New Screening Series!
Announcing 'Collision', a new screening series from Edge of Frame
I am starting a new screening series called Collision. The first screening will be on Saturday 15th February at Close Up, London. Tickets are now on sale here.
This first selection brings together ten brand new and recent films from some of the most exciting independent animators working today. More details on the films can be found at the Close Up event page.
Collision will present original, daring and sensorially revitalising animation from around the world. Programmes are not themed, instead taking an intuitive, mixtape-like curatorial approach, and celebrating the myriad styles and processes of experimental and independent animation. That said, the films in this first programme are all very much of the current moment, so perhaps inevitably we find grief, tension, loss and disintegration. Yet making an independent animation with all of its intense labour and painstaking process is nothing if not an act of hope, and these films buzz with energy and are imbued with a decidedly playful spirit.
Collision will be an irregular, ongoing screening series. The second screening will be early April and I’ll post out further details on that nearer the time.
I’ll also be resuming my Edge of Frame programming for London International Animation Festival this year, after a couple of years’ break focusing on my own animation projects. Working with LIAF and its wonderful director Nag Vladermersky has always been a real pleasure and I count myself truly lucky to be part of it. Festivals like LIAF are critically important to the independent animation community in so many different ways, not least in providing the main opportunity to see new independent animation work at a public, physical screening1.
Physical screenings are increasingly rare, precious and meaningful for both filmmakers and audiences as our eyes and minds become ever more colonised by the tiny little screens we carry around with us. Seeing a film projected big and loud, with other likeminded humans in a dark space simply cannot be beaten. And yet physical screenings of animation (especially experimental animation) beyond annual festivals are sadly few and far between these days.
There are some real bright lights to be thankful for - such as Daydream Nation in Glasgow, Malt Adult in Chicago, our own London Animation Club and Animation Speakeasy in New York. Animate Projects have just opened an amazing new group show (on until 16th Feb) at Derby’s Quad gallery, and animator Alex Karakonji recently brought together a selection of UK and Australian artists in a great recent group exhibition in Sydney2. Events like these have powerful effects, especially on animators themselves, and it was with these in mind that I decided to resume Edge of Frame screenings with this new series Collision.
So I suppose this is a rallying cry to my fellow animators - to think about putting on a screening, an exhibition or an event of your own. Even something small can make a big difference for those involved. It might not be completely easy and it could take some time and effort, but something tells me there is a greater need for such ventures now than there has been for a long time. And as social media becomes an increasingly unfruitful and dispiriting place to show work and connect with others, creating more spaces of our own - in the real world - seems to me like an important and much needed thing.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to see some of you at the first Collision screening in February. Book your tickets here.
It should also be pointed out here that LIAF have been really proactive and successful with the online component of their festival, providing audiences way beyond London with the opportunity to view festival programmes they would otherwise not have access to.
Full disclosure, I was in it!