Program (curated by Jeff Sias)

Merlin's Day 10min, 16mm. 1996
Director: Joey Kolbe

Meril's Day is a ten minute kitchen sink stop motion film about a wizard and his love for a gramophone. The film was shot on 16mm and 35mm clear leader hand coated with B/W liquid emulsion and a 30-year-old 35mm 4x negative. The film was exposed through two antique cameras and then hand processed and printed on a 50-year-old printer. The whole film was completed on a budget of 300 dollars and took 16 months to make. Joeye Kolbe attended the School of Museum of Fine Arts from 1992-1996. There he studied live action, special effects and stop motion animation. After graduating he worked as a stop motion animator as well as a first assistant cameraman in 35mm, 65mm, and Vistavision film formats. Joseph is currently the director of photography at Olive Jar Animation in Boston. There his work includes stop motion commercials as well as in house short films. He is also an established freelance cinematographer and camera operator whose own work has screened at Annecy, Ottowa and Naples animation festival and the Black Maria Independent Film Festival.

Chromacyde 4.5min, 16mm
Director: Devon Damonte

A cacophony of colors flickers, abrades and transmutes towards maximum synthetic density. This film was made entirely by and using colored leader, razor blades and other scrappy devices, colored wax and edible rice starch paper, assembled with the magical guillotine tape splicer in a manner not recommended by manufacturer. For the past 14 years, Devon Damonte has been creating experimental animated films using unique techniques he develops himself. This animation doesn't look anything remotely like Disney or Saturday morning cartoons. Damonte's films are motion graphics made up of abstract imagery edited in streams of color, pattern and rhythm - much like a moving painting. These films are made entirely by hand, without using any cameras, crafted by taping semi-transparent collage materials directly onto clear and colored film leader. Inspiration comes from pioneers of direct animation including Len Lye, Stan Brakhage, and Barbel Neubauer. Damonte's films have screened in festivals in such places as San Francisco, Virginia, Ann Arbor, MI, Olympia, WA, and Spain.

Between the Lines animation 3.5min, 16mm, 1998
Director: Jamie Maxfield

An experimental animated sketchbook on figure drawing made at California Institute of the Arts. Using sketches from three years' worth of open workshop sessions, it explores the evolution of lines depicting volume and form, and transitions from one pose of the human body to another. Jamie Maxfield received a BFA in film/video/animation from RISD in 1993, and an MFA in experimental animation from Cal Arts in 1998. He interned for New Image Productions, a computer animation company in Westford, MA, and briefly freelanced for independent animator Karen Aqua as an assistant. In the summer of 1997 & 1998, while back on the east coast, Maxfield was offered some freelance work at Olive Jar Studios in Boston, where he is currently employed as a fulltime staff animator. Jamie lives and works in the Allston Brighton area.

Minotaur 8min, 16mm, 1999, Carnal Ground 4.5min, 16mm, 1994
Director: Dan Sousa

Minotaur is a loose interpretation of the traditional Greek myth as seen through the beast's point of view. Abandoned on a cavernous island our childlike minotaur has as his only friend a mischievous red ball which leads him into the depths of the maze. Carnal Ground -- A weary hunter roams in a desolate landscape, searching for his next prey. But the creature he finds dazzles him with its dignity and makes him question his own nature. Dan Sousa studied animation, painting and illustration at RISD where he produced his first two films. After a brief period of freelancing and teaching at the School of the Museum of fine Arts in Boston, he took a position at Olive Jar Studios where he has directed several commercial shorts. Currently, Daniel is collaborating on a variety of multimedia projects and has started pre-production on his next animated film.

Cloth & Bone 4min, 16mm, 1995, Barren Boughs 3min, 16mm, 1998
Director: Anouck Iyer

Cloth & Bone is an experimental animated piece involving light manipulation on 16mm film. Inspired by a passage from the novel "The Famished Road" by Ben Okri, the film was realized by using in-camera multiple exposures and optically printed rayograms and photograms. Barren Boughs is a poetic interpretation of an old Swedish folktale about the "skogsra" or forest spirit. "In this little world, enfolding it at every point is another world, one that is dangerous, wild, and beautiful". Anouck Iyer is an experimental animated filmmaker. She has an undergraduated degree from the Rhode Island School of Design where she completed her first film Cloth & Bone. After her time at RISD, Anouck moved to Sweden to intern for the animation studio, Filmtecknarna. It was there that she developed the idea for her second film Barren Boughs which was completed as her graduate thesis from the California Institute of the Arts. Anouck is currently working on her third film while teaching alongside the visiting lecturer for the animation classes in the visual studies department at Harvard University.

