Please take a moment to vote for my short animated film Toronto Alice.
Each week, Reel 13 presents three Short films for consideration. Viewers vote for their favorite, and the winner airs on Saturday night along with our Classic and Independent feature films. Be sure to check back each week to vote for your favorite – new films appear each Saturday night at midnight; voting continues through Wednesday at 5pm. — WNED PBS (Buffalo).
I’m delighted to announce that Toronto Alice will screen on July 31st in the Children’s Films program at New Horizon International Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland. Considering that my use of paper cutouts is largely inspired by the work of Polish animators Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowyck, the inclusion of my film in this Polish film festival feels like a sort of stylistic homecoming.
Just returned from Oberhausen, and had a wonderful experience there. Many thanks to the festival programmers, organizers, and to the Canada Council for their support of my trip to Germany.
Toronto Alice gets an “Indie Tuesdays” review on the Toronto Film Scene blog:
“It is almost a shame that the film is only five minutes long since Toronto Alice would make a great feature-length film. However, as it stands, this is a wonderful little short film that brings Lewis Carroll’s characters to life in the city of Toronto.”
Hello, my darklings. Hope you’re enjoying the warmer-than-usual weather in February (at least in Toronto). Just wanted to post an update on the various film festivals that are screening my work over the next few weeks.
Firstly, I’m truly honoured to have my short animated film La Petite Mort included in the “Independent (Canadian) Scene” program at Tricky Women 2016 in Vienna. Many heartfelt thanks to Madi Piller, executive director of Toronto Animated Image Society (TAIS), who curated this program. She is a tireless supporter of independent animators.
Then, this tentacled darling of an animated short slithers her way to Lausanne, Switzerland for La Fête du Slip, an international porn festival. Needless to say, the preceding link is very NFSW unless you happen to work in a porn shop, or perhaps VICE Magazine. Oddly enough, I don’t consider this film as porn per se, but as a self-professed “sex-positive feminist”, I’m fine with that categorization, too. Evidently, the porn world has been craving more scenes of sexual exchange between a woman and an octopus. This could be a very niche market.
My other cinematic child, Toronto Alice, travels to Los Angeles for the L.A. International Women’s Film Festival in March. Many thanks to Leslie -Ann Coles for curating the Canadian Shorts program that includes this film.
I’m also excited to share that I’m currently developing a new script for another of my independent animations. This new project will be closer to La Petite Mort in look and feel, and has the working title of Wunderkammer. Stay tuned.
Toronto Alice had her World Premiere at Animation Chico this past Saturday, December 12th. It’s only a happy accident that the festival trailer happens to rest on an image from the film, but I’ll celebrate that small, random victory nonetheless.
A big stack of BluRay discs of Toronto Alice ready to ship out to my Indiegogo contributors. Made a few extra for those who didn’t manage to pick up this “perk” during my campaign, but would like to now. BR includes Toronto Alice, my two previous animated shorts “La Petite Mort” and “The Incident in the Nursery”, PLUS a one-hour interview conducted by Elizabeth Fearon and Steve Armstrong. Ships right to your door. WOWZA!
You can purchase the BluRays here.
After much thought, I’ve decided to post the entire short film of Toronto Alice online for all to see. Even though I’ve submitted to a bunch of festivals, I decided that wider exposure online was worth the risk of disqualifying the film from a handful of festivals.
If you enjoy, then please share widely. Thanks.
The entire film of “Toronto Alice” will not be available online to the general public for a little while longer — it’s an eligibility for film festivals and/or “premiere status” sorta thing. In the meantime, please enjoy this sneak peek in the form of a short trailer. Incidentally, the music that plays in the trailer is not featured in the film.
The character of Alice from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking-Glass’ is transported to contemporary Toronto. Whilst riding a streetcar, Alice encounters a pair of strange characters who engage her in an equally strange debate over whether or not they, in fact, exist. The dialogue is borrowed directly from Carroll, but given a fresh and funny new twist in this short stop-motion animation.
Voice of Alice by Nicole Bauman
Voices of Tweedledee & Tweedledum by Matt Speirs
Sound recording and design by Karl Mohr
Paper puppets, stop-motion animation, post-production, editing, and direction by Jennifer Linton
Adapted from “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There”, by Lewis Carroll (published in 1871).
This animation was made possible by the financial support of the Ontario Arts Council, and by the generosity of my Indiegogo contributors. Thank you!
Copyright ©2015 Papercut Pictures. All rights reserved.
Baby, it’s cold outside. Good time of the year to hide out in one’s basement studio, making things move a little bit at a time. After a very busy Fall term at my teaching jobs, I’ve settled down a bit with a lighter course load for the Winter. This is very good news for my Toronto Alice animation project, which is now back in progress. Only 01:27 done thus far, but we’re getting there.
Lady Lazarus 