Joanna Priestley Screenings at the REDCAT
PRESS RELEASE
FILM AT REDCAT PRESENTS
Joanna Priestley: Fighting Gravity
Mon Apr 20 | 8:30 pm
Jack H. Skirball Series
$9 [students $7, CalArts $5]
Los Angeles premiere
Dubbed “the queen of independent animation” by Bill Plympton, Joanna Priestley unveils her new short Missed Aches, a humorous rant about the need for proofreading. This can’t-miss program for animation buffs also includes a series of animated gems representing the range of the artist’s techniques: Voices, Grown Up, All My Relations, Streetcar Named Perspire, Utopia Parkway, Candyjam, She-Bop, Pro and Con, and Dew Line. Mentored by Jules Engel at CalArts, Priestley had previously made 19 award-winning films about subjects as varied as relationships, plants, magic, menopause, abstraction and prison. Retrospectives of her work have been presented at The Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, and American Cinematheque, among other venues.
In person: Joanna Priestley
“The exquisite animated world of Joanna Priestley has been one of the best-kept secrets of the toon community… Undeniably original and hard to forget.” – Animation Magazine
Missed Aches (2009, 4 min., DVD or Beta SP, stereo, 1:1.85)
Los Angeles premiere
Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Written and narrated by Taylor Mali. Sound Design by Normand Roger and Pierre Yves Drapeau. Music by Pierre Yves Drapeau with Denis Chartrand and Normand Roger. Text Animation by Brian Kinkley. Character design by Don Flores. Storyboards by Dan Schaeffer. Supported by The Regional Arts and Culture Council and the Caldera Institute.
Missed Aches is about the need for proofreading and the indiscriminate use of spell chuck. It incriminates character animation with moving text. Missed Aches was written and narrated by Taylor Mali, four time winner of the National Poetry Slam (USA).
Streetcar Named Perspire (2007, 6.5 minutes, computer animation) Directed and produced by Joanna Priestley. Sound designed and produced by Lance Limbocker. Animation by Pascal Campion and Joanna Priestley. Voices by Victoria Parker Pohl and Paul Harrod.
“Priestley’s animated roller coaster ride both previews and celebrates- depending on your age- one of life’s most thrill-filled experiences.”
-Heike Kuehn, Northwest Film and Video Festival
Dew Line (2005, 4.5 minutes, 2D computer animation)
Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Sound designed and produced by Jamie Haggerty. Edited by Jamie Haggerty. Supported by a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
“Priestley’s playful eye takes us on a tour through the cycle of life and death as cells split apart, regenerate and dance a microbiological twist.” -Sam Green, San Francisco University
Utopia Parkway (1997, 5 minutes, drawings on paper. replacement animation)
Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Sound design and music by Jaime Haggerty. Art director: Paul Harrod. Directors of photography: Charles Rehwalt (box unit) and David Trappe (bottle unit). Edited by Chris Willging and Joanna Priestley. 3-D animators: C. Bourdette, B. Bruce, T. Drilling, C. Duke, J. Gratz, M. Gustavson, J. Poulot and J. Priestley.
Utopia Parkway was inspired by the box sculptures of Joseph Cornell, who lived in the same house on Utopia Parkway in Queens, New York, nearly all of his life.
Grown Up (1993, 7 minutes, drawings on paper, pixillated hands and object animation)
Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Sound produced by Lance Limbocker. Written by Barbara Carnegie and Joanna Priestley. Music by Steve Christopherson and Warren Rand. Props by Paul Harrod.
"Everybody from Germaine Greer to Gloria Steinem to Betty Friedan is writing about aging, but what about middle aging? Priestley does a brilliant job of reclaiming 40, and believe me, I have a vested interest in this subject. An animation that just might make twenty-somethings wish they were older." -B. Ruby Rich.
Pro and Con (1993, 9 minutes, 2-D puppets, drawings, object and cel animation and clay painting)
Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley and Joan Gratz. Sound produced by Lance Limbocker and Chel White. Music by Chel White. Narrated by Lt. Janice Inman and Allen Nause.
"Pro and Con is a brief but excellent exploration of the thoughts and emotions of those working and living in our prison system."
-Rebecca S. Albitz, Pyramid Film and Video
All My Relations (1990, 5 minutes, drawings on paper with 3-D frames) Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Improvised voices by Victoria Parker and Scott Parker. Sound by Joanna Priestley.
