CAPETONIANS get the chance to enjoy animated stories of adventure and wonder when the fourth Kunjanimation Film Festival comes to the city from today until Sunday.
The Labia on Orange will host film screenings while Pop the Culture (content hub and talent incubator) will host a series of workshops with leaders in the local animation industry and comic and graphic novel icons.
Previous Kunjanimation festival director, Daniel Snaddon (who hands over to Dianne Makings this year), will be handling a workshop on storyboarding.
Lead animator at Triggerfish Studios, Snaddon says the workshops facilitated by Pop the Culture are primarily aimed at the industry to help people generate their own ideas.
“What Pop the Culture is hoping to achieve is to get people to think about what gets them excited and how to generate popular icons. We don’t have our own version of Mickey Mouse or Asterix – what iconic characters do we have besides Madame and Eve?,” asked Snaddon.
He pointed out that the South African animated industry is focused on becoming a creative industry which generates original content and intellectual property, “primarily because in the long term it will be more profitable”.
“It tends to be more fulfilling for the artist than when you are only an outsourced industry where you turn animation into a factory. Interestingly enough there is a midway where, because we are cheaper and have good quality work, we are getting approached by other countries to do work,” said Snaddon.
He is now co-ordinating a Triggerfish Studios project in which a UK production company partnered with them to produce a tv special for the BBC. Even though the director is London-based, the creative work is done in Cape Town.
“You approach it like a boutique studio with a particular look. It seems to be the way more and more people are going. Everyone is developing their own ideas and looking for partners and funders to develop that, rather than just being cheap labour.”
A French animation delegation will be in Cape Town as part of the festival, working on the relationships between South African and French animation industries.
“They have a very strong cultural identity that they express well through their animation. They’re interested in helping us find our own voice. They’re interested in helping us explore what South African stories are, what is the South African look and feel.
“At Kunjanimation this year Annecy (International Animated Film Festival) is exploring the possibility of South African-themed pitching sessions, so they’re coming here to see if there’s enough interest and projects to show-casethere next year.”
Workshop subjects include author Lauren Beukes talking about how she got started in comics, to Susan Opperman and Robert Millan talking about creating your own superhero, to illustrator Lorraine Alvarez Posen talking about character design fundamentals.
The five films which will screen at the Labia on Orange this year are:
Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants: Two rival ant colonies fight to gain control of a treasure trove, a box of sugar cubes. (today, 8.30pm; Sat, 11am)
Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury: A love story that spans four key stages of Brazilian history. (Fri, 8.30pm)
Le Roi et l’Oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird): Based on the Hans Christian Anderson story The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep. (Sun, 2pm)
La Prophetie des Grounilles (Raining Cats and Dogs): Loosely based on the Noah story. (Sat, 6pm)
Mia et Milou (Mia and the Migoo): A young girl searches for her father in a tropical paradise. (Sat, 8.30pm)
• Workshops take place at the Animation School, Cape Town Campus, 42 Searle Street, Woodstock. A full festival pass for Pop the Culture workshops and screenings is R1 900. Check www.quicket.co.za for information about screenings and workshops.