currently researching african animation : interested in compiling a database of practitioners in various sub-saharan countries : welcome any postings from practitioners

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

africa animated goes online....



Watch Out here comes Africa Animated 3.... Great news its happening again... one great experience for budding African Animators, the Africa Animated project is running in Nairobi Kenya this Ocotber. Each year a host of artists produce some amazing work that you can see posted here and in the links provided. Can't wait to get there... and meet up with all my African buddies - KwameMunti here I come!!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Zimbabwe Film Festival... what a blast

WATCH OUT ZIMBABWE HERE WE COME.....
watch this space for news on the Zimbabwe International Film Festival!!...

gone and come back - what a great time. Must thank everyone in Zim for making me feel welcome and feeding me well! Met lots of great budding animators, although the situation in Zimbabwe right now is not as prolific as it could be. Saying that the few that I met have an incredible drive and want to get things off the ground, for that I take my hat off to them. Carl Ncube, my facilitator but also as it turns out a local celebrity in his own right, famous for his Nyame Nyame animation which was a great hit locally... and the guys at Limited Edition, Shinghi and Francis who are definitely on the right track when it comes to having a proffessional attitude towards animation productions.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

amazing link from Nina's page

I've just been reading Nina's blog and came across this link... I love the sound track, I think it makes a brilliant exercise in lip-synching.

http://www.ninapaley.com/therevolutionwillnotbeTiny.mov

Monday, May 15, 2006

news from Alfred in Stuttgart

13th International Trick Film Festival (Festival of
Animated Film), Stuttgart 2006 (www.itfs.de)
___________________________________________________

It’s very difficult to sum up my impressions of
Stuttgart and Berlin. I met so many people and was
exposed to so many experiences that will take me a
while to Digest. I will however try and share some of
the things that I enjoyed from the trip.

It was ice cold when I got off the Inter City Express
at Stuttgart on 28th April. And thanks to a
miscommunication on my part I had to wait for 2 hours
as the festival organizers organized my ride to the
hotel (which I later discovered was only 3 minutes
away). I had to take a short nap to get my mind
straight before leaving for the festival. My screening
was at 3 in the afternoon, so I could afford 2 hours
to catch a nap.

Making my way to the festival office I came across the
main screening area at the Gloria Theater on
KonigStrasse (King’s street) which is Stuttgart’s main
pedestrian-only shopping avenue. The organizers had
gone all out with a red carpet complete with a
lighting rig leading into the theater. The set up was
glamorous; fitting for the place that would be
animation focus of the world animation for 6 full
days.

At the festival office I got my tag, program, and
invites for several parties; standard festival
equipment. Half an hour later I was making my way to
the Metropol Theater for the screening when I met a
whacky bespectacled character in a white suit worn on
top of a white and red polka dot cycling kit and
crowned with a garland of flowers. He knew my name and
where I was from! Later on I found out that he would
be the host (as well as participant) of the category
in which TOTO’s journey was screened (tricks for
kids). His name was Jurgen Haas.

Jurgen was a marvelous entertainer. He managed to keep
the audience (mostly kids) thoroughly entertained with
his antics in between the screenings. Apart from the
festival judges, there was a special panel of judges
consisting of kids (very tough critics) and also the
audience would vote for their favorite films after the
session. Out of the 6 films screened that day, TOTO’s
journey managed just 1 vote. We got thoroughly
white-washed by an Argentinian stop-motion maestro
that day. However, even I would concede that he
deserved all the votes. In fact out of all the movies
shown at the festival, Toto’s Journey was the shortest
at 1 minute and 57 seconds. Technique-wise I was
impressed by a Russian film maker called Julia
Aranova, who managed to make her movie (a Beetle, a
Boat and an Apricot) by shooting up to 9 layers of
glass. The movie is a dream-like account of how a kid
spent their holiday.

After the screening we had a Q and A session with the
audience where we talked about the films. The kids
asked all sorts of questions and managed to surprise
us as film-makers with some of their questions. One
kid even asked us all how we managed to make money off
animation. Good one. I’m still trying to figure that
one out.

Later that evening, I was making my way past a café at
the Gloria passage when I got stopped by a mature man
who had given me directions earlier. I joined him and
a group of animators for a drink in the passage.
Later on in the festival that the man who stopped me
was actually a famous British animator named Phil
Mulloy. He had a special screening of his first
feature film the next day called ‘The Christies.’ The
feature was made as a series of shorts each episodes
of a family in the UK. The amazing thing is he drew
just 40 frames and several backgrounds and managed to
keep the audience involved in the film with lively
dialogue, and clever directing. I never met a more
humble man at the festival. He later challenged me to
put aside all my fears and make my own feature film.

Other renowned animators in the festival included
oscar winners Chris Landreth (Ryan), Benjamin Adam
Elliot, also in attendance Pritt Parn, Konstantin
Bronzit, and Marv Newland among others.

On a sad note Mr. Landreth fell ill during the
festival and was unable to perform jury duty as he had
to be admitted. When I left, I heard that he was
recovering though.