All My Relations satirizes the pitfalls of romance, from marriage, childbirth and upward mobility to the disintegration of a relationship. The animation is framed by a series of assemblages which emphasize the message implied by its archetypal characters whose dilemmas are familiar to those who have bought into the American Dream.
She-Bop(1988, 8 minutes, drawings and puppet animation)
Directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. Music by Dave Storrs. Written by Carolyn Myers. Narration by Carolyn Lochert Curtis. Funding by the National Endowment for the Arts.
A poetic tribute to the dark, feminine side of spirituality.
Candyjam (1988, 7 minutes, drawings, puppets and object animation) Co-produced and co-directed by Joan Gratz. Music by Dave Storrs. Animated by David Anderson (London), Karen Aqua (Cambridge, MA, USA), Craig Bartlett (Los Angeles), Elizabeth Buttler (Cambridge, MA, USA), Paul Driessen (The Hague, Holland), Tom Gasek (Cambridge, MA, USA), Joan Gratz (Portland, OR, USA), Marv Newland (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Christine Panushka (Valencia, CA, USA) and Joanna Priestley.
Candyjam is a whimsical exploration of confection by ten filmmakers from four countries.
Voices (1985, 4 minutes, drawings on paper)
Sound by R. Dennis Wiancko. Voice by Joanna Priestley. A humorous exploration of the fears we share: fear of the darkness, of monsters, of aging, of being overweight and of global destruction.
"Priestley gets across a series of personal phobias in a refreshing and humorous fashion. We get a superb, contemporary animated film with salutes to historical cartoon figures scattered throughout. Delightful!"
– Marv Newland, Northwest Film and Video Festival Juror.
Joanna Priestley studied painting and printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design and at UC Berkeley, where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honors. She also attended California Institute of the Arts where she received an MFA Degree and the Louis B. Mayer Award. Her background includes Coordinator of the Northwest Film and Video Festival, Director of Strictly Cinema, Editor of "The Animator", Regional Coordinator of the Northwest Film Center, Co-Director and Co-Founder of FILMA: Women’s Film Forum and founding President of ASIFA Northwest.
Priestley teaches animation workshops worldwide and she has run an apprenticeship program since 1986. She has served on numerous juries and selection committees, including Stuttgart International Animation Festival, Canadian International Animation Festival, Texas Filmmakers Production Fund, Big Muddy Film Festival and the Annie Awards. Priestley also enjoys medicinal herbalism, gardening and Burning Man.
Her films are available at http://www.primopix.com and http://www.microcinema.com.
In Joanna Priestley’s beautiful film, each frame is alive with invention, possibility and delight.
– Richard Peña, New York Film Festival
Joanna Priestley is one of the most interesting and adept personal animators and filmmakers. I have enjoyed her work for years and been amazed at how she gets into her own thoughts into the screen in a very elegant and focused way. – Gus Van Sant
Joanna Priestley’s amazing body of animated films have deservedly earned their place in the pantheon of contemporary international animators. Inventively visioned, superbly crafted, and rich in insights into the spiritual dilemma that confront us all, each new work provides an unexpected pleasure. – Bill Foster, Director, Northwestern Film Center
The lively and inventive animations of Joanna Priestley are full of joy and unexpected pleasures.– Kathy Geritz, Pacific Film Archive
Curated by Maureen Selwood and Bérénice Reynaud.
Funded in part with generous support from Wendy Keys and Donald Pels.
REDCAT is located in downtown Los Angeles at the corner of W. 2nd St. and S. Hope St., inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. Tickets may be purchased by calling 213.237.2800 or at www.redcat.org or in person at the REDCAT Box Office on the corner of 2nd and Hope Streets (30 minutes free parking with validation). Box Office Hours: Tue-Sat | noon–6 pm and two hours prior to curtain
Photos: Dennis Wiancko (top photo, Feldman Gallery exhibit of animation artwork from Voices), Greg Kosawa (Joanna Priestley portrait); animation photos courtesy of Joanna Priestley
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Tags: Animation, Animators, Candyjam, Grown Up, Joanna Priestley, Los Angeles Screenings, Missed Aches, REDCAT, Shorts, Streetcar Named Perspire, Voices
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