Baby's First Steps 5min, 16mm on video, 1994
Director: Ted Sydor

The first formal attempt at a complete stop motion film. It was filmed during his second year at the School of Visual arts in NYC and utilized his newly discovered techniques in armature design and basic storytelling learned during and extended trip to the Czech Republic. This film won 1st place for student animation at the Cineview International festival in 1994. Ted Sydor's work reflects a strong background in Czech craft and animation traditions. From this he has grown a vast appreciation for all forms of hand and film work in a variety of mediums. Ted currently operates his studio as part of Red Sky Interactive in Boston, MA.

Apology 10min, 16mm, silent
Director: Jake Mahaffy

A silent film utilizing various optical and contact printing techniques for archiving the left over pieces of an abandoned project. "This film started from the middle. I shot The Prayer footage on a visit, in fall, to the old monastery town of Suzdal, east of Moscow. The family I lived with appears in the last frames of this section. The man in glasses, Sasha Kalyakin, would walk with me from church to church, back and forth over the wooden footbridges that criss-cross the river. Most of the churches and cathedrals there are abandoned. A dilapidated ferris-wheel and the remains of a carnival stand over the far end of town. The Super 8 reversal I shot there was damaged in processing and, by some odd thought, I figured if it was going to look bad, I'd make it look worse. I regret doing that. And I'm even embarrassed. Sometimes, their faces get lost in the breach of chemicals. A couple of years later, I decided to archive what was left of The Prayer, and I began to tape it back together. The same day that I began collecting the bits and pieces, I heard a huge explosion. I went out onto the roof of the apartment and saw a 13-story flame raging from a burst gas main. It destroyed a retirement home. I shot The Sermon footage of the fire from the rooftop of my apartment by Cabrini Green. And I placed it in front of The Prayer, like a candle before an icon. A month after that event, my father was burning leaves in a field across the road from his home and the grass caught fire. I shot The Harvest images of him stomping on the smoldering grass. The sight of him striding through the smoke, appearing and disappearing, stepping on hundreds of little flames, reminded me of old memories as smoldering fires and regret as the expanding clouds of smoke. PS: This is a silent film, an unspoken apology, because I accidentally destroyed the recording I'd intended for the soundtrack. Ironically, that sound was the cause for making the film at all. And thus the need for this expository appendage." Jake Mahaffy received his BFA in Film from Rhode Island School of Design and his MFA in Film from the Art Institute of Chicago. He currently resides in Massachussets.

Lost and Found animation 10min, 16mm, 1996
Director: Jeff Sias

Lost and Found is an experimental puppet animation, which uses found object constructions as props and characters. The film follows a timid boy as he is tempted with the loss of innocence and is drawn into a small, but symbolic journey through a world of lost hope and faded memories.

Jeff Sias is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design where he majored in Film, Video and Animation. While there he made several live-action/ special effects films and then moved into animation and sculpture. Combining puppets, animation and sculptural elements, Jeff finished his senior degree project Lost and Found in 1996. Jeff is currently directing and animating for a commercial animation studio in Boston where he works on spots for television and film. He spends his off-time working with marionette artist Dan Butterworth and maintaining a studio in Waltham where he produces sculpture and photography. With other members of his studio Jeff has several films and puppet performances in the works for completion in the near future.

Wastelands 7min, 16mm, 2000
Director: Bryan Papciack

A study of derelict spaces, including: Cnetralia Pennsylvania; Ostia Antica, Italy and Metropolitan State Hospital in Belmont, MA. Bryan Papciack is an independent filmmaker in the Boston area where he is currently working on several live action/experimental and animated films including a feature length film based on the Spanish poet, Frederico Garcia Lorca's puppet play, The Tragicomedy of Don Cristobal. Bryan is also a staff Director of the Brighton based animation house, Olive Jar Studios.