgivings a few times on this space, pretty much with every update to the TSPDT list, most recently here. At one point I thought it might be worth trying to organize a coordinated effort to reform the TSPDT list, but then I realized that, to see my point through about championing alternative cinemas, it’s better to just abandon the canonical framework altogether. And that’s pretty much what I’ve done since film #1000. I was expecting to start delving more intensively into favorite auteurs, as some of my colleagues have done, but I haven’t. I’ve only watched about 100+ films this year, half of which are Chinese independent films unfamiliar to most people (something I’m working to rectify on another site, one of two that have effectively replaced this blog as the location of my online editorial activity). Perhaps it’s fitting that my work at dGenerate seeking and promoting great unsung Chinese indies has more or less replaced the time I’d spend hunting down the remaining titles of the TSPDT canon.

It goes without saying that I grew immensely from all the time and energy I put into this blog. Despite my gripes with the canon’s limitations, I got to indulge in a fair amount of eclecticism, confronting films I’d never heard of or otherwise would never pursue. (On the other hand, I wonder if it made my tastes too broad so as to be indistinct; I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the necessity of fixation as a distinguishing factor in developing a personality and a voice.) I developed my critical senses (or are they sensibilities?): concise observation, avoiding summarizing and just getting to the most interesting pockets of activity in a film, and offering context (social/historical/cultural) when illuminating. It got me a brief but rewarding stint with Time Out New York, a gig that intensified the punchiness in my writing at 225 words a pop. But for all my growth as a critic, I’m just another voice in a crowded field of online wordslingers.  So I guess my point of differentiation is in making videos. At least that’s what I’m told helped me get my current film critic gig (more on that in a bit), and so I’ve come around to realize that this may be the métier I need to stick with. At least it’s something that redeems all those years toiling as a self-taught filmmaker.

The dream hasn’t died, though. I spent the summer in China working on my own documentary project, retracing my steps as a teacher from 12 years ago and reconnecting with several of my old students to see what they’ve done with their lives since. You can read all about it here, though it helps if you can read Chinese (or just copy and paste into Google Translate and marvel at the amusing garble that emerges). It was an amazing four months, almost a time out of time. I saw China at its extremes of wealth and poverty, booming cities and desolated farmlands, and my students at various stations in between, all pursuing their dreams just as it was my dream to immortalize their endeavors. I had a terrific host: Jian Yi, whose film Super Girls! is distributed by dGenerate, and who has set up his own center for cultural and social projects in the small, inland city of Ji’an, where I used to teach. This sort of cultural literacy and preservation work is quite rare in China outside of the major cities, and is desperately needed when present generations are consumed with a disposable culture driven by commercialism. His work touches many lives and is inspiring to behold.

My return to the US in September came with the expected culture shock (not least of which was getting re-acquainted to the non-stop barrage of social data on Facebook and Twitter, both blocked in China. I’m still not sure how I feel about what degree these sites should be in my life outside of my professional obligations to engage in them; I’ll just say that I’m highly sympathetic to the last 2-3 paragraphs of this kiss-off).  Though it was more of a lifestyle shock that kept me off balance through the rest of the year. You see, prior to leaving for China, I had quit my steady, nondescript, nine-to-five day job of nine years (it still sends a chill through me to read that), and not having that routine to return to opened up considerable pockets of chaos (both temporally and emotionally) that I’ve had to tame.  dGenerate Films is busier than ever; a big chunk of my October was committed to steering the tour of filmmaker Du Haibin through his first visit to the U.S.; the dGenerate blog, which I manage, has evolved into the leading information resource on Chinese independent cinema; and we acquired more titles than we had projected, which meant more work getting them ready for distribution. For more on all this here’s an interview I did for The Beijinger (hattip to Dan Edwards, who’s fast becoming an important correspondent on the current film scene in China)

On top of this, I now have an editor position at Fandor, a startup online streaming service that hopefully you may have heard of by now (if not have subscribed to). In many ways I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity from which to leave my day job and apply what I learned from Shooting Down Pictures. I get to hand pick a stable of regular contributors for the site’s Keyframe blog, the caliber of which I am quite proud (Jonathan Rosenbaum; Michael Atkinson; The Self Styled Siren – need I say more?). I get to produce video essays for the site. I get to establish the presence of what I hope will be an essential source for online content on great films.

