Direct Animation for the Tablet Generation

The immediacy of tablet touchscreen technology has revolutionised how we interact creatively with computers.  In the realm of animation, The NFB (National Film Board of Canada) has been at the forefront of harnessing this new technology not only by making much their back catalogue of films available to view online via smart phone and tablet apps, but by creating tablet apps that make it easier than ever before for amateurs to try their hand at animating their own films.  They first did this through the development of their PixStop Stop Motion Animation App for iPad and this past summer they released a new free app: McLaren’s Workshop.

Named after the pioneering experimental animation Norman McLaren, this app allows users to create their own short animation and post it exclusively on Vimeo.  In addition to inspiring users with the biography and films of Norman McLaren, the App features three workshops: Paper Cut-Out, Etching on Film, and Synthetic Sound.   Norman McLaren is one of the very few early animators to experiment extensively with direct animation – also known as drawn-on-film animation or cameraless animation – in which artists draw or etch directly onto a filmstrip. 

The McLaren’s Workshop app, allows users to make their own direct animation or cut-out animation on the surface of the iPad.  The resulting films that I have seen on video definitely have a McLaren feel to them – not just because of their look but but because the soundtracks clearly come from McLaren films.  Koji Yamamura’s Five Fire Fish, is clearly an homage to the direct animation of McLaren with recognizable visual motifs from Blinkity Blank (1955).  The cut-outs and soundtrack in Regina Pessoa’s film are from Le merle (1958).

As part of the online promotional campaign, several  top directors were given free reign to make 30-60 second animations using the app:

Five Fire Fish (Koji Yamamura, 2013)

Five Fire Fish by Koji Yamamura - McLaren's Workshop App from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

Cyclop(e)  (Patrick Doyon, 2013)

Cyclop(e) by Patrick Doyon - McLaren's Workshop App from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

Day Sleeper (Don Hertzfeld, 2013)

Day Sleeper by Don Hertzfeldt - Mclaren's Workshop App from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

Barcode Transmission (Renaud Hallée, 2013)

Barcode Transmission by Renaud Hallée - McLaren's Workshop App from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

I Am Alone and My Head is On Fire (David O'Reilly, 2013)

I Am Alone and My Head Is On Fire by David OReilly - McLaren's Workshop App from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

Bon App (Regina Pessoa,2013)

Bon App by Regina Pessoa - McLaren's Workshop App from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

The 4th Annual Tokyo Food Lovers Film Festival (第4回東京ごはん映画祭)

A festival that brings together “delicious films” and “delicious food”.

おいしい映画」と「おいしいごはん」を真ん中に、みんなで繋がる映画祭

Dates:  October 12^th – 18^th, 2013
【日時】2013年10月12日（土）～10月18日（金）
Locations: Omotesando Hills and the Image Forum Theatre
【場所】12～14：表参道ヒルズ スペース オー12～18：シアター・イメージフォーラ
http://tokyogohan.com/

The Tokyo Food Lovers Film Festival is back for its fourth year with a mixture of festival favourites, classic foodie films, and some new films with a food theme.  What makes this film festival unique is that they partner with local chefs and restaurants to pair dishes with the films, making the film screenings a delight not only for the eyes and ears but also for the audience's senses of taste, smell, and touch.

Films that have shown at the festival before include the documentaries eatrip and El Bulli: Cooking in Progress, as well as the much loved indie fare Amélie and Bagdad Café.  This year sees a number of recent documentaries including heartfelt films Ten no Shizuku, Reviving Recipes, and Iranian Cookbook, not to mention the internationally acclaimed Jiro Dreams of Sushi.  There are also recent feature films such as the high school girl comedy-drama Otome no Recipe, Amole Gupte’s award-winning Stanley’s Tiffin Box (aka Stanley’s Lunch Box), and Ken Loach’s Cannes Jury Prize winner The Angel’s Share.  Other films I highly recommend are Louis Malle’s beautifully shot anarchic comedy Zazie dans le métro and Wong Kai-Wai’s dynamic Chungking Express.

This years films and their accompanying dishes:

Girl’s Recipes / Otome no recipe『乙女のレシピ』

Mitsuhiro Mihara, JAPAN, feature, 2012

Starring: Miho Kanazawa, Airi Kido, Mika Akizuki, Erena Watanabe and Mio Yuki

Dish:  Chef Okuda Original Dish

Special Guests: Chef Okuda, members of the cast

eatrip 『eatrip』

Yuri Nomura, JAPAN, documentary, 2009

Dish: Roast Chicken in a Green and Lemon Sauce

Amélie 『アメリ, 』

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, FRANCE, feature, 2001)

Starring: Audrey Tautou, André Dussollier, Mattieu Kassovitz, Rufus

Dish:  crème brûlée

Chungking Express 『恋する惑星』

 Wong Karwai, HONG KONG, feature, 1994)

Starring: Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu-Wair, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Valerie Chow

Dish:  Hong Kong Street Food

El Bulli: Cooking in Progress 『エル・ブリの秘密 世界一予約のとれないレストラン』

Gereon Wetzel, GERMANY, documentary, 2011)

Dish: presented by Food Creation  

Stanley’s Tiffin Box 『スタンリーのお弁当箱』

Amole Gupte, INDIA, feature, 2011

Starring: Partho A. Gupte, Numaan Sheikh, Abhishek Reddy

Dish:  Indian curry

Bagdad Café 『バグダッド・カフェ』

Percy Adlon, GERMANY/USA, feature, 1987

Starring: Marianne Sägebrecht, C.C.H. Pounder, Jack Palance

Dish: coffee and bread

Coffee and Cigarettes 『コーヒー&シガレッツ』

Jim Jarmusch, USA, feature (11 linked vignettes), 2003

Starring: Roberto Benigni, Bteve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits

