Article Mentioning "Sita Sings the Blues" in Montezuma

Last November, I helped out with the Montezuma International Film Festival. Montezuma, Costa Rica is incredibly beautiful and relaxing, although if you're running a festival you have to keep in mind where you are and take time to enjoy yourself- my tendency was to worry and work too much! I did fall asleep on the beach once, though, and had a blast hula-hooping...

Anyway, one way I contributed was getting ahold of Sita Sings the Blues for the festival, and it was quite popular! Consequently, we ended up showing it a few extra times. The lady who owns and runs a health-food restaurant there, Organico, particularly loved the film.

At the time, Nina Paley hadn't given the film away yet- she only had festival rights, so it was even more special to see. Explaining the copyright situation after one of the screenings, an older lady immediately offered to donate to Nina's cause!

A very sweet writer named Brit interviewed Eric and me and wrote this lovely article about "Sita Sings the Blues" and the Montezuma International Film Festival:

Montezuma Alights, Curtain Calls and All.

Brit said "see you next year!" as we parted, but I'm already using all my vacation time on animation festivals (Annecy and Xiamen), so I don't know if I'll make it...

But it was fun to unearth that article, I'd forgotten about it!

Mail Trends

This is my email volume over the years, generated by mail-trends.

ASIFA-Atlanta "Gather Atlanta" video

ASIFA-Atlanta "Roll Yer Own" 2009 Program

ASIFA-Atlanta Animation Draw 1

Next Animation Draw: June 20th, 2pm, at WonderRoot! No experience necessary- I'll bring paper and light tables, come and draw!

Late Night Chess at Majestic

I met some awesome dudes at Majestic who were playing chess- we got to talking and they pulled up fluidtoons.com on an iPhone. I snapped this picture which I love!

Chickenheads, by the way, is now on IMDB, also!

ASIFA-Atlanta "Roll Yer Own" awards and "Blowin' Smoke"

The latest mass-email to ASIFA-Atlanta folks:

Hello animation fan!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to Roll Yer Own!! Especially those who were generous enough to donate a buck or two, we truly appreciate it!!

ASIFA-Atlanta "Roll Yer Own" 2009 Awards:

The "Best of Show" award went to "Stubbe Peter" by Kristin Jarvis.

The "Audience Choice" award went to "Cornpopalypse" by Maurice VandenBergh II.

Winners receive a free year's membership to ASIFA-Atlanta.

This was the first year we did awards; here's how they were picked: the night before "Roll Yer Own" we held a pre-screening and debated about which film to give the "Best in Show" award to, and we picked Kristin's. For the "Audience Choice" award, we received 70 votes (thank you voters!); "Cornpopalypse" won with fourteen votes, and "Gypsy Crepes" came in second with nine votes. "As Seen on TV" was third with six votes.

Thanks to all filmmakers for submitting, and thanks to those who helped, particularly John Cason for the beautiful flyer, Karl Sigler for the DVD authoring, Cameron Stuart for everything, Takuro Masuda for working the door, and Bryan Fordney, Fatimah Abdullah, and Joel Rose for being on the award committee.

Our next big event is "Blowin' Smoke", showcase of locally-produced commercial animation, June 28th at 8pm at Five Spot, free:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brett_w_thompson/3573748383/

We are seeking volunteers to help with Gather Atlanta on June 6th. Please email me if you're interested.

Upcoming animation-related events (also on the calendar on our blog, asifa-atlanta.blogspot.com):

Gather Atlanta at Eyedrum on June 6th, 5pm
Art community gathering, www.gatheratlanta.com

Animation Workshop at Manuel's Tavern on Sunday, June 14th at 7pm
Monthly workshop; see http://atl-animators.org

Animation Draw at WonderRoot on June 20th, 2pm
Collaborative animation; paper and light-tables provided, no experience necessary, come and draw! Example resulting film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MShJo_RBF4I

Blowin' Smoke at Five Spot on June 28th, 8pm, free
Free showcase of commercial animation made by local studios!

Society for Animation Studies Screening at High Museum of Art on July 10th, 8pm, free
Free ASIFA-Atlanta showcase of local animation for the SAS conference; http://blog.scad.edu/sasc/schedule/

Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation at Plaza, June 26th to July 2nd

Figure Drawing every Thursday 8-10pm at Westwood College, $5

Thanks so much!

-Brett W. Thompson, President of ASIFA-Atlanta

I liked the bowling picture so much I think I may start to post more pictures.

The one above is typical hilarity at Bradley's. He gave me that jean vest to wear, which actually has Betty Boop on the back. Notice the ThoughtMarker shirt, too!