Those few days flew by as I caught screenings and
attended parties and had deep philosophical
conversations with other PASS A category attendants
(film makers). I even got to meet one of GADO’s tutors
at the Vancouver Film School! And in another highlight
I got to tour STUDIO FILM BILDER in Stuttgart and see
the animators at work there (yes they use Moho for
some shots too.)

On the last night there was the awards ceremony. Our
category had 4,500 euro up for grabs. That went to
Johannes Weiland and Saschka Unseld for their film
Oli’s Chance, a film about how children die while
playing near Germany’s high-speed railways. At the
time I felt that the award was undeserved considering
the film’s tone and also considering that many of the
other films were funnier, but I later discovered that
the film had been commissioned by the government so
that kids can learn to stay away from the rail tracks.
It gets the message across very well.

I think that festival attendance should be part of
animation training. It’s important to learn how to
keep the energy going after days of partying and
conversing and taking in new ideas during screening!
Seriously though, I managed to thoroughly enjoy myself
and make very good friends and contacts at the
festival. But for me, ITFS was only one part of the
equation. I needed to extend my stay and attend the
11th Conference on Animation, Effects and Realtime
Content (FMX-06). That’s a whole different story.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

update from Alfred

Hello everyone. Animators. Pals.

My name is still Alfred Muchilwa. I am animator from
the aa2.0 series... and im off to Stuttgart, Germany
tommorrow fro the screening of TOTO's JOURNEY!

Seriously, up till a few hours ago I wasn't really
sure that i'd make the trip. I had to hustle left
right and center to get money for the plane ticket.
Just managed to make the amount needed an hour,or so
ago. But it was worth it (speaking in future tense
here)

So catch up with all the action on www.itfs.de. In
addition, I will be attending a special effects
festival called fmx (www.fmx06.de). I want to see all
those folks from ILM and DREAMWORKS animation in
person. Apparently Nina Paley will be there too! (most
o' y'all don't know her, she was on AA 1.0.

After that, well I go to 2 other cities and run my ass
back home.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

some more research on African animation...

If anyone is going to be in Texas over the month of July, look out for the SAS Conference, which this year features a paper on Iranian Animation by Hosseini-Shakib, from Farnham, Surrey...
Society of Animation Studies

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

some more news...

Recently met up with Cilia Sawadogo at the Tricycle, London.


She was giving a workshop and showcasing her film. It was great catching up with Cilia who has been busy travelling to Ghana, and France. It was also a brilliant opportunity to meet other practicing artists. filmmakers and animators. Victor Opeyokun, animator of animated film "Rooted", which has been shown in Europe. He has given workshops at Anime Caribe, you can read more at
the guardian
I look forward to hearing from Victor about any African animation news...

Monday, March 13, 2006

well done Tessa Comrie... winner of the Creative Commons South Africa Digital Arts Competition

more updates from the AA2 team, it seems like another animator from the Africa Animated Project, Tessa Comrie, has continued pursueing her animation and won "Common-sense" - to read more about this click here
commons-sense

Thursday, February 23, 2006

egyptian animation festival _ university of minia

the university of Minia (Egypt), is hosting an animation festival from the 6th -9th April... I will be visiting, giving a talk on my research into African animation, the UNESCO Africa Animated Project and my involvement on it... as well as an overview of the computer generated animations produced at Bournemouth University, the technology we use and the philosophy behind our course - that is a merger between the arts and technology. Thanks to the University of Minia, and in particular my new found Egyptian animator friend, Mohammed Ghazala!! I hope that this visit will encourage the exposure of African animation, and at the same time prove to be a personal journey to discovering the animation of another African country, Egypt!! I'm really looking forward to it - I invite any African animators to send me examples of their work, should they want to show their work at this event. You may contact me at pcallus@bmth.ac.uk

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

on line interview with animator pippa lugg

Pippa has just forwarded me this link... anyone who is interested in reading about her work and experience on AA click here...
http://animationblock.typepad.com/editorial/animated_lives/index.html
the pages also provide other information related to animation

Friday, February 10, 2006

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

more news...

So here is some more news from Peter in Kenya... peter participated on the Africa Animated project which ran in Kenya - his work is great and I recommend you check out his link!

Peter Mute: Kenya
"Gado and I have done a small project together for
our local public broadcaster here in Kenya ...
a copy of it is on my website (www.yebikenya.com)...
...KCCT college back here in Kenya wanted to find out about the processes
they'd have to undergo to become a certified
animation training center. "

SOunds exciting - lets hope that Kenya will have its training centre set up soon!! This could mean that Kenya could be moving towards a greater exposure of the medium at large...

Monday, January 30, 2006


alf and nathan (another AA star!!)... Posted by Picasa

more news from the AA2 guys

Ok so the emails are begining to flood in... more news from
Pippa Lugg: SA
"while down in Cape Town I went to see Sunrise Productions who are working on an Animation Feature...
...I've recently met a girl in Port Elizabeth, where I live, who is newly in PE from CT and used to work for Triggerfish. She's very keen to collaborate on an Animation so I'm very pleased that I'll have her to work with until AA2 links up again."

hope that my pilot internet project will act as a proposed model to apply in Africa... Distance Web Based Collaborations... still may not be as good as the real thing...mmm

Alfred Muchilwa: Kenya
"Me? Yes I still animate once in a while, was verythrilling to see the africa animated 2 stuff on TV. Itlooks (and sounds) good.
Well a few months back an Egyptian animator reachedme.. he hasbeen researching African Animation too. "

Alfred - do you have a web site??

