Shooting Down Pictures » Miscellaneous

Best Week Ever

alsolikelife — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:56:55 +0000

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…

If you happen to be in the Philly/Swarthmore area…

alsolikelife — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:12:00 +0000

http://calendar.swarthmore.edu/calendar/EventList.aspx?fromdate=3/24/2010&todate=4/22/2010&display=Month&type=public&eventidn=5891&view=EventDetails&information_id=19176

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

Announcing the Winner of the Shooting Down Pictures Fansub Challenge

alsolikelife — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:47:16 +0000

I’m pleased to announce that the Shooting Down Pictures Fansub Challenge has a winner. Peaceful Anarchy answered my call to produce English fansubs for the mile-a-minute dialogue for Luis Garcia Berlanga’s Placido, and has thus earned the $150 prize ($10 more than I advertised! I really need to pay more attention to my own blog).

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.

A Belated report from Berlinale

alsolikelife — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:01:33 +0000

My, it’s been quiet here for some time. What have I been up to? I guess things fell off on this blog about the time I went to Berlin – so maybe I should link to my coverage for The Auteurs. You’ll note special attention paid to the films of Yasujiro Shimazu and to the Forum Expanded installations, both of which were the most exciting things I saw in Berlin. Here’s a video I shot of the James Benning installation Tulare Road (hope he doesn’t mind), which is particularly amusing for one German infant’s interactive participation with it:

Cassavetes’ LOVE STREAMS next Monday, March 29

alsolikelife — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:50:17 +0000

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.

The Shooting Down Pictures YouTube Film Festival

alsolikelife — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:12:52 +0000

To think that it’s been over a year since the YouTube shakedown of 2009, when I temporarily lost my account during a particularly zealous effort to manage the content on YouTube containing copyrighted material, such as my video essays. Well here we are a year later, and if anything there is even more copyrighted stuff to be found on the site – and we’re not just talking videos like mine that re-appropriate media, but entire feature films.

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

LOVE STREAMS screening postponed

alsolikelife — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:06:53 +0000

Due to unforeseen circumstances the screening of Love Streams has been postponed to a later date. Will announce once it is scheduled.

100 Important Directors of Animated Short Films

alsolikelife — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:39:55 +0000

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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" width="400" height="297" />

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)

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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)

Taking a break from video essays to serve the community

alsolikelife — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:38:23 +0000

While video essays have been the majority of my creative output for the past couple of years, I still keep a hand in other types of video production, especially when it’s for a good cause. I just received word that a video I produced for the Sikh Coalition has been accepted to the Spinning Wheel Film Festival in Toronto, September 25-27. The video, “From the Classroom to the Capitol” was produced for the Sikh Coalition’s first annual awards gala earlier in August. It was posted on the Coalition’s YouTube page this week, and apparently the Spinning Wheel Festival caught it and liked it enough to add to their program.

I’ve been involved with the Sikh Coalition and the Sikh community for several years now, most notably through the production of a short documentary “Dastaar: Defending Sikh Identity.” I’ve done a lot of work with the Coalition in building up their capacity to make videos on their own, thanks to a grant from Manhattan Neighborhood Network. The Sikh community remains one of the most misunderstood people in the U.S. and the victim of ongoing bias and hate attacks, often violent ones. The Sikh Coalition has done much since 9/11 to combat prejudice, defend people’s civil rights and educate the nation at large about the Sikh identity. I am extremely proud to be involved in these efforts.

Here’s the new video “From the Classroom to the Capitol”:

Ingmar Bergman: an Annotated Webliography and Top 10 Quotes

alsolikelife — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:28:32 +0000

It’s been exactly two years since Ingmar Bergman passed away at the age of 89, leaving us with dozens of films, many of which are considered among the greatest ever made. On the anniversary of his death, it’s my privilege to present a compilation of the most valuable resources on Bergman available online, as well as ten of the most illuminating quotes about him, from filmmakers, scholars, and Bergman himself.

