Strong Irish Contingent at PAF Fest

IFTN.ie - News Story - Jan 14 2009

Read this story online at the iftn.ie website by clicking here.

It is not the first place you might expect to stumble across an extensive programme of Irish animated films, but audiences at last month’s PAF animated film festival in Olomouc, Czech Republic were treated to a season of 50 plus Irish animations running to a total of over eight hours.

Film-makers whose work was shown ranged from established figures such as Aidan Hickey and Deane Taylor to newer directors like Rory Bresnihan and Jason Tammemägi, while animations from studios Cartoon Saloon, Monster Films, Boulder Media, Brown Bag, JAM Media and many others also featured.

PAF's programme manager, Kateřina Surmanová, said the festival's Irish season had been warmly received by the local audiences.

"We were very happy with the Irish programme," Surmanová told IFTN. "During the festival many people told me that they were surprised by the high quality of Irish animation and asked us where they could get copies of the films we showed. PAF wants to introduce national animations that are not widely known here in the Czech Republic and Irish cinema is almost unknown here."

Ross Murray, Ross Stewart and Tom Moore from Cartoon Saloon were guests of the festival. Stewart and Murray gave a presentation outlining the genesis of their new Disney-distributed animated feature 'Brendan and the Secret of Kells' (on general release in Ireland from March 6th), while Murray talked about the practicalities of competing on an international stage from a smallish studio in Kilkenny. Diarmuid O'Brien and Mathew Lloyd from the Irish School of Animation at Ballyfermot College of Further Education also attended.

PAF ran from December 11th to 14th in Olomouc, a city 300 kms east of Prague. Austrian filmmaker and film theorist Peter Kubelka was another special guest, giving two energetic lectures on animation history and practice. Japanese composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda and Czech improvisation trio Mikroloops both contributed to the festival’s 'Live Animation' strand, where film-makers or audience members used the 'Polyekran' technique to animate in real time using fractured images on multiple screens.

The festival also featured an 'Adult Animation' season, built around the work of US auteur Ralph Bakshi and included a screening of his X-rated 'Fritz the Cat' (1972). Czech film-maker Miloš Tomić ran a pixilation technique workshop, while young Czech director Martin Kohout won the PAF 'Other Visions' award for his YouTube inspired short 'Moonwalk'.

For more info on the festival check out www.pifpaf.cz, and click on the English icon in the top right hand corner of the screen.

The reason I wrote about this for IFTN is that I travelled to the festival to give a talk about the history of Irish animation to give some context for the films being shown. Here's the proof.