Accelerate Sessions/Animation Salon: animated documentary
Join us for a session curated by Alys Scott-Hawkins and Ellie Land at Animated Documentary. This is our fourth Accelerate Session, and the second of three in partnership with British Council Film.
Accelerate Sessions/Animation Salon:
Animated Documentary
18:00 (UK time), Wednesday 4 November
Zoom
Free. Register here.
Spaces are limited – please join early to make sure you get in.
Supported by Arts Council England’s Emergency Response Fund.
The animated documentary genre continues to grow, featuring in a variety of formats: shorts and feature films, explainer videos, interactive documentary; and showcasing an array of techniques such as the autoethnographic film, the investigative film, the call-to-action and reconstruction films, to name just a few.
Mary Martins, John Summerson and Signe Baumane will share their insights and experiences with us, alongside some clips of their work.
Still above: Febrarium, John Summerson, 2020
Speakers
Signe Baumane
Signe was born in Latvia and now lives in New York. After studying Philosophy at Moscow State University she started to work at Riga’s Animated Film Studio, where she wrote and directed three short films. She moved to New York in 1995, and for seven years worked for independent animator Bill Plympton as art director and production manager. Signe has written, directed and animated 15 shorts and the animated feature Rocks in My Pockets (2014) that have screened in over 560 film festivals around the world and received many awards. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017.
Mary Martins
Mary’s practice includes documentary animation, experimental film, and abstract expressionist painting, often exploring philosophical ideas. Her short film The Divide won the Mother Art Prize in 2017 as well as the Best New Voice award at the Factual Animation Film Fuss in 2016.
Mary has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Birmingham, and in Animation and Moving Image from the University of East London. She lives in London and is currently studying for an MA in Animation: Documentary at the Royal College of Art.
John Summerson
John is from Washington State in the USA and now lives in Tuscon, Arizona, working as an animation director. He studied animation at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon, and graduated from the Royal College of Art this year.
His work has exhibited internationally, most recently at film festivals in Budapest, Madrid, Berlin, and London. Scholarships include a Princess Grace USA Film Scholarship, the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Educator’s Forum Scholarship, and the Grand Prize at the LG Art of the Pixel Competition.
He’s previously volunteered as an instructor for Stories in Movement, a poetry and animation programme for incarcerated youth at the Donald E. Long Detention Center in Portland, Oregon.
Animated Documentary: Alys Scott-Hawkins and Ellie Land
AnimatedDocumentary.com is a searchable online resource for anyone interested in Animated Documentary. The blog is run by animation directors Alys and Ellie, with contributions from Carla MacKinnon, Alex Widdowson and Myria Christophini.
Accelerate Sessions is a series of online conversations with animation artists, programmers, producers and curators, in partnership with London International Animation Festival, Edge of Frame, Animated Documentary, and the British Council. The next Session is on producing and curating work for VR and immersive platforms, 11:00, 12 November. More details soon.