Despite all this worthwhile activity, I’ve found myself chronically depressed throughout the last several weeks of this year. Much of it is due to a lack of progress on editing my footage from the summer, due to being occupied with Fandor and dGenerate. Still, on the balance of where I started the year, I should have every reason to be happy, even grateful, for what I have on my plate. But something happened, starting from when I left that old job I’d been stuck in for so long only to retrace my steps from 12 years ago in another country… well you can imagine the tidal wave of nostalgia over the pleasant naivete of the past, and regrets of opportunities missed, time misspent, dreams deferred. I haven’t quite been able to shake these thoughts until just now, writing down all I’ve done this year, which makes me feel that it was worth the time it took, self-forestallments and all.

At the same time, the career upgrade brought new responsibilities and expectations upon myself, at least in my own mind. It’s as if I’m making up for the 9 years of muted expectations in which I entombed myself in that day job; suddenly there’s no more room to settle, everything needs to be better, and there’s a constant voice in my head assessing what I’m doing right or wrong (mostly wrong), what more could I be doing. You would think that waking up to your own life would be a liberating experience, but it can also be a kind of hell.

Little wonder this movie made my top ten.

At my old job, whenever someone asked my ex-boss how he was doing, he’d reply, “Living the Dream” with a sarcastic wistfulness that I can still hear with piercing clarity.  Not sure how many colleagues picked up on it or read much into it, but for me it spoke for my own sense of subjugation to a less than ideal life, the kind of compromise that we’re all expected to make sooner or later, and that I had made way too soon in my life, I now realize. And I also realize that, quite unexpectedly, I have escaped that fate. I am now cognizant of how much direction I can give to my own life. I have no one to blame but myself… and blame isn’t much use anyway.

It’s still left to see how things will play out with all that I have going on. It doesn’t help that I have an anxious disposition and get easily distracted. It’s at these times that my old friends the movies, especially the truly great ones, can occasionally offer clarity and wisdom. Not so much in what they say, but how. Two most recent examples below, both dwelling (if not luxuriating) in the messy uncertainty of the world, one with resolute playfulness, the other with endless patience, both infinitely attentive to what they’re capturing. There’s no question they deserve to be watched; we can only hope we are as deserving to learn from them.

Needless to say, neither film is on the TSPDT 1000.  Greatness strikes where it pleases, and whom. I’m relieved that I don’t have to track a canon anymore (though for old time’s sake I might post entries on whatever new titles appear in updates to the TSPDT list). But it raises the question of what to do with this blog. God knows I haven’t had time to maintain it like I used to, its comments section are now weed patches of spambots. But I do miss the regimen and the discipline of maintaining an ongoing personal blog. I don’t if managing the Fandor and dGenerate blogs will leave me time to do much here.  I do know that the alsolikelife website as a whole is due for an overhaul. We’ll see how long that will take. In the meantime, you know where to find me: Fandor and dGenerate, respectively.

Thank you for seeing me through to the end of this. I’ll see you at the next thing.

I love that Roger Ebert’s Twitter wallpaper is the last shot of one of my all time favorite films. But of course, it was his writing that turned me on to it.

I’m grateful for his acknowledgement, and even more grateful for the article that drew his attention, on, of all places, The Wall Street Journal. Thanks Eric Kohn for deeming my efforts newsworthy.

And update on Thursday’s screening: half the seats have been reserved, so if you’re thinking of coming, you might want to let me know to put you on the list, just in case…

On Tuesday March 30 at Swarthmore College, Vice President of Programming Kevin B. Lee will speak about issues in contemporary Chinese cinema and his work with dGenerate Films.

Following Mr. Lee’s talk will be a screening of Fujian Blue, a 2007 film by Weng Shouming, that has played in various international film festivals and won the Dragons and Tigers Award at the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival.

The China Film Journal writes that the film is “an absorbing narrative of deeply felt characters, a trenchant social commentary, and a tone poem to a nearly-lost generation.”

Admission Free. Sponsored by SAO as part of the APIA Heritage Month, Film and Media Studies program, FFS, Movie Committee and FOTS.

Location Information:
Science Center, Room 101
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore, PA

You can download the .srt file by right-clicking here. It’s also been uploaded to some movie file share sites, which are where you can find the movie itself. Feel free to give feedback on both the movie and the subs – I think this film is an absolute masterpiece and hope that others feel the same.

LOVE STREAMS (dir. John Cassavetes, 1984)

WHEN: 6:45 pm, Monday 29 March 2010
WHERE: Room 471, 20 Cooper Square (Bowery and East 5th)
ALL WELCOME.  Refreshments – stiff, copious – provided.

