0/5

Animation season on SBS

Get ready for diverse stories using everything from freehand, rotoscoping, digital animation, motion graphics and live action.

Later this month SBS begins a celebration of differing styles of animation on Tuesday nights.

It begins with a 3 part documentary on the 1920’s Depression in Canada. Combining animated dramatic sequences, narration and archival footage it is directed and produced by filmmaker Steven Silver.

Also coming up is an animation on ‘Chainsaw’, Australia’s ‘greatest rodeo bull’, and Luis Miguel Dominguin, a famous artist and bull fighter by filmmaker Dennis Tupicoff.

One of the more interesting offerings tells the story of the rape of writer/director Wendy Chandler, who was attacked in her bed in 2002. Combining live action drama sequences with visual effects, digital animation and motion graphics it stars Maryann Henshaw, Kirk Page, Kristian Schmid, Diane Craig and features a voice-over by Lisa McCune.

THE DARK YEARS
10pm Tuesday January 21st
It was the late 1920s and Canadians were enjoying greater prosperity than ever before. Then it all came tumbling down. The cigar-chomping Harry Hindmarsh, editor of the Toronto Daily Star would go on to chronicle the far reaching and catastrophic consequences of the crash of ‘29. Cartoon versions of Hindmarsh and his hardboiled newsmen headline this snappy animation series on Canada during the Great Depression. Viewing history through the lively prism of an urban newsroom, The Dark Years blends dynamic graphics with documentary authenticity and a zippy sense of narrative to chart the turbulent and eventful thirties. Produced and directed by Steven Silver. (From Canada, in English) (Animated Series) (Part 1 of 3) continues to Feb 4th

CHAINSAW
Tuesday, 27 January at 10.55pm
Frank and Ava live in the country, amongst the kookaburras and the cattle. Frank is a timber cutter and Ava is a supermarket checkout operator. Both are true romantics, confronted by the gap between their fantasy lives and their everyday reality.

Their story is one of several told in a new half hour animation called Chainsaw, which screens as part of the SBS Animation season on Tuesday January 27 at 10.55pm.

Described by writer/director Dennis Tupicoff as “an animated chain of linked stories, driven by human dreams and fantasies, romance and machismo”, Chainsaw uses quotes from news reports and 50s newsreels, and mixes them with fictional stories, which Tupicoff says are still based on fact.

Forming part of the story of Frank and Ava, the animation also tells the individual stories of ‘Chainsaw’, Australia’s greatest rodeo bull, and Luis Miguel Dominguin, a famous artist and bull fighter whose many famous sexual conquests included Ava Gardener (when she was Mrs Frank Sinatra).

The animation techniques used in Chainsaw are as varied as the stories themselves. Explains Dennis Tupicoff, “All the animated humans are brought to life via rotoscoping, an animation technique which uses tracing and design to combine the realistic movement of live-action with the graphic freedom of animation. Most of the animals and birds are drawn freehand, based on reference material only… Digital effects and 3D animation were used where a greater degree of realism was required.

Only the brief Ava Gardner clips are not animated: these Hollywood film stars in old newsreels embody the attractions of romance. As live-action ghosts, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner and her bullfighter live the romantic dream forever on film – and in the dreams of others.”

ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES
Tuesday, 3 February at 10.55pm
As part of SBS’s Animation Season, One of the Lucky Ones a hybrid film, combining live action drama sequences with visual effects, digital animation and motion graphics will screen in the Hot Docs slot on Tuesday 3 February at 10.55pm.

The film tells the story of the rape of writer/director Wendy Chandler and its aftermath.

In the early hours of March 24th 2002, Wendy awoke to a stranger taking off his clothes. He held her down, raped her and fled. At the time of the rape, Wendy was an award-winning filmmaker. Within months, she was barely able to eat, unable to work, scarcely able to function as a person.

Despite her ordeal Wendy came to realise she was one of the lucky ones.

Winner of Flickerfest IF Media Award for Most Popular Film 2008. Written and directed by Wendy Chandler and stars Maryann Henshaw, Kirk Page, Kristian Schmid, Diane Craig and voice-over by Lisa McCune.

2 Responses

Leave a Reply