Commentary &Festivals 14 Feb 2008 09:07 am
Wonderland
- If you’re a fan of Lewis Carroll, the 19th Ankara International Film Festival has something for you. They’re putting on a tribute to Carroll by running a number of films that adapt his work and document his life. I have three films in their program: The Hunting of the Snark, Jabberwocky, and Glimmers of a Life (a biography of Carroll focusing on his nonsense poems.) These three films were released as one program on vhs. The dvd features only the Snark.
The complete Carroll retrospective includes:
__* Neco z Alenky, Jan Å vankmajer, Czech, 1988
__* Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameného Huberta/Jabberwocky,
________Jan Å vankmajer, Czech, 1971
__* The Hunting of the Snark, Michael Sporn, USA, 1989
__* Lewis Carroll’s Nonsense Poems: Glimmers of a Life,
________Michael Sporn, USA, 1989
__* Jabberwocky, Michael Sporn, USA, 1989
__* Sincerely yours, a Film about Lewis Carroll, Andy Malcolm&George Pastic, Can, 2004
__* Alisa v strane chudes / Alica in Wonderland, Yefrem Pruzhansky, USSR, 1981
__* Alisa v zazerkalye / Through The Looking Glass, Yefrem Pruzhansky, USSR, 1982
__* Alice in Wonderland, Lou Bunin, UK/France, 1949
Lou Bunin’s Alice in Wonderland which will screen at the 19th Ankara Film Festival in Turkey.
The print they’ll screen of Bunin’s Alice Personally, my favorite film about Lewis Carroll is Dreamchild starring Ian Holm; it features excellent puppetry by the Henson people. Perhaps the rights to that one weren’t quite as accessible.
The festival in Ankara, Turkey should attract an interesting following. It runs from March 13-23. Ezgi Yalinalp is the Coordinator of this event.
_________________________(Click on any image to enlarge.)
Talking about Wonderland, Josh Siegel of the Museum of Modern Art was kind enough to send me a copy of the video shot during my chat last November. I’m beginning to understand why George Bush wants to suppress our civil rights. He just wants to get rid of all evidence of his life in Blunderland. I’m looking into suppressing this video – how embarrassing. Funny how positive my memories were until I saw what I looked like.
_____Here I’m trying to scare Josh Siegel and John Canemaker, but it doesn’t work.
_____Finally I do everything I can to bore them into submission. I think that worked.
But then I think back to how many people came out in support to watch the films that ran all weekend long or even just to hear me talk on that final Monday. Michael and Phyllis Barrier travelled from Arkansas to NY to attend. I couldn’t begin to tell you what that meant to me. The same is true of John and Cathy Celestri who came from Ohio. Their presence, and that of all those who came was a great treat that you just miss while watching this dvd. It’s wonderful to have as a memento, but my memories are even greater. I can’t thank Josh Siegel or John Canemaker enough for those memories.
- Speaking of one who came out, Michael Barrier has a great post on his site today. It talks about the difficulties of a real animation historian. Watching Mike or John Canemaker travel endless miles for the necessary interviews or programs, just tires me. (They’re the two I’m closest to, so I see what goes into it.) I love animation history, but I just wouldn’t have the stamina to do the hard work that no one properly credits them for doing. I raise a glass of champagne to them all in toasting their work. I can’t get enough of good, solid, dependable animation history. The same for all the others who do that tough work.
on 14 Feb 2008 at 2:23 pm 1.Tom Sito said …
Nice piece about Barrier’s noting the difficulties of animation history writing. I was surprised when I was writing Drawing the Line that after 4 1/2 years of interviews, rewrites and notations, no matter how careful you try to be, people still find things to throw rocks at. You’ll miss a specific date, misspell a name. One animator called me and was mad not that I didn’t mention him, because i did, but because I didn’t list him in the index!
on 18 Feb 2008 at 12:44 am 2.Bill Perkins said …
Again a toast to those who do all that hard work. Early writings about animation (73/74), Jay Cocks article on Chuck Jones, John Canemaker’s review of Greg Ford’s “Hollywood Cartoon” program in Filmmakers Newsletter opened the path for me. Because of these writers as well as Michael Barrier and others the history of animation, of which I’m an avid fan,is well documented. You could probably fill a bookcase or three with the writings done since the early seventies. So much more then what existed before then. I still savour the memory of the seventies. The birth of serious study of films and film makers. Animation history was a late entry into the field but every scrap of information that came available was like finding Captain Kidd’s treasure. Jerry Beck once commented that some material – the Big Film Comment issue for example, you bought two copies if you could. One too read and one to preserve in plastic. I’m not ashamed to say I still have them, well preserved and they put a smile on my face every time I bring them out.