“Making a film has been compared, by many good directors, to a love affair.  What hasn’t been said is that this film, the recipient of the love, is the victim of an organized orgy.” (Cassavetes)

LOVE STREAMS is John Cassavetes’s last film.  He made it as he was dying of cirrhosis of the liver.  Critically disavowed, yanked off screens after just a few weeks, only briefly available on video in the States, it’s the story of the close relationship between Robert, a feckless lush (played by Cassavetes) who’s “writing a book on night life”, and Sarah (Cassavetes’s real-life wife Gena Rowlands), who describes herself as a “very happy person”.  Both are alive, lonely, lost.  Both, in their different ways, are quietly howling with grief.  Then comes the goat.

John Cassavetes’s films, Jim Jarmusch has written, are about “love, about trust and mistrust, about isolation, joy, sadness, ecstasy and stupidity”.  For that reason, their stylistic distinctiveness, and for their fierce and galvanic independence, they’ve long been touchstones for equally fierce, equally galvanic directors such as Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas and Pedro Almodovar.  LOVE STREAMS, in its rawness and desperation, its wild-eyed confrontation with human isolation and need, is hard to watch and equally hard to look away from.

LOVE STREAMS will be presented by Kevin B. Lee, a critic, filmmaker, and programming executive for dGenerate Films, a digital distribution channel for Chinese independent films. He contributes to ‘Time Out New York’, ‘Cineaste’, ‘The Moving Image Source’, and his blog Shooting Down Pictures, among other publications.

Part of the series THE SPEED OF YOUR HAIR: A series on love. Organized by Sukhdev Sandhu and The Colloquium for Unpopular Culture.

I’m no longer sure what mechanisms are in place to regulate copyrighted content, but judging from what I’m finding on the site, whatever guidelines are in place are being enforced rather hazily. Whatever the case, there’s a cornucopia of great films to be watched in their entirety on the site, especially rare and hard-to-find films that have mostly been distributed within the domain of file sharing networks.

I’ve already benefited from YouTube being the source for at least three films I’ve watched for Shooting Down Pictures: Subarnarekha, Toute une nuit, and My Friend Ivan Lapshin (in the case of the latter, the video I linked to watch the film was taken down, but since then another upload has become available).  And a recent conversation with Fernando Croce yielded links to several other films, including Victor Erice’s El Sur, a film that I watched for my project just a couple months ago on an unsubbed import DVD while following a printout of the subtitles. Now you can watch it on YouTube with the English subtitles perfectly synched.

I’m not sure whether I should bring attention to these films for fear of them being taken down.  But I figure that these videos were put up to be watched, and if they are going to be taken down, then might as well encourage people to see them while they can.  Nothing on YouTube stays secret for long anyway.

And so, here’s the first (and only?) edition of the Shooting Down Pictures YouTube Film Festival, a handpicked selection of films that are part of the TSPDT 1000 that can be watched in their entirety on YouTube.  Of course there are many more to be found, but I’m hedging my bets by singling out just these five. I consider all of them to be masterpieces.

And since this is a do-it-yourself film festival, I encourage you to share links to films that you’ve found on YouTube or elsewhere, be they part of the TSPDT 1000 or just cool films you want to share. I’ve included some of Fernando’s recommendations at the bottom of this post.

TSPDT #909: Seventh Heaven (1927, Frank Borzage)

SPD entry

TSPDT #918: Jour de Fete (1949, Jacques Tati)

TSPDT #981: Mothlight (1963, Stan Brakhage)

TSPDT  #972: Chloe in the Afternoon (1972, Eric Rohmer – RIP)

TSPDT#919: Sonatine (1992, Takeshi Kitano) – dubbed in Spanish!

More tips from Fernando, not from the TSPDT 1000 but highly recommended:

Fighting Friends (1933, Yasujiro Ozu): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dShnpf464

Lotna (1959, Andrzej Wajda): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbXkKNjcGyw

Cantata (1963, Miklos Jancso): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpW5Fs33deg

Taipei Story (1985, Edward Yang): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gICENI5aGk

Daughter of the Nile (1987, Hou Hsiao-hsien): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uglzStEM8tM

Fantasmagorie (1908) by Émile Cohl

100 Important Directors of Animated Short Films:  Background

This list of 100 important directors of animated short films was assembled in late 2008 to serve as a complement to “Brief Encounters,” a proposed list of 250 great short films (both animated and live-action) which was to be developed by the folks at the They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? website.  Unfortunately, that 250-film list is in limbo, leaving our list without a home.

The “100 Important Directors of Animated Short Films” list is not intended to be comprehensive.  These are simply 100 directors whom we feel are important and deserving of increased recognition by film lovers.  For each director, we selected three “highly recommended” movies.  In addition, we included a category of “TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts” to highlight any of these directors’ films which were tentatively slated to place on the abandoned Brief Encounters list.