This array of information was compiled by a longtime friend on the IMDb Classic Film Boards who goes by the handle Antonius Block. Back when I was a regular on those boards Antonius was widely regarded as the person to go to about all things Bergman. Back then I was a bit of a Bergman naysayer, and Antonius patiently weathered many a row with me over some of his favorite films. Over time I’ve come to appreciate Bergman’s special qualities, much of which is reflected in the links and text that Antonius has resourcefully assembled:

When Kevin asked me recently if I would compile an annotated ‘webliography’ of web resources and quotes by and about Ingmar Bergman for Shooting Down Pictures, my answer was a resounding yes. As it turns out, that initial enthusiasm somewhat exceeded my findings. While there are indeed a couple of excellent websites devoted to sharing useful information about Bergman, much of what I found doesn’t seem worth including here. Other resources I’ve used in the past have disappeared, or become seemingly defunct, like the Ingmar Bergman Yahoo Group (http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/BERGMAN/). At any rate, my hope is that by paring away some of these lesser resources, this webliography will be more useful — a fundamental quality that Bergman always wished his own films to be.

WEBSITES

Ingmar Bergman: Face to Face (http://www.ingmarbergman.se/) came to fruition in 2005 through the dedication of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, an independent body that Bergman himself initiated a few years earlier by donating his personal archive to the Swedish Film Institute. In addition to extensive notes about his film and theater work, it contains a comprehensive listing of Bergman’s writings (books and articles, although the full text of most is not supplied) and a listing of all current stage productions of his plays being performed around the world. Most interesting is the “Universe” section, filled with short essays that tie together the many repeated themes and motifs in Bergman’s work. The site also contains selected digitized documents from the Ingmar Bergman Archives — pieces of original manuscripts, set designs, shot breakdowns, letters — and claims it is working on making more documents from the archives available.

Portions of The Ingmar Bergman Archives were turned into a 592-page book of the same name, edited by Paul Duncan and Bengt Wanselius and published in 2008 by Taschen. Partly due to the $200 price tag, Taschen initially allowed anyone to leaf through the entire book digitally on their website, but unfortunately this feature no longer seems to be available. (It still seems worth mentioning, in case it ever returns.)

Additionally, one can search the archives (in Swedish) here (http://www.ingmarbergmanarchives.se/Search/Regulations.aspx), although the results only include bibliographic information.

More information about The Ingmar Bergman Foundation can be found on their website (http://193.10.144.147/).

Bergmanorama: The Magic Works of Ingmar Bergman (http://bergmanorama.webs.com/index.html) features a good assortment of image galleries, multimedia clips, and comprehensive details on Bergman’s prolific film, theater, television, and even radio work, which are neatly compiled into a personal chronology spanning his life and work in all four mediums. But the most noteworthy section of this site is its selection of interviews with and essays about Bergman (somewhat hidden, at least in the current design, halfway down the “Profile” page in a small red “Commentary” box). There is also contact and pricing information for staging Bergman’s plays.

Online film journals such as Senses of Cinema and Bright Lights Film Journal have published numerous essays on Bergman’s film work. Some of the more noteworthy examples include:

On Bergman
Ingmar Bergman by Hamish Ford, part of the “Great Directors” series (http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/bergman.html)
Through a Glass Darkly: Bergman as Critical and Cultural Bellwether by Richard Shaw (http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/40/bergman.htm)

This may seem a bit obvious, but there is a wealth of digitized print resources available on Bergman through Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?q=”ingmar+bergman”&as_brr= 3). Admittedly, most of these do not contain the full text, but many contain much of it. Short of having access to a print library, this is the next best thing, and the ability to search inside the text makes finding specific informational nuggets easier to locate.

Along the same lines, one can gain access to hundreds of full text journal articles about Bergman and his work by accessing premium research databases such as Ebsco’s Academic Search Premier or Proquest’s Magazine Index. Most public libraries will have access to these; some may have access to even more specific film-related databases. All you need is a library card.

There is no shortage of DVD review sites, but DVD Beaver gets special mention here for grouping all of their reviews and comparisons of Bergman’s films on DVD and Blu-Ray in one central place. (http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/bergman.htm)

QUOTES

The following is a selection of quotes by and about Bergman which suggest various and at times competing ways of approaching his film work. In the spirit of brevity, I’ve limited this section to a total of ten quotes (five by and five about Bergman).

