Animated Events: TAAFI 2024 Film Fest, pt.2

Thursday morning arrived a little sooner that I expected. I awoke to the sounds of cars, construction, and people--the typical sounds of a big city. Was immediately reminded that I still need to finish watching Walter Ruttman's Berlin: Symphony of a Great City before the Fall semester. If I'm going to recommend a film (or talk about it) with my students, I like to have watched it myself in its entirety. Only real downside to watching these silent films though is confronting the question: do I stick with the musical score that's on the uploaded video or do I turn the sound off and focus on the visuals? There are so many lessons to be learned from these old movies from the dawn of film. We grow up unconsciously knowing the "rules of film editing" because they are so prevalent in our media today. But back then, Soviet Montage Theory was in its infancy and people were making up the rules as they went along (mostly from what worked with stage productions). One thing I love doing is showing students the films of Georges Méliès with his elaborate sets and trickfilm special effects and then showing them how the same principles were used in portions of Enya's music video Caribbean Blue. Thoughts for another day, I suppose.

My plans for that day were to meet up with Lynn Dana Wilton for lunch and then head out to the evening screening. However, I still had lots of time before that... and I "was" a couple blocks walk from Toronto's Museum of Illusions, so...

Wow was that fun. Now I freely admit, it'd probably be a more fun experience with two people--some of the exhibits are pretty tricky to navigate when you're on your own. But the staff were very helpful so I wouldn't avoid a visit if you have a solitary nature. And there's one in Chicago if you don't want to drive to Canada.

The exhibits were all hands-on and they played with perspective, mirrors, optical illusions, some traditional art tricks and more--see the "hole on the floor" video below.

I'll admit, I went there have a little fun, but one of the things that put the museum on my radar was seeing how some of these illusions have shown up in film over the past century or so. In my lectures, I discuss how we're seeing some of these illusions and techniques in modern day, only enhanced by new technology--like the 3d LED billboards in New York and over by Tokyo's Shinjuku Station, or the Pepper's Ghost "hologram" illusions in the Vocaloid concerts. As I tell my students: somewhere in history may be the solution to a problem you're having in your film, or it might hold the inspiration to your next film.

But speaking of film, I did have to get back to the hotel to meet up with Canadian filmmaker and stop-motion animator Lynn Dana Wilton. Tempus fugit.

Lunch was everything I hoped it would be. Lynn is a fascinating woman with a very storied career. I hadn't talked with her for a couple years due to the lockdowns, and we only had time to exchange 'hellos' last September at the Ottawa fest, so it was such a pleasant experience to sit there and really talk. We quickly got caught up on each other's lives and then launched into discussions about the state of the  animation industry, future trends for animation, and the teaching work we've done. When we finally looked at the clock, we'd been chatting non-stop for four hours. It felt like four minutes had gone by. We could've talked longer, but she had another meeting to get to and TAAFI awaited me at the Hot Docs Theater. The restaurant had been very patient with us so after we left a healthy tip and thanked the management and staff we parted ways.

It was off to the opening ceremonies and the first night's screening for me where I immediately ran into two old friends, artist/animators Pam Rose and Lynne Slater.

The next couple hours were a whirlwind as the film festival started strong with two programs: the Student Film Block followed by the appropriately named "Uplifting Shorts".

The films that really shone that night were Marc Salvatore LaJoie's End of the Line, Jennifer Wo's Mission Popo, ap-sol KANG's Meet Again JAHOE, Christina Woo's Pipe Dreams,  Sonia Furier's Ostinato, and Thomas van Kampen's Mixed Signals.

End of the Line was a touching film about a girl dealing with anxiety issues that come to a head when she loses her favorite fox toy.

Mission Popo. What a fun ride. I saw this in Ottawa last year and it was just as good the second time as it was the first. Hah! Noone messes with Grandma!

Meet Again JAHOE had a really nice visual style, especially in the otherworldly sequence. It definitely had some hints of Miyazaki in the design. I'd really like to watch this film again because I'm sure that I missed a lot of what was going on.

Pipe Dreams, a tale of bugs living in a rundown building told in the form of a reality tv show. Quirky and fun.

Now Ostinato, this was a beautiful and relatable tale of a woman struggling with her creativity as she tried to compose music while also trying to block out the noise that surrounds her.

The last film worthy of note was Mixed Signals, the story of a neurodivergent robot that struggles to fit into society. I had the chance to chat with the director Thomas van Kampen and his girlfriend Ariel afterwards. Turns out they were mutual friends with Pam. I had met them years ago before the lockdowns but it was just in passing. I'd honestly like to sit down with Thomas for a longer chat as he and I had a lot of the same experiences growing up. Even now as I grow older, I find that life is this constant assault on my senses that gets more and more difficult to block out. I saw a lot of myself in the little robot who was constantly getting overstimulated by all the sensory input. A very thought provoking film. After his festival run, I hope Thomas releases his film on Vimeo or YouTube. There's a lot of people who I think would really benefit from the conversation this film inspires.

Afterwards, I grabbed dinner on the way back to my hotel and settled in for the night. Yeh, today was better.

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