This project was facilitated by Lee Price (lee-109) on the IMDb Classic Film message board.  Project team:  Lee Price, Robert Reynolds (Illtdesq), Jorge Didaco (jdidaco), Bill Kamberger (bkamberger), and Rob Tomshany (RobT-2), with additional input from animation fans on the IMDb Classic Film message board.

Rozhdestvo/Christmas (1997) directed by Mikhail Aldashin

100 Important Directors of Animated Short Films:  The List

Mikhail Aldashin
1958 –
Born Tuapse, USSR
Key production country:  Russia
Highly recommended:  The Other Side (1993), Christmas (1997), Bukashki (2002)

Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker
Alexander Alexeieff (1901 – 1982);  Claire Parker (1906 – 1981)
Alexander Alexeieff born Kazan, Russia;  Claire Parker born Boston, Massachusetts
Key production country:  France
Highly recommended:  Night on Bald Mountain (1933), En Passant (1943), The Nose (1963)

Tex Avery
1908 – 1980
Born  Taylor, Texas
Key production country:  USA
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Blitz Wolf (1942), Red Hot Riding Hood (1943), King-Size Canary (1947), The Cat That Hated People (1948)
Other highly recommended shorts:  Lucky Ducky (1948), Bad Luck Blackie (1949), The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955)

Frédéric Back
1924 –
Born Saarbrücken, Germany
Key production country:  Canada
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Crac (1981)
Other highly recommended shorts:  All Nothing (1980), The Man Who Planted Trees (1987), The Mighty River (1993)

Joseph Barbera and William Hanna
Joseph Barbera (1911 – 2006);  William Hanna (1910 – 2001)
Joseph Barbera born New York City, New York;  William Hanna born Melrose, New Mexico
Key production country: USA
Highly recommended:  The Night Before Christmas (1941), Mouse in Manhattan (1945), The Cat Concerto (1947)

Garry Bardin
1941 –
Born Chkalov, Soviet Union
Key production country:  Soviet Union
Highly recommended:  The Coiling Prankster/Fioritures (1988), Grey Wolf & Little Red Riding Hood (1990), Adagio (2000)

Jirí Barta
1948 –
Born Prague, Czechoslovakia
Key production country:  Czechoslovakia
Highly recommended:  The Vanished World of Gloves (1982), The Last Theft (1987), The Club of the Laid Off (1989)

Walerian Borowczyk
1923 – 2006
Born Kwilcz, Poland
Key production country:  France
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Les Jeux des Anges (1964), Rosalie (1966), Dom/House (1958), Les Astronautes (1959)
Highly recommended:  The Concert of Mr. and Mrs. Kabal (1962), Renaissance (1963), Scherzo Infernal (1984)

Charley Bowers
1877 – 1946
Born Paterson, New Jersey
Key production country:  USA
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Now You Tell One (1926)
Highly recommended:  Egged On (1926), There It Is (1928), It’s a Bird (1930)

Bruno Bozzetto
1933 –
Born Milan, Italy
Key production country:  Italy
Highly recommended:  Life in a Tin (1967), Baeus (1987), Grasshoppers (1990)

At the Ends of the Earth (1999) directed by Konstantin Bronzit

Konstantin Bronzit
1965 –
Born Leningrad, USSR
Key production country:  Russia
Highly recommended:  At the Ends of the Earth (1999), The Goddess (2003), Lavatory-Lovestory (2007)

Robert Cannon
1909 – 1964
Born Ohio, USA
Key production country: USA
Highly recommended:  Gerald McBoing Boing (1951), Christopher Crumpet (1953), The Jaywalker (1956)

Ivo Caprino
1920 – 2001
Born Oslo, Norway
Key production country:  Norway
Highly recommended:  Karius og Baktus (1954), The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1955), The Seventh Father in the House (1966)
Robert Clampett
1913 – 1984
Born Detroit, Michigan, USA
Key production country:  USA
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Porky in Wackyland (1938)
Highly recommended:  A Corny Concerto (1943), Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943), The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946)

Émile Cohl
1857 – 1938
Born Paris, France
Key production country:  France
Highly recommended:  Fantasmagorie (1908), The Automatic Moving Company (1910), The Hasher’s Delirium (1910)

Richard Condie
1942 –
Born Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Key production country:  Canada
Highly recommended:  Getting Started (1979), The Big Snit (1985), The Apprentice (1991)