Dish: coffee and hamburgers

Jiro Dreams of Sushi 『二郎は鮨の夢を見る』

David Gelb, USA, documentary, 2011

Featuring: Jiro Yoshino

Dish: sushi

Iranian Cookbook 『イラン式料理本』

Mohammad Shirvani, IRAN, docu-fiction, 2010

Dish: Iranian home cooking

The Angel’s Share 『天使の分け前』

Ken Loach, UK/FRANCE/BELGIUM/ITALY, feature, 2012

Starring: Paul Brannigan, John Henshaw, William Ruane, Gary Maitland

Dish: Scotch Whisky

Zazie dans le métro『地下鉄のザジ』

Louis Malle, FRANCE, feature, 1960

Starring: Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret

Dish: blue mussels steamed in wine

Dinner Rush 『ディナーラッシュ』

Bob Giraldi, USA, feature, 2000

Starring: Danny Aiello, John Rothman, Frank Bongiorno

Dish: lobster pasta

Ten no Shizuku: Tatsumi Yoshiko “Inochi no Soup”

『天のしずく　辰巳芳子“いのちのスープ”』

Atsunori Kawamura, JAPAN, documentary, 2012

Featuring: Mitsuko Kusabue

Dish: potage bonne femme (leek, potato and carrot soup)

Reviving Recipes 『よみがえりのレシピ』

Satoshi Watanabe, JAPAN, documentary, 2011

Dish: Yamagata produce

Screening times and locations on the official website: http://tokyogohan.com/

A2-B-C (2013)

A subjective documentary like Ian Thomas Ash’s A2-B-C (2013), is difficult for me to watch with any sort of objectivity.  Having been a mother of two young children when I lived in Tokyo, and having many close friends with children in Japan, the familiar scenes of dusty Japanese playgrounds, friendly hoikuen (nursery schools), and concerned parents’ groups stuck a deep chord with me.   

Ash also makes it clear from his opening confrontation 12 days after the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima with Dr. Shunichi Yamashita, the government advisor on radiation health, that he is firmly on the side of the families affected by the disaster. Although he does interview a wide range of people from workers hired to “decontaminate” houses to local politicians, the main focus of A2-B-C (still called by its earlier title A2 when it screened at Nippon Connection in June) is to give voice to the most at risk people whose views are not being taken seriously enough by the powers that be: the mothers and children affected by the fallout of the Fukushima disaster.

In particular, Ash turns his attentions to mothers and children living in Date City (pronounced with two syllables: “da-tay”), 60km northwest of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.  Because the city lies outside of the 30km exclusion zone, the families living in this area have no access to funding to move elsewhere in Japan.   Although this community is further away, these communities northwest of Daiichi lie in the path of the radioactive plume.  Most of the families living here feel helpless.  They can’t sell their homes to fund a move because no one will buy them.  Without government assistance it is impossible to give up their property and jobs and start with nothing somewhere else. 

Having resigned themselves to the fact that they are stuck where they are, the mothers that Ash follows are educating themselves on how radiation works and are challenging the system when they feel that they are being given inaccurate or misleading information.  Mothers are afraid to let their children play outside, to allow their children drink school milk because it is being sourced locally, or even allow their children to go to school because there is a major radiation hotspot just on the other side of the school fence.  Recently, there has even been talk of feeding the schoolchildren locally sourced rice regardless of the hazards. 

The community is living with the fear of cancer hanging over their heads.  Rumours abound of young women having abortions or having already given up the idea of getting married for fear that they have already been affected by radiation.  The children go to school and to the playground with “glass badges” that monitor the amount of radiation they are being exposed to on a daily basis.  The title of the film is taken from the thyroid examination results that the children have taken.  One of the most disturbing scenes in the film is when a group of children discuss their A2 thyroid cysts and seem resigned to the fact that they will likely one day develop cancer.  The mothers don’t even trust the hospital thyroid test results because they are being prevented from paying private hospitals for independent results.

Ian Thomas Ash is the voice behind the camera for most of the 70-minute film, apart from a sweet scene where one of the young daughters turns the tables on him and photographs him and in a tension-filled scene when a school vice principle confronts him about filming on school property without permission.  One of the most interesting aspects of the film is how close Ash gets to the families whose stories he is telling.  You can really feel his genuine concern and compassion for these people who feel left adrift in a sea of misinformation. 

One of the more frustrating aspects of the film is this lack of clear information.  The average viewer does not understand what a safe radiation reading is, how radiation works, or what the thyroid test results really mean.  There is also a lack of context about how reasonable it is for the residents of Fukushima Prefecture to mistrust government information – after all, there is a long history of government officials from the local to national level in Japan putting industry ahead of the health and well-being of communities.  For many, the Fukushima disaster brings back memories of what happened in Minamata,Niigata, Yokkaichi, and elsewhere.  While I was frustrated by the lack of clear context in the film, at the same time that frustration mirrors that of the people living in the shadow of the nuclear plant.  Ash has made a film that puts us into the shoes of the people who are living daily with the fear of the unknown.  The fear of a future that may be filled with illness and suffering for themselves and their children.

It was a film that had to be made.  A2-B-C won the jury adjudicated Nippon Visions Award at Nippon Connection 2013 to much applause.  The award includes JVTA (Japan Visualmedia Translation Academy) funding for subtitling his next film.  Ash is working on a follow up film about Fukushima which will be his third film on the devastating effects of the nuclear meltdown.  His first film, In the Grey Zone (2012) was filmed closer to the Daiichi plant. 

To learn more about Ian Thomas Ash, check out his official website and Robin Caudell’s article on Ash winning the Nippon Visions Award.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

#nippon13 #nc2013