In his own words

“No other art-medium–neither painting nor poetry–can communicate the specific quality of the dream as well as the film can. When the lights go down in the cinema and this white shining point opens up for us, our gaze stops flitting hither and thither, settles and becomes quite steady. We just sit there, letting the images flow out over us. Our will ceases to function. We lose our ability to sort things out and fix them in their proper places. We’re drawn into a course of events–we’re participants in a dream. And manufacturing dreams, that’s a juicy business.” -Ingmar Bergman (Bergman on Bergman, 1973)

“We’re saved not by God, but by love. That’s the most we can hope for. Each film, you see, has its moment of contact, of human communication: the line “Father spoke to me,” at the end of Through a Glass Darkly; the pastor conducting the service in the empty church for Marta at the end of Winter Light; the little boy reading Ester’s letter on the train at the end of The Silence. A tiny moment in each film but the crucial one. What matters most of all in life is being able to make that contact with another human. Otherwise you are dead, like so many people today are dead. But if you can take that first step toward communication, toward understanding, toward love, then no matter how difficult the future may be–and have no illusions, even with all the love in the world, living can be hellishly difficult–then you are saved. This is all that really matters, isn’t it? -Ingmar Bergman (Playboy Interview, 1964)

“It is fairly obvious that the cinema became my means of expression. I made myself understood in a language that bypassed the words–which I lacked–and music–which I did not master–and painting, which left me indifferent. With cinema, I suddenly had an opportunity to communicate with the world around me in a language that is literally spoken from soul to soul in phrases that escape the control of the intellect in an almost voluptuous way.” -Ingmar Bergman (The Snakeskin, 1965)

“I don’t understand why I have to make political pictures. One doesn’t blame the painter Edvard Munch for making ‘irresponsible apolitical’ paintings. Has anyone ever condemned Béla Bartók because of apolitical compositions? Just like them I desire to fathom people’s characters–an honourable hunger. Don’t grudge me that satisfaction. I admire Costa-Gavras (Missing) and Margarethe von Trotta (Die Bleierne Zeit/The years of lead) who film people as well as politics. But it’s not my cup of tea.” -Ingmar Bergman (Goodbye to All That, 1984)

“There is an old story of how the Cathedral of Chartres was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Then thousands of people came from all points of the compass, like a giant procession of ants, and together they began to rebuild the cathedral on its old site. They worked until the building was completed–master builders, artists, labourers, clowns, noblemen, priests, burghers. But they all remained anonymous, and no one knows to this day who rebuilt the Cathedral of Chartres.

Regardless of my own beliefs and my own doubts, which are unimportant in this connection, it is my opinion that art lost its basic creative drive the moment it was separated from worship. It severed an umbilical cord and now lives its own sterile life, generating and degenerating itself. In former days the artist remained unknown and his work was to the glory of God. He lived and died without being more or less important than other artisans; “eternal values,” “immortality,” and “masterpiece” were terms not applicable to his case. The ability to create was a gift. In such a world flourished invulnerable assurance and natural humility.

Today the individual has become the highest form, and the greatest bane, of artistic creation. The smallest wound or pain of the ego is examined under a microscope as if it were of eternal importance. The artist considers his isolation, his subjectivity, his individualism almost holy. Thus we finally gather in one large pen, where we stand and bleat about our loneliness without listening to each other and without realizing that we are smothering each other to death. The individualists stare into each other’s eyes and yet deny each other’s existence. We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster’s whim and the purest ideal.

Thus if I am asked what I would like the general purpose of my films to be, I would reply that I want to be one of the artists in the cathedral on the great plain. I want to make a dragon’s head, an angel, a devil–or perhaps a saint–out of stone. It does not matter which; it is the sense of satisfaction that counts. Regardless of whether I believe or not, whether I am a Christian or not, I would play my part in the collective building of the cathedral.” -Ingmar Bergman (Why I Make Movies, 1960)

On Bergman

“The predominant arena for conflict in motion pictures has usually been the external, physical world. Certainly that was true for many years. Witness the staples of slapstick and Westerns, war films and chases and gangster movies and musicals. As the Freudian revolution sank in, however, the most fascinating arena for conflict shifted to the interior and films were faced with a problem. The psyche is not visible. If the most interesting fights are being waged in the heart and mind, what to do? Bergman evolved a style to deal with the human interior, and he alone among directors has explored the soul’s battlefield to the fullest. With impunity he put his camera on faces for unconscionable periods of time while actors and actresses wrestled with their anguish. One saw great performers in extreme close-ups that lingered beyond where the textbooks say is good movie form. Faces were everything for him. Close-ups. More close-ups. Extreme close-ups. He created dreams and fantasies and so deftly mingled them with reality that gradually a sense of the human interior emerged. He used huge silences with tremendous effectiveness. The terrain of Bergman films is different from his contemporaries’. It matches the bleak beaches of the rocky island he lives on. He has found a way to show the soul’s landscape. (He said he viewed the soul as a membrane, a red membrane, and showed it as such in Cries and Whispers.) By rejecting cinema’s standard demand for conventional action, he has allowed wars to rage inside characters that are as acutely visual as the movements of armies.” -Woody Allen (Through a Life Darkly, 1988)