Arthur Davis
1905 – 2000
Born Yonkers, New York, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  The Little Match Girl (1937), Dough-Ray Meow (1948), Bowery Bugs (1949)

Walt Disney
1901 – 1966
Born Chicago, Illinois, USA
Key production country:  USA
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Steamboat Willie (1928)
Highly recommended:  Alice’s Wonderland (1923), Plane Crazy (1928), The Skeleton Dance (1929)

Borivoj Dovnikovic
1930 –
Born Osijek, Croatia, Yugoslavia
Key production country:  Yugoslavia
Highly recommended:  Curiosity (1966), Krek (1968), An Exciting Love Story (1989)

Paul Driessen
1940 –
Born Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands
Key production country:  Canada
Highly recommended:  Cat’s Cradle (1974), Spotting a Cow (1984), The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg (2000)

Michael Dudok de Wit
1953 –
Born Abcoude, Utrecht, Netherlands
Key production country:  Netherlands
Highly recommended:  The Monk and the Fish (1994), Father and Daughter (2000), The Aroma of Tea (2006)

Piotr Dumala
1956 –
Born Warsw, Poland
Key production country:  Poland
Highly recommended:  Walls (1988), Wolnosc nogi (1989), Franz Kafka (1992)

David Fine and Alison Snowden
David Fine (1955 – );  Alison Snowden (1958 – )
Key production country:  Canada
Highly recommended:  Second Class Mail (1985), George and Rosemary (1987), Bob’s Birthday (1993)

Hans Fischerkosen
1896 – 1973
Born Bad Kösen/Saale, Germany
Key production country:  Germany
Highly recommended:  Das Blaue Wunder (1935), Weatherbeaten Melody (1943), The Snowman (1944)

Oskar Fischinger
1900 – 1967
Born Gelnhausen, Germany
Key production country:  Germany
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Motion Painting No. 1 (1947)
Highly recommended:  Studie Nr. 7 (1931), Komposition in Blau (1935), Allegretto (1936)

Dave Fleischer
1894 – 1979
Born New York City, New York, USA
Key production country:  USA
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Out of the Inkwell (1918), Snow-White (1933)
Highly recommended:  Ko-Ko’s Earth Control (1928), Bimbo’s Initiation (1931), Minnie The Moocher (1932)

High Diving Hare (1949) directed by Friz Freleng

Friz Freleng
1905 – 1995
Born Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Rhapsody In Rivets (1941), Pigs in a Polka (1943), High Diving Hare (1949)

Clyde Geronimi
1901 – 1989
Born Italy
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Lend a Paw (1941), Education For Death (1943), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1958)

Burt Gillett
1891 – 1971
Born Elmira, New York, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Flowers and Trees (1932), Three Little Pigs (1933), Lonesome Ghosts (1937)

Bob Godfrey
1921 –
Born West Maitland, New South Wales, Australia
Key production country:  UK
Highly recommended:  Do-It-Yourself Cartoon Kit (1961), Kama Sutra Rides Again (1972), Great (1975)

Paul Grimault
1905 – 1994
Born Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Key production country:  France
Highly recommended:  The Scarecrow (1943), The Little Soldier (1947), Le Chien Melomane (1973)

John Halas and Joy Batchelor
John Halas (1912 – 1995);  Joy Batchelor (1914 – 1991)
John Halas born Budapest, Austria-Hungary;  Joy Batchelor born Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Key production country:  UK
Highly recommended:  The Owl and the Pussycat (1952)The Christmas Visitor (1959), Automania 2000 (1964)

David Hand
1900 – 1986
Born Plainfield, New Jersey, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Who Killed Cock Robin? (1935), Three Orphan Kittens (1935), Thru the Mirror (1936)

Jack Hannah
1913 – 1994
Born Arizona, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Lambert The Sheepish Lion (1952), The New Neighbor (1953), In The Bag (1956)

Peace on Earth (1939) directed by Hugh Harman

Hugh Harman
1903 – 1982
Born Pagosa Springs, Colorado, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Tale of the Vienna Woods (1934), The Old Mill Pond (1936), Peace on Earth (1939)

Pierre Hébert
1944 –
Born Montréal, Québec, Canada
Key production country:  Canada
Highly recommended:  Op Hop – Hop Op (1966), Around Perception (1968), Memories of War (1983)

Don Hertzfeldt
1976 –
Born Fremont, California, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Genre (1996), Rejected (2000), The Meaning of Life (2005)

Co Hoedeman
1940 –
Born Netherlands
Key production country:  Canada
Highly recommended:  Tchou-Tchou (1972), The Sand Castle (1977), Ludovic – The Snow Gift (1998)

