2013 NW Animation Fest poster image from Butterflies

BUTTERFLIES BY ISABEL PEPPARD & WARWICK BURTON
Thank you to Isabel Peppard & Warwick Burton for allowing us to use a still from their film Butterflies for festival posters and online promotion. It’s a perfect image to convey the spirit of NW Animation Fest: rich with imagination and the possibility of taking flight, imbued with a childlike whimsy — but also a hint of darkness and strange, unexpected worlds. The image takes on an even deeper level of meaning once you’ve actually seen the film… “A young artist sits on the sidewalk, struggling to make a living. She sells drawings to passersby. A businessman who recognizes her talents offers her a paying job. The prospect seems inviting but the reality threatens to kill her imagination.” Isn’t this the story of animation itself? How many artists enter this industry with the hope of creating their own personal projects — only to find that there’s not enough time and energy to simultaneously make a living and pursue their dreams? Through poetry and horror, Butterflies begins an important conversation about how to preserve the creative spirit that’s most dear to artists. And as a festival, that’s exactly the sort of conversation we hope to foster.
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Animation Hotline Hotspot

ANIMATION HOTLINE HOTSPOT BY DUSTIN GRELLA
Animation Hotline is a series of micro-animations by Dustin Grella that use crowd sourced voice-mail messages for content. See his most recent Animation Hotline compilation on Saturday night — then send him your own message from our special Hotspot in the lobby. If you’re lucky, Dustin may animate it over the weekend!

Call 1-212-683-2490… Dustin’s answering machine is standing by!

UPDATE:
Over 70 people sent messages from the Animation Hotline Hotspot while we had it stationed at the Hollywood Theatre. Dustin has already completed an animation using one of the messages, and promises more to come. See a special NW Animation Fest edition of the Animation Hotline “Breakfast” clip by clicking here.
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2013 NW Animation Fest opening clip

THE MAKING OF TCHAIKOVSKY BY JOE CLARKE
Thanks again to Joe Clarke for letting us use a segment from The Making of Tchaikovsky for our festival identification clip before each block. Animation is a strange sort of magic, where the artist trades hours of their actual life for seconds of their characters’ fictional lives on screen. While this is true for all who work in the art form, nothing quite captures the sense of parallel realities like time-lapse footage of stop-motion animators manipulating their puppets. This festival is about animators as people, as well as their films. Screening Clarke’s footage of master animator Barry Purves working on Tchaikovsky – an elegy each night is the perfect way to make this connection between artists and their grand illusions.

JOE CLARKE
Joe Clarke is a freelance photographer, camera/lighting man, stop motion animator and designer/illustrator. He currently lives in Bristol.