In the meantime you can find out more about alfred's goings on round the world...
http://www.sescsp.org.br/sesc/videobrasil/15festival/home/home_en.asp

alfred... all across the globe at the15th VideoBrasil International Electronic Art Festival
 Posted by Picasa

Saturday, January 28, 2006


"motif of life" team, me and...a blonde babe from Zim?!?, Durban 2005 Posted by Picasa

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Update : Searching African Animators!!

Got an update from Maina; everyone will be pleased to know that his group's animation has also been selected to be shown at flickerfest... Well done!! It was great to see that Maina is planning to continue making animations in Kenya, and I can't wait to see some more output from the dude... and apparently the AA launch was a blast, unfortunately I couldn't make it, which was a shame especially because African philosopher and main man Moses was there...

Check out the link for more info on "The Motif of Life"...
http://www.flickerfest.com.au/programme.asp?proid=173

28/01/06
Just updating the news from everyone in reply to my e-mail-
Jacquie Trowell: South Africa
I'll just quote ... here's the news from SA!!
"well, my news is that i’m still expecting to se you in berlin next month.
beyond freedom has been selected as one of TEN short films in competition at the berlin international film festival.
this is pretty cool.....

meanwhile, the Animation Production Training Initiative is underway here.
it’s the first time gov orgs have got together to support animation. (as far as i know)..."

for more info on other projects by Jac check out:
http://www.janewarren.com/directors.htm?sm%5Bp1%5D%5Bcategory%5D=137&sm%5Bp1%5D%5Bpersistent%5D=1&

Cilia Sawadago: Burkina Faso/ Canada
"On my side, I'll start a new film in the next months, just got word about some funding for preproduction.
I'll coming to London on from the 2nd to the 5th of march 2006 to the African film festival there...

...I presented the AA1 and AA2 at the Montreal National Museum of Contemporary Art during a conference on African Animation that I did there last night. "


Animation Training Production Initiative 2006 : The governement intiative in South Africa involves a collaboration between Anamazing and the Department of Art and Culture, the National Film and Video Foundation, the National Electronic Institute of SA, and SABC. It is currently calling for applicaitons from 13scriptwriters for children's stories, a later date will be announced for the call for animation directors. Keep an eye out for more news....

Montreal National Museum of Contemporary Art:

Go to : http://www.macm.org/en/education/conferences.html

Monday, January 23, 2006

blogs...mmmm

searching through other blogs... this looks interesting
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/archives/2005_11.html#001458

http://www.atjoburg.net/?p=80

http://angriest.blogspot.com/2005/09/takalani-sesame.html

more info on Cilia's talk in Montreal

http://www.fpsmagazine.com/2006/01/african-animation-lecture-and.php

Searching for All African Animators

Just got an e-mail from animator Godfrey from Tanzania, both a talented artist and animator... thought of a plan... ask him to redirect all his friends, and fellow animators to post some comments on african animation, and their thoughts on it... I hope anyone that stumbles across this blog will be inspired to add a line or two....
anyway in the meantime check out Godrey and Alfred's animation, TOTO's Journey on

http://www.semwaiko.s5.com/

http://www.adgf.net/adgfblog/?page_id=4

now showing at Flickerfest

http://www.flickerfest.com.au/programme.asp?proid=172

night for now....

some other african animation links....

OK here are some other african animation links...
Gregg's groovy page from the Africa Animated V2 Team.... YEAHHH
http://www.iaminawe.com/
Article on Beyond Freedom - good one Jacquie!!
http://www.filmmaker.co.za/edition/news_page.php?subaction=showfull&id=1127411269&archive=&start_from=&ucat=10 and
http://www.ngsednet.org/community/showcase_view.cfm?community_id=285&showcase_id=285

more on Africa Animated
http://www.comminit.com/africa/experiences/pds122004/experiences-2823.html

and Kwame my main man... the absolute dude of all dudes - respect!!
http://www.kwamenyongo.com/
http://www.africancolours.net/content/8364

african puppets?
http://www.africanpuppet.com/
me_2004 Posted by Picasa

memories from Africa Animated 1

Me and some of the Africa Animate gang off the shores of Zanzibar eating ugali and fish soup and ciappatti...yum. To find out about the Africa Animate Project V1 which ran in Kenya go to....
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=14786&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
and
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17285&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html


zanzibar_2004 Posted by Picasa

2006 proposal

Ok so I haven't decided how I am going to use this blog... will it be a diary of my progress with regards to my research - or just some general rambling. In the meantime here it is my first post...

Just starting looking at creating a proposal for my research in African animation, a greatly unknown topic... Unclear on what aspects I want to focus on, whether I will look at the animation industry or wherether I am addressing independant animations...