Moonbird (1959) directed by John and Faith Hubley

John & Faith Hubley
John Hubley (1914 – 1977);  Faith Hubley (1924 – 2001)
John Hubley born Marinette, Wisconsin, USA;  Faith Hubley born New York City, New York, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Rooty Toot Toot (1951), The Tender Game (1958), Moonbird (1959)

Rudolf Ising
1903 – 1992
Born Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  The Calico Dragon (1935), Dance of the Weed (1941), The Bear and the Beavers (1942)

Ivan Ivanov-Vano
1900 – 1987
Born Russia
Key production country:  USSR
Highly recommended:  Black and White (1932), The Battle of Kerzhenets (co-directed with Yuriy Norshteyn) (1971), Ave Maria (1972)

Ub Iwerks
1901 – 1971
Born Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Hell’s Bells (1929), The Cuckoo Murder Case (1930), Balloon Land (1935)

Wilfred Jackson
1906 – 1988
Born Chicago, Illinois, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  The Band Concert (1935), The Country Cousin (1936), The Old Mill (1937)

Chuck Jones
1912 – 2002
Born Spokane, Washington, USA
Key production country:  USA
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Bully for Bugs (1953), Duck Amuck (1953), One Froggy Evening (1955), What’s Opera, Doc? (1957)
Highly recommended:  Rabbit of Seville (1950), Feed the Kitty (1952), Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century (1953)

Piotr Kamler
1936 –
Born Warsaw, Poland
Key production country:  France
Le Labyrinthe (1969), Coeur de secours (1973), Le Pas (1975)

Dojoji Temple (1976) directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto

Kihachiro Kawamoto
1925 –
Born Tokyo, Japan
Key production country:  Japan
Highly recommended:  Dojoji Temple (1976), House of Flame (1979), Sleeping Beauty (1990)

William Kentridge
1955 –
Born South Africa
Key production country:  South Africa
Highly recommended:  Felix in Exile (1994), History of the Main Complaint (1996), Automatic Writing (2003)

Fyodor Khitruk
1917 –
Born Tver, USSR
Key production country:  USSR
Highly recommended:  Film, Film, Film (1968), Vinni Pukh (1969), Ostrov/The Island (1973)

Nikolai Khodataev
Key production country:  USSR
Highly recommended:  Interplanetary Revolution (1924), China In Flames (1925), We’ll Keep Our Eyes Peeled (1927)

Andrey Khrzhanovskiy
1939 –
Born Moscow, USSR
Key production country:  USSR
Highly recommended:  The Glass Harmonica (1968), Armoire (1970), Butterfly (1972)

Jack King
1895 – 1958
Born Alabama, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Mr. Duck Steps Out (1940), Truant Officer Donald (1941), Donald’s Snow Fight (1942)

Jack Kinney
1908 – 1992
Born Utah, USA
Key production country:  USA
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Der Fuehrer’s Face (1942)
Highly recommended:  How to Swim (1942), How to Play Football (1944), Goofy Gymnastics (1949)

Igor Kovalyov
1963 –
Kiev, Ukraine, USSR
Key production country:  Russia
Highly recommended:  Investigation is Held by the Koloboks (1986), Hen, His Wife (1990), Andrey Svislotskiy (1992)

Jerzy Kucia
1942 –
Born Soltysy, Poland
Key production country:  Poland
Highly recommended:  Reflections (1979), Across the Field (1992), Tuning the Instruments (2000)

La Demoiselle et le violoncelliste (1965) directed by Jean-François Laguionie

Jean-François Laguionie
1939 –
Born Besançon, Doubs, France
Key production country:  France
La Demoiselle et le violoncelliste (1965), Le Masque du diable (1976), La Traversée de l’Atlantique à la rame (1978)

René Laloux
1929 – 2004
Born Paris, France
Key production country:  France
Highly recommended:  Les Temps Morts (1964), Les Escargots (1965), How Wang-Fo Was Saved (1987)

Walter Lantz
1899 – 1994
Born New Rochelle, New York, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Knock Knock (1940), The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company “B” (1941), The Hams That Couldn’t Be Cured (1942)

John Lasseter
1957 –
Hollywood, California, USA
Key production country:  USA
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Knick Knack (1989)
Highly recommended:  Luxo, Jr. (1986), Red’s Dream (1987), Tin Toy (1988)

Caroline Leaf
1946 –
Born Seattle, Washington, USA
Key production country:  Canada
Highly recommended:  The Street (1976), The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa (1977), Two Sisters (1990)

