(Source: Tiger Weekly)
In a way, it's quite humorous how animation has become such a major part of everyone's childhood. Walk up to anybody you meet and ask the simple question "who's your favorite Disney character?," and you'll receive a tidal wave of different yet familiar characters along the lines of Simba, Alladin, Ariel, Pocahontas, Mulan, or Baloo.
While these childhood keepsakes will always be the definition of animated films in the back of your mind, the animation industry has come a long way from the cartoons that we grew up with. With the boom of technology, the animation industry has gone through a massive evolution that includes the rise of the stop-motion film, the entrance of computer generated graphics and animated features, and the newest trend of 3-D effects.
Baton Rouge's own Red Stick International Animation Festival is starting its sixth annual festival today and will continue on with unique events until Saturday. The festival extends over several different buildings including the Shaw Center for the Arts, the Manship Theatre, the River Center, the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum, and the Louisiana Old State Capitol.
Six years ago, Stacey Simmons and Stephen David Beck founded the festival to promote the LSU Center for Computation and Technology (CCT). Originally, the pair was looking for a festival to mimic, but nothing existed in the U.S. at the time that was tailored to what they were looking for. In England, Simmons and Beck found Animex, a festival that was part of a university but that still focused on the skills of the trade. The Red Stick Animation Festival and Animex partnered up to share resources and ideas. Through their work, Stacey Simmons and Stephen David Beck helped the Red Stick Animation Festival expand into what it is today: the largest animation festival in the United States.
"I think part of the reason is that there is not already a great American animation festival," said Simmons. "If you consider that a majority of the most iconic animation in the world comes from the United States, from Disney and Pixar and Dreamworks, it's kind of hard to believe that there is not a quintessentially American festival. The animation community has really responded to us having this kind of ambition to become that kind of festival."
The Red Stick Animation Festival has applied to the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be an Oscar Award qualifying festival. If the festival is selected to join, the winner of the festival's animation contest would automatically be qualified in the Academy Awards. This pushed the festival to become a more experimental yet better experience for those looking to learn new filmmaking skills or enter into the animation industry.
"We really saw that the Academy was focused primarily on ways to help filmmakers and expose filmmakers to more educational opportunities and to expose audiences to more new and up-and-coming filmmakers," said Simmons. "What we decided to do is focus more on filmmakers who have a little bit of experience in hopes that as we grow, the filmmaker base will naturally lead to more revenue and more opportunity for people who want to break into the animation business."
With this new philosophy in mind, this festival pushes its events above and beyond to provide a thrilling lineup of intriguing screenings and mind-boggling live shows. With the festival's opening is one event Simmons is particularly excited about.
"We're showing 'Tangled' that is going to be our festival's big opener," said Simmons. "It's Disney's newest movie and it hasn't been released yet, so we got a pre-release screening before the world premiere! We are the only festival who is going to do that. The animation director will also be here to talk about the film to audiences at The Rave at 7 p.m."
Thursday also brings in several great events. One that can't be passed up is the star-studded film "Howl," which tells the story of Alan Ginsberg's 1957 obscenity trial over his poem. This screening however is not for kids as the film has a NC-17 rating.
Also being screened is the documentary "Waking Sleeping Beauty" which tells the story of the animated renaissance Disney reached in the 90's. As with many of these screenings, producers and other professionals who helped create the feature will be present to talk to the audience.
Saturday morning will brings Cartoon-A-Palooza, a fun family event full of Saturday morning cartoons and other activities that will be fun for everyone.
Throughout the festival's events will also be several animation competitions based on different categories that will judge submissions by students and professional animators. A special posthumous lifetime achievement award will also be given out to Pres Romanillos who helped create such Disney characters as "Pocahontas."
The Red Stick Animation Festival is a one-of-a-kind experience that shouldn't be missed. If you attend, the festival will be sure to animate a smile on your face.
Publish Date:
11-10-2010
