Animation Anthology

The City of Women Festival was created to focus attention
once a year on the work of women artists. With its eighth edition, the festival
welcomes yet another art form, one all too often neglected: animation film.
The selection of work presented here was made on the basis of two criteria: the
Festival’s decision this year to focus on the notion of ‘Europe’ (understood in
the broadest possible sense), and my curatorial decision to include only work
that had been produced in the last ten years (the reason being that I actually
saw all the films in the programme). In the introduction to the book Women in
Animation: A Compendium (BFI, 1992), editor Jane Pilling, an enthusiastic
promoter of animated movies, writes: “Women have always comprised a large part
of the animation industry’s workforce—as paint’n’tracers, or ink’n’painters,
in-betweeners, colourists or designers. In the field of animation films for
children they have had a more creative and authoritative role. … What has
changed in the last twenty years for women in animation has been the developing
opportunities to make their own films. The number of films made as well as the
range of subjects and diversity of styles has increased dramatically. The
variety, vitality and interest of so many of these films deserve some
celebration and documentation.” While the collection edited by Pilling is
undoubtedly essential reading in the field of animated movie theory, it is
lacking to the degree that it focuses solely on the work of American, Canadian
and English female artists. In the hope that future editions of the City of
Women Festival (and other events as well) will provide us with opportunities to
see various programmes of animation films created by women, we would like to
present you—as a start—with this year’s European selection of contemporary
female animators. These films represent a variety of different animation
techniques. The creators include both work by world-famous artists as well as
the first films of beginners, but they all tell their stories about girls,
mothers, the world, and art from “a woman’s point of view”. (Igor Prassel)

Programme:
Michela Pavlátová,
Reci, reci, reci (Besede, besede, besede), CZ, 1991, Beta SP, 8'
Kirsten Winter,
Clocks (Ure), GER, 1995, 35mm, 7'60''
Christa Moesker,
Sientje, NL, 1997, 35mm, 4'30''
Ursula Ferrara,
Cinque stanze (Pet sob), ITA, 1999, 16mm, 4' 23''
Marie Paccou,
Moi, l'Autre (Jaz, Druga), UK, 1999, 35mm, 6'20''
Regina Pessoa,
A noite (Noc), POR, 1999, 35mm, 5'
Isabelle Favez,
Reply (Ponovitev), CH, 1999, 35mm, 5'
Katja Heikkinen,
Reetta Neittaanmaki, Lotta Rapeli, Piipa Toivonen, Kirsikkakakku (Cešnjev
kolac), FIN, 1999, 16mm, 10'
Claire Fouquet,
Disparitions (Izginevanja), FRA, 2001, Beta SP, 5'
Rosana Liera,
Les Chasseurs de Poissons (Lovci na ribe), FRA, 2001, Beta SP 6'11''
Ivana Guljaševic,
Kao nekim cudom (Kot po cudežu) CRO, 2002, Beta SP, 4'44''

In cooperation with: Slovenska kinoteka
Sponsored by: Federal Express