Jan Lenica
1928 – 2001
Born Poznan, Poland
Key production country:  Poland
Highly recommended:  Nowy Janko Muzykant/New Janko the Musician (1961), Labirynt (1963), ‘A’ (1965)

Emanuele Luzzati and Giulio Gianini
Emanuele Luzzati (1921 – 2007);  Giulio Gianini (1927 – )
Emanuele Luzzati born Genoa, Italy;  Giulio Gianini born Rome, Italy
Key production country:  Italy
Highly recommended:  The Thieving Magpie (1964), Alì Babà (1970), Pulcinella (1973)

Len Lye
1901 – 1980
Born Christchurch, New Zealand
Key production country:  UK
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Rainbow Dance (1936), Trade Tattoo (1937), Free Radicals (1958)
Highly recommended:  A Colour Box (1935), Colour Flight (1937), Swinging the Lambeth Walk (1940)

Kenzô Masaoka
1898 – 1988
Born Suita, Osaka, Japan
Key production country:  Japan
Highly recommended:  Nonsense Story, Volume 1: Monkey Island (1931), A Song of the Chagama Family (1935), The Spider and the Tulip (1943)

Winsor McCay
1871 – 1934
Born Spring Lake, Michigan, USA
Key production country:  USA
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
Highly recommended:  Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the NY Herald and His Moving Comics (1911), The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918), Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Flying House (1921)

Robert McKimson
1910 – 1977
Born Denver, Colorado, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Walky Talky Hawky (1946), A-Lad-In His Lamp (1948), Hillbilly Hare (1950)

Norman McLaren
1914 – 1987
Born Stirling, Scotland, UK
Key production country:  Canada
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Dots (1940), C’est l’aviron (1944), The Young Grey Hen (1947), Begone Dull Care (1949), Neighbours (1952), Pas de deux (1968)
Highly recommended:  Blinkity Blank (1955), A Chairy Tale (1957), Le Merle/The Blackbird (1958)

Otto Messmer
1892 – 1983
Born Union City, New Jersey, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Felix In Hollywood (1923), Felix the Cat Dines and Pines (1927), Comicalamities (1928)

Eduard Nazarov
1941 –
Born Moscow, USSR
Key production country:  USSR
Highly recommended:  There Once Was a Dog (1982), Travels of an Ant (1983), Martinko (1987)

Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) directed by Yuriy Norshteyn

Yuriy Norshteyn
1941 –
Born Andreyevka, Penza, USSR
Key production country:  USSR
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Hedgehog in the Fog (1975), Tale of Tales (1979)
Highly recommended:  Seasons (co-directed with Ivan Ivanov-Vano) (1969), The Fox and the Hare (1973), Heron and Crane (1974)

Willis O’Brien
1886 – 1962
Born Oakland, California, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  The Dinosaur and the Missing Link (1915), Prehistoric Poultry (1916), The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918)

George Pal
1908 – 1980
Born Cegled, Austria-Hungary
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Tulips Shall Grow (1942), John Henry and the Inky Poo (1946), Tubby the Tuba (1947)

Nick Park
1958 –
Born Preston, Lancashire, England, UK
Key production country:  UK
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  The Wrong Trousers (1993)
Highly recommended:  Creature Comforts (1989), A Grand Day Out (1989), A Close Shave (1995)

Priit Pärn
1946 –
Born Tallinn, Estonia
Key production country:  Estonia
Highly recommended:  Breakfast on the Grass (1987), Hotell E (1992), 1895 (1995)

The Bead Game (1977) directed by Ishu Patel

Ishu Patel
1942 –
Born Gujarat, India
Key production country:  Canada
Highly recommended:  The Bead Game (1977), Afterlife (1978), Paradise (1984)

Michaela Pavlátová
1961 –
Born Prague, Czechoslovakia
Key production country:  Czech Republic
Reci, Reci, Reci (1991), Repete (1995), The Carnival of Animals (2006)

Aleksandr Petrov
1957 –
Born Prechistoye, Yaroslavl province, USSR
Key production country:  USSR
Highly recommended:  The Cow (1989), The Old Man and the Sea (1999), My Love (2006)

Bill Plympton
1946 –
Born Portland, Oregon, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Your Face (1987), 25 Ways To Quit Smoking (1989), Guard Dog (2004)

Bretislav Pojar
1923 –
Born Susice, Czechoslovakia
Key production country:  Czechoslovakia
Highly recommended:  The Lion and the Song (1959), ‘E’ (1981), Nightangel (1986)

Barry Purves
Key production country:  UK
Highly recommended:  Next (1989), Screen Play (1992), Achilles (1995)