“Bergman, in effect, is the film-maker of the instant. Each of his films is born of the hero’s reflection on the present moment, and deepens that reflection by a sort of dislocation of time–rather in the manner of Proust but more powerfully, as though Proust were multiplied by both Joyce and Rousseau–to become a vast, limitless meditation upon the instantaneous. An Ingmar Bergman film is, if you like, one twenty-fourth of a second metamorphosed and expanded over an hour and a half. It is the world between two blinks of the eyelids, the sadness between two heart-beats, the gaiety between two handclaps.” -Jean-Luc Godard (Bergmanorama, 1958)

It had taken seventeen years of work (he began in 1945 with Crisis, and The Silence comes from 1962) for him to grasp that a film’s power comes from the unrelenting honesty of its maker, his courage in refusing to retreat by as much as one step. Not from its philosophical construction (The Seventh Seal, which I do not like), its original and beautiful record of dreams and overpowering nightmares (as in Wild Strawberries), its social elucidation of dramatic events (as in Summer with Monika, which I like a lot) — but from its delineation of feelings we all experience and understand, as we tremble incessantly between love and hate, between fear of death and a longing for rest, between envy and generosity, between a keen sense of humiliation and the joy of revenge.

The Silence takes place in the oppressive stickiness of a baking day and a hot night, which has room for eroticism and lust but none for love, in which the absence of pity, sympathy or even a drop of understanding is a thoroughly natural condition. Throughout this dark, bleak, fearsomely sad film — outside its action and utterances — there pulses a tiny groundless flame of hope.

I know where the bright trace comes from in this dark film. From Bergman’s profound belief in humanity, even where circumstances or feelings compel the protagonists to be cruel and ruthless.” -Krzystof Kieslowski (Bergman’s Silence, 199?)

“Bergman’s career…is a sustained interrogation of conflict and crisis, neither a series of frenzied and gratuitous revolts nor an agonized, purely symptomatic chorus of desperate cries. The notorious gloominess of his films is dictated by the real violence and disorder that he perceives in culture and is the consequence of his effort to confront these crises without having recourse to culture’s violent and illusory means of bringing the return to order. The enigmatic and troublesome aspects of Bergman’s films become more comprehensible once we attend to his critique of what one character in From the Life of the Marionettes calls the “prescribed patterns” and “dark governing forces” of life. Bergman’s supposed demonic quality springs from his rejection of blinding conventions that are at once aesthetic and social. Traditionally the artist, charged to imitate crises and their resolution before the eyes of the community, has found a role in this ritual, but this tradition is no longer tenable for Bergman, who would substitute for this mode of exchange between artist and audience a more difficult and constructive form of communication. He appears to be demonic because he probes the real crises that have disrupted so many aspects of contemporary culture, and because he asks his spectators to follow him in this exploration without offering them the guarantee of a reassuring conclusion.” -Paisley Livingston (Ingmar Bergman and the Rituals of Art, 1982)

“Bergman’s characters are shown to be caught in a conflict between the inner world and the often menacing outer world. Regardless of gender, age, or status, Bergman’s interest is rooted in how they choose to compromise the two. As Godard observes in his essay: “the cinema is an art. … One is always alone; on the set as before the blank page. And for Bergman to be alone means to ask questions.” Time and again, Bergman challenges our sense of both individual and collective identity (who are we and how do we live with others?) — ethical, political, and social considerations every bit as relevant to the current climate, modernist or otherwise, as any moment previously. It is for this reason, however valid the re-evaluation of the alternative critics, however necessary the revisionist approach, that the study of film cannot afford to be without such a cinematic force, and particularly one so central to its institutionalisation, as Ingmar Bergman.” -Richard Shaw (Through a Glass Darkly, 2003)