This year I’ve joined the organizing team of Halifax’s only film festival dedicated to animated images, Animation Festival of Halifax (AFX). I was particularly thrilled to curate a retrospective screening celebrating the work of acclaimed Canadian ‘direct cinema’ master Steven Woloshen and work with Wonder’neath Art Society and artist Jessica Winton to add stop-motion animation to Wonder’neath’s Open Studio roster. I even got to relive the community radio days of my youth by hosting a few festival-related podcasts! And my eight year-old loved the Saturday Morning Cartoons at the public library (in conjunction with their MiniCon) during our festival, too.
AFX is the artistic brainchild of Carbon Arc Cinema Director, Siloën Daley. Siloën has done a wonderful job over the years of surrounding herself with smart, fun, dedicated, and creative folks who make sure our little festival reflects all things artistic in independent animation while celebrating our local industry, too. I feel very lucky to be part of this team and we’re already cooking up amazing things for next year!
Me and the kid at Saturday Morning Cartoons at the library; Steven Woloshen’s direct cinema animation wrokshop; Big Picture Panel this year, focusing on labour issues in animation, hosted by Dr. Shannon Brownlee, with artists Sam Decoste and Steven Woloshen, and NFB English Animation Exec. Director Michael Fukushima.