Stephen and Timothy Quay
Stephen Quay (1947 – );  Timothy Quay (1947 –
Stephen and Timothy Quay born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Key production country:  UK
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Street of Crocodiles (1986)
Highly recommended:  Gilgamesh, or This Unnameable Little Broom (1985), Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (1988), In Absentia (2000)

Joanna Quinn
1962 –
Born Birmingham, England, UK
Key production country:  UK
Highly recommended:  Girl’s Night Out (1987), Britannia (1993), Dreams and Desires (2006)

Lotte Reiniger
1899 – 1981
Born Berlin, Germany
Key production country:  Germany
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Papageno (1935)
Highly recommended:  Cinderella (1922), The Little Chimney Sweep (1954), Hansel and Gretel (1955)

Wolfgang Reitherman
1909 – 1985
Born Munich, Germany
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  The Truth About Mother Goose (1957), Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)

Walter Ruttmann
1887 – 1941
Born Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany
Key production country:  Germany
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Melody of the World (1929)
Highly recommended:  Opus II (1921), Opus III (1924), Opus IV (1925)

Zbigniew Rybczynski
1949 –
Born Lodz, Poland
Key production country:  Poland
Highly recommended:  Soup (1975), Tango (1981), The Fourth Dimension (1988)

Georges Schwizgebel
1944 –
Born Bern, Switzerland
Key production country: Switzerland
Highly recommended:  78 Tours (1985), La Course à l’abîme (1992), L’Homme sans ombre (2004)

Garik Seko
1935 – 1994
Born Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, USSR
Key production country:  Czechoslovakia
Highly recommended:  Faust’s House (1977), Ex Libris (1982), My Kamarad Tika (1987)

Harpya (1979) directed by Raoul Servais

Raoul Servais
1928 –
Born Oostende, Belgium
Key production country:  Belgium
Highly recommended:  Sirene (1968), Harpya (1979), Atraksion (2001)

Ben Sharpsteen
1895 – 1980
Born Sonoma County, California, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Mickey’s Service Station (1935), Clock Cleaners (1937), Mickey’s Trailer (1938)

Harry Smith
1923 – 1991
Born Portland, Oregon, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Number 5: Circular Tensions: Homage to Oskar Fischinger (1949), Number 7 (1951), Number 10 (1956)

Wladyslaw Starewicz
1882 – 1965
Born Wilno, Poland, Russian Empire
Key production country:  France
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912), Fétiche (1934)
Highly recommended:  The Insect’s Christmas (1913), The Frog Who Wanted to be King (1923), The Voice of the Nightingale (1923)

Jan Svankmajer
1934 –
Born Prague, Czechoslovakia
Key production country:  Czechoslovakia
TSPDT 250 Greatest Shorts:  Dimensions of Dialogue (1982), A Quiet Week in the House (1969)
Highly recommended:  Darkness/Light/Darkness (1989), Down to the Cellar (1983), Jídlo/Food (1992)

Frank Tashlin
1913 – 1972
Born Weehawken, New Jersey, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Have You Got Any Castles? (1938), Porky Pig’s Feat (1943), Swooner Crooner (1944)

Osamu Tezuka
1928 – 1989
Born Toyonaka, Japan
Key production country:  Japan
Highly recommended:  Mermaid (1964), Jumping (1984), Legend of the Forest (1987)

Wendy Tilby
1960 –
Born Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Key production country:  Canada
Highly recommended:  Tables of Contents (1986), Strings (1991), When the Day Breaks (1999)

Jirí Trnka
1912 – 1969
Born Pilsen, Austria-Hungary
Key production country:  Czechoslovakia
Highly recommended:  The Story of the Bass Cello (1949), The Cybernetic Grandma (1962), Ruka/The Hand (1965)

Will Vinton
1948 –
Born McMinnville, Oregon, USA
Key production country:  USA
Highly recommended:  Closed Mondays (1974), The Creation (1981), The Great Cognito (1982)

Dusan Vukotic
1927 – 1998
Born Bileca, Montenegro
Key production country:  Yugoslavia
Piccolo (1959), Surogat/Ersatz (1961), Inga/The Game (1962)

Where Is Mama? (1960) directed by Te Wei

Te Wei
1915 –
Born Shanghai, China
Key production country:  China
Highly recommended:  Where Is Mama? (1960), The Cowboy’s Flute (1963), Feeling from Mountain and Water (1988)

John Weldon
1945 –
Born Belleville, Ontario, Canada
Key production country:  Canada
Highly recommended:  Special Delivery (1978), To Be (1990), The Lump (1991)