5 DAYS TO GO...

Three very different films we're delighted to be screening... 'Baby & Granny', 'Begone Dull Care' and 'Bella Dilemma TV Trailer'. You can see 'Baby & Granny' in 'Screening 2' and 'Begone Dull Care'/'Bella Dilemma TV Trailer' in 'Screening 3'.

The film: A 2D animated action-comedy about a baby and granny who share a common bond (Baby’s Mother is Granny’s Daughter) but who fight like crazy when left alone. The visuals are highly-influenced by the work of 60's Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein

The filmmaker: ZHENG KANG is a Chinese-born professional designer, working in the animation industry. Based in Los Angeles, Zheng’s experience encompasses award-winning industrial, graphic and animation design direction. Zheng holds an MFA in Animation and Digital Arts from John C Hench Division of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, class of 2016. Zheng’s creative vision and highly-stylized commercial sensibilities can be seen throughout his personal and professional works, which are grounded in solid draftsmanship and peppered with his own humor and subjects of interest such as design, fashion, and Western and Japanese animation. His approach is diversely collaborative, forming the open-minded and optimistic essence of Zheng’s storytelling portfolio.

The film: A re-imagining of 1949's "Begone Dull Care", this abstract animated short film features chiptune music and pixel-art, while maintaining the abstract spontenaity of the original. Created by 20-year animation industry veteran Paul Johnson between May and October of 2015 while on contract in Montreal."Begone Dull Care 2015" updates the 1949 NFB animated short film by providing a visual representation of 80's style chiptune music through a dance of tightly timed abstract paintings and pixel-art. Utilizing a musical structure and pacing similar to the original, the short becomes increasingly digitized and eventually devolves into one single video-game-like character devouring the final credit.

The filmmaker: PAUL JOHNSON has been animating, supervising, and teaching traditional, 2d, and 3d animation since 1995. Paul has taught at Vancouver Film School, VanArts, VCAD, AI Vancouver, Cap University Harbin, Mars Era Beijing, and Think Tank Training Centre. His current independent short film is due in October of 2015, with "The 8-Bit Cup" being recently finished and online at vimeo.com/113990979. Credit list: Charming (Theatrical film) (2015); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Seasons 1 and 2 (TV series) (2012,13,14,15); Fanboy and ChumChum: Season 2 (TV series) (2011) ; Planet Sheen (TV series) (2010) ; Neighbors from Hell (TV series) (2010); My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Season 1 (TV series) (2010); Kung Fu Magoo (Direct-to-video) (2009); The Adventures of Little Jake and Many Skies (TV interstitials) (2009); Pearlie (TV series) (2009); Edgar & Ellen (TV series) (2008); The Nutty Professor (Direct-to-video) (2007); Chaotic: Season 1 (TV Series) (2006); Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: Seasons 1 and 2 (TV series) (2005,07); FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman: Season 2 (TV Series) (2005) Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law: Season 2 (TV series) (2004); The Buzz on Maggie (TV series) (2003); ¡Mucha Lucha!: Season 3 (TV series) (2002); Return to Never Land (DTV Feature) (2000); Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (DTV Feature) (1999); Winnie the Pooh: A Valentine for You (TV special) (1998); Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (TV special) (1998); Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (DTV Feature) (1997); Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (DTV Feature) (1996); Tales from the Far Side II (1-hour TV special) (1996); Kleo the Misfit Unicorn (TV pilot) (1995)

The film: Logline: A Hollywood Movie Queen and a diminutive stunt-man in a monster costume, lost in an alternate dimension where every movie is its own reality. Animated TV Show Premise: Bella Dilemma WAS the “World’s Greatest Movie Star” until one evening, while she slept soundly in the comfort of her Beverly Hills home, a shadowy figure broke in and absconded with her Oscar, after which she woke to find herself on the sound-stage of a world gone mad, where no one had ever heard of “Bella Dilemma” and she was just another stand-in on a Hollywood movie-set. This alternate dimension is the “Cine-Verse”, where all the movies ever made are their own reality and the Oscar is a mysterious Genie-like figure rumored to have the power to make dreams come true. Together with her unlikely companion, Al Z., a diminutive stunt-man in a monster suit and a grizzled vet of many a back-lot, she travels from one movie scenario to another in search of the elusive Oscar, and the life she once had.

The filmmaker: Geoff Grogan is a cartoonist and teacher; since 2013 he has produced the comic strip "Jetpack Jr." (formerly "Plastic Babyheads from Outer Space) 3 times per week for Universal Uclick( @ gocomics.com/jetpack-jr ) while also serving as Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY. Prior to "Jetpack Jr." Grogan produced large format mixed-media comics, such as "Look Out! Monsters" for which he won a Xeric Grant in 2008, and "Fandancer", a "Notable Comic" in "America's Best Comics" of 2011. He was co-publisher/editor of the alternative comics broadsheet, "pood" in 2010-11 and prior to that published the graphic novel, "Nice Work" in 2006/7. He was also the cover illustrator for Professor Charles Hatfield's pioneering Eisner-winning study of the work of legendary cartoonist Jack Kirby, "Hand of Fire". Grogan has had a long and varied career in the arts; after studying film and animation as an undergrad at the Philadelphia College of Art, he began his career as a cartoonist, doing political cartoons for an independent newspaper in the 1980's. As a painter and collage artist he exhibited in a variety of venues throughout the United States, most notably at The Drawing Center in New York in 2004. Comics and animation have informed his work throughout his life, and with "Bella Dilemma" ( itself a spin-off from "Jetpack Jr.") he has come full-circle.