Workshop on Animation & Documentary Films

AegeanDocs, in collaboration with the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, hosted a workshop on animation and documentary films in the Museum of Industrial Olive-Oil Production of Lesbos, with awarded animators Thomas Stellmach, Panayotis Rappas and Eleni Myrivili as guests.

Workshop

Date and time: Sunday, September 21, 11.00-15.00

Venue: Museum of Industrial Olive-Oil Production of Lesbos in Ayia Paraskevi Topic: Αnimation and documentary films

Award winning animators Panayotis Rappas and Thomas Stellmach will speak about animation and their work and talk with the audience.

 

Animated documentary films are a genre that combines the means of expression and the reality of documentaries with the techniques and the potential animation has to offer. The AegeanDocs Festival, in collaboration with the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, hosts a workshop to analyze and discuss animated documentaries with two acknowledged guest speakers:

  • Internationally recognized animator Panayiotis Rappas, who has a vast experience after years of working in studios in Germany, London and the States and has since returned to Greece to focus on his own work on animation (http://panagiotisrappas.blogspot.gr/)
  • and German director and animator Thomas Stellmach, winner of the 1996 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (http://www.stellmach.com/)

 


The following five animated documentary films will be screened and discussed:

 

The Sinking of the Lusitania (11’) by Winsor McCay

That’s the first animated documentary film ever made. Shot by Winsor McCay, it reenacts the sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German submarine in 1915, which caused the USA entering World War I.

 

Saga City (16’) by Luc Chamberland

This is an animated short about the issues of urban planning and climate change, set in the imaginary city of Colvert. The film highlights the fact that the way a city is formed and organized is an important factor in determining its energy consumption, as well as the quantity of greenhouse gases that it releases into the atmosphere.

Boles (12′) by Špela Čadež

Filip lives in an impoverished neighborhood. He dreams of becoming a famous writer and living in a more prosperous part of his town. One day, his neighbor Tereza, an old sex worker that he tries to avoid any way he can, knocks on his door to ask for his help to write a letter to her fiancé. It would all end up well, but Tereza shows up at his door again a week later, because she wants him to write another letter.

Virtuos Virtuell (7′) by Thomas Stellmach and Maja Oschmann

Abstract ink drawings emerge out of nowhere. Following a secret choreography, they reenact the music’s different features and moods and they tell a tale that music itself seems to be narrating. The interactions of shy encounters, dynamic actions, the agile lightness and confrontation rouse several associations, like birds, plants and underwater life, which awaken many different emotional impressions.

Quest (11’) by Thomas Stellmach and Tyron Montgomery

A creature emerges from a sandy desert and starts its quest for water. The rhythmic, constant sound of drops guides it to the source. As it travels through the desert, it suddenly falls out of place and time. It stumbles and finds itself in unknown worlds; first in a sphere made of paper, then in a stony universe and eventually in a machine-dominated world. Even though the water seems to be closer and closer, it gets increasingly further away. Winner of the 1996 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

 

The complete schedule for Sunday, September 21:

 

11.00 Thomas Stellmach presents his work and shares his thoughts

11.20 Screening of VIRTUOS VIRTUELL (8′)

11.30 Screening of QUEST (11′)

11.45 Q&A with Thomas Stellmach, director of QUEST

12.00 Break

12.30 Panayiotis Rappas presents the animated documentary films that are going to be screened and analyzed

13.00 Screening of SAGA CITY (16’)

13.15 Screening of THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA (11’)

13.30 Screening of BOLES (12′)

14.00 Panayotis Rappas talks about animation and documentary films

15.00 End of workshop