Animated By Sharvonique

The DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF) is hosting an anime seminar on March 9th, and yours truly will be a co-panelist for the event along with Steve Bennett. The invitation to participate was extended by the DC Anime Club.

This rather flattering description of the seminar was posted on the DCIFF website:

Renowned animation experts, Steve Bennett and Sharvonique Renee Fortune will share their expertise on the Japanese technique known as anime. Panelists will discuss their work, including how they make their living and the impact of Japanese animation on their work. Learn vicariously through their years of experience and specialized knowledge of character animation.

The DCIFF runs from March 6-16, 2008 at the Jack Morton Auditorium of George Washington University. This is the 10th anniversary of the festival and it continues to celebrate independent films and provides an opportunity for independent filmakers from across the globe to showcase their work in the DC area. 

Here are the details of the seminar:
Sunday, March 9
4:15pm-5:15pm
Cost $25

George Washington University
Jack Morton Auditorium - media and public affairs building
805 21st Street, NW Washington, DC 20006
(corner of 21st & H Streets)
www.dciff.org

Follow this link to view directions and a schedule of events: http://www.dciff.org/2008.htm

I hope to see you there!
 

On Saturday, January 19th, there will be an art sale fundraiser for Soren Rogers at  Monkeyhouse Toys & Art Gallery.  Soren suffers from a rare seizure disorder called Infantile Spasms which has caused severe developmental delay, thereby making him a 4-month-old in a 4-year-old’s body.  The art show is to help raise funds to make the family’s mini-van wheelchair accessible.

Opening Reception:
Saturday, January 19th
5pm-9pm
Food by Trader Joe’s
Music by Nick the Ring

Monkeyhouse Toys & Art Gallery
1618 1/2 Silver Lake Bl.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
323-662-3437
www.monkeyhousetoys.com

Read more about Soren on his blog: http://sorenrogers.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Jennifer Hachigian Jerrard and Rich Watson, I recently had the opportunity to write an article for issue #4 of UVC Magazine, the Urban Voice in Comics.

Founded and published by Ron King, “UVC is a hip, exciting, bimonthly entertainment magazine of pure adrenaline for fans of comics and related media that brings you the best of everything from an urban perspective.”

UVC Issue #4 Cover

Issue #4 focuses on Black women in comics and expanded into other genres like animation. My article was about Black women characters in animation, and proved to be a very interesting topic. I also mentioned a few Black women animators, including Shawnee and Shawnelle Gibbs, the creators of Adopted by Aliens.

Feel free to read the full article!  If you know of more Black women animators, please post a comment about them.

I’ve been working on a great independent project by a California based digital arts collective called Fear Not Films. The project, Take Too Long, is a 3D animated short film that deals with the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. Fear Not Films is founded by Kwesi Davis, who also works for DreamWorks Animation SKG as a Production Engineer/Senior Level TD. It’s also interesting to note that I was contacted by Kwesi because he noticed the banner ad for my blog!

Kwesi Davis & Family

The great news is that Take Too Long recently won the Seahorse Award for Best Short Screenplay at the 2007 Moondance International Film Festival! Congrats to Kwesi and the rest of the team, as there’s a lot of remarkable talent working on the project. The crew consists of various artists and animators who are all working remotely on the production, including animator Karol David who is from New Orleans. I’m sure that there’ll be even more news to post about the short film once it’s released.

Moondance Award

And take a look at the t-shirt the crew gets for working on the project. Hooray for free stuff!

I was lucky enough to appear in a documentary called Draw the Line: An Animator’s Showcase. The documentary was produced by Steven Fischer of Steve and Bluey fame.

I just learned that the film has won a CINE Golden Eagle Award in the Arts & Leisure category! The CINE Golden Eagle awards are recognized internationally as symbols of the highest production standards in filmmaking. The documentary has also won the Gold Remi at the 40th Annual WorldFest International Film Festival in Houston, Texas in the Cultural Programming category, and is also the recipient of a Telly Award.

WOW! I had no clue that the documentary would go on to be so successful. I was just happy to participate. The show also features interviews with fellow animators Kristin Harris, Sally Bensusan, Phil Cook, and Miguel De Angel.

In Steven’s own words:

“Draw the Line is a study of professional animation. It is meant to inspire young artists just starting out. The subjects were each posed two central questions. The first was, do you need to live in a large market like New York or Los Angeles to “make it” as a professional animator? The second had to do with the basic values of drawing fundamentals. Essentially, I wanted to examine how geography affects an artist’s work, and secondly, emphasize to my target audience that even if you animate using a computer you still need to know how to draw. You must study from life and have a firm understanding of motion, performance, and character. ”

Congrats Steven, it’s definitely a well deserved win!

Take a look at another one of Steven’s multi-award winning projects, Freedom Dance.  Freedom Dance was created with animator Craig Herron, and is an animated/live-action documentary about the journal sketchbook of cartoonist Edward Hilbert.

WIA has a new banner ad, and it was created by yours truly.

I think it turned out pretty well, especially for my first animated banner. Be sure to click on it when it pops up to visit WIA’s site. Better yet, join and become a member.

Besides, I get 1000 smurfberries for every hit.