Today is a very exciting day!  The San Francisco International Film Festival begins, it runs  November 11–14, 2010.
This year is the fifth annual.  Last year I had to miss it, but two years ago I met Gene Dietch and pondered the differences between hand drawn animation and digital, talked with Nina Paley about children's animation, and was introduced to the mind-blowing world of Encyclopedia Pictura, among other things.  That year I also interviewed founder Sean Uyehara about animation...(check it out here here http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/elisabeth/interview_with_sean_uyehara_founder_of_the_san_francisco_international_animation_festival.) I still often think about what he said about the power of animation because of the room for subjectivity: "Animation affords artists a way to express themselves in a directly subjective way.  Its status is different in the way of direct attention paid to single frames.  So differences within the genre schools of animation are more pronounced than differences in live action and other genres."

I LOVE ANIMATION.  All kinds.  I love stop motion, and am interested in the differences in craft between hand drawn and digital.  I love childrens' entertainment, and animation is the cornerstone of children's entertainment.  Since "Children use cartoons to decipher the most important structures in their culture," (researchers Hodge and Tripp) I love thinking about the best way to convey ideas to children that will shape the way they view the world forever.  I know the Disney movies I watched as a kid STILL shape the way I think about things.  And my own background mainly being documentary, I am particularly interested true stories that are told through animation instead of live-action: ie. the 2008 fest's internationally acclaimed Waltz with Bashir as well as Sita Sings the Blues.

And who doesn't love music videos?  I so appreciate how the SFIAFF includes a program of recent music videos every year.  An ideal Sunday for me would be watching music videos all day, and I could easily do that.  I love thinking about what visuals would best compliment or accentuate a song.  How do you tell the story of the song visually?  What does that look like and feel like?  I'm looking forward to the music video series at this year's event that will include the following along with some DIRECTORS IN PERSON... Chairlift's Evident Utensil (Ray Tintori, USA 2010, 4 min), Darwin Deez: Radar Detector (Ace Norton, England 2010, 4 min) Das Racist: Who’s That? Brooown! (Thomas de Napoli, USA 2010, 4 min), Gorillaz: Stylo (Jamie Hewlett, Pete Candeland, England 2010, 5 min), The Gossip: Pop Goes the World (Philip Andelman, USA 2010, 4 min), Grizzly Bear: Two Weeks (Patrick Daughters, The Mill LA, USA 2009, 5 min), Knalpot: Casio Halbzeit (Martha Colburn, USA 2009, 4 min), Myles Cooper: Gonna Find Boyfriends Today (Skye Thorstensen, USA 2010, 4 min), Paul Oakenfold: Starry Eyed Surprise (Honey, England 2006, 4 min), Rage Against the Machine: Guerrilla Radio (Honey, USA, 4 min), and Mark Ronson: Bang, Bang, Bang (Warren Fu, England 2010, 6 min).  

I can't wait to see what this year's fest has to offer when I get there, but for now the opening program is so exciting I can't think much beyond that.  Stay tuned for coverage...

One of the most acclaimed albums of 2009, the Decemberists’ The Hazards of Love is an epic song cycle that the band has played to sold-out audiences all over the world. Inspired by the album’s heft and range, four animators with widely different approaches have created original films that visualize the album in its entirety. Each work in this four-part series bears a unique aesthetic approach to the material and, like the album itself, communicates the joys and sorrows of being open to the world. Each psychedelic section, with techniques ranging from stop motion to CGI to hand-drawn illustration, seamlessly and breathlessly explores themes of beauty, angst and foreboding. The highly conceptual film, as noted in Variety, “is the kind of project that could easily collapse under the weight of its pretensions. But, it succeeds, brilliantly.”  (via http://www.sffs.org/screenings-and-events/fall-season/sf-intl-animation-festival.aspx )