I had the pleasure of attending a screening of Joanna Quinn's work on Tuesday night, hosted by Quinn herself and Michael Fukushima of the NFB. I had only seen Quinn's first film, Girl's Night Out, and some of her commercial work for Charmin prior to this, and the screening showed me that she's much more than these films would suggest. Her other films demonstrated the high quality of Quinn's draftsmanship, her love of natural motion and her keen social awareness. Her films like The Wife of Bath show her continued interest in sexual politics and Brittania is a fantastic look at imperialism.This is Quinn's first visit to Canada. There will be a retrospective of her work at the Ottawa International Film Festival on Saturday at 1 in the National Arts Centre Southam Hall and a master class on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. at the NAC Fourth stage. She'll be appearing in Montreal after the festival (though I don't have the specifics for the Montreal appearance).
Quinn herself is very personable, happy to admit to her mistakes while learning animation and to talk about her process and priorities as an artist. As her films are not yet on DVD, I urge you to take advantage of her Canadian appearances if you can.
The trailer below represents Quinn to commercial clients. It gives a good idea of her design and animation approach but completely shortchanges the content of her work, which is far more intelligent than this trailer suggests.
I'm pleased to see your comments on Joanna Quinn's work. She is undoubtedly one of the best animators working today. She is the rarity these days, an animator who puts real personality into her work. It's exceptional.
ReplyDeleteThen, as you state, she puts intelligent thought into her stories. You always walk away from her films thinking. I love it.