Noticias

Growing up, Don Hertzfeldt first fell in love with animation while attending screenings at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Every year in the ’90s, the venue held an annual animation festival, which his parents took him to, where he spent hours watching short films from animators as diverse as Bill Plympton, “Wallace & Gromit” creator Nick Park, and future Pixar directors.

“For a kid, growing up with Saturday morning cartoons and Disney movies, seeing that there’s an independent world out there was mind-melting,” Hertzfeldt told IndieWire in an interview. “You know, I had no idea you could do this independently, by yourself. And it was massively inspirational. I think seeing those indie films made me want to be an animator, and thinking ‘maybe someday I can have a movie in one of these programs.'”

Now, Hertzfeldt is doing one better and making an animation festival himself.

A long-in-the-vaults Frank Zappa television special, recorded in June 1974 but never aired, will finally be released next month as a concert film and live album.

Cheaper Than Cheep captures Zappa and his Mothers of Invention on June 21, 1974, performing to a small crowd in their intimate Sunset Blvd. rehearsal hall.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to welcome you to the world’s cheapest television special, which is being manufactured for your edification right here in the midst of our Mothers of Invention rehearsal hall at 5831 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, California,” Zappa said at the onset.

With Peter Jackson’s re-cut of The Beatles: Get Back coming at the end of November, we are reminded the Beatles were cinematic stars as well as musical artists. Beyond the group’s films, John Lennon played Private Gripweed in Richard Lester’s How I Won the War, and Ringo Starr acted in quite a few films. His choices were far more in keeping with the underground and independent air of the time. Starr starred with Peter Sellars in the anti-capitalist satire The Magic Christian, as the villain in the Spaghetti Western Blindman, and the voyeuristic Mexican gardener Emmanuel in the sex farce Candy. But his most counterculture and independent nod was as Frank Zappa in the film 200 Motels (1971). A special edition of its soundtrack, Frank Zappa 200 Motels 50th Anniversary Edition, is coming out on Dec. 17.

Written by Zappa, who co-directed with Tony Palmer, 200 Motels is a musical...

There is no such thing as a casual Frank Zappa fan — it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. (Really, there’s no such thing as a casual Frank Zappa listener, period: You either immediately recoil from his grandiose, often goofy odes to dancin’ fools and yellow snow, self-promoting pimps and and S&m aficionados … or you end friendships arguing over which bootleg of his Over Nite Sensation ’73 shows is the best.) And on a scale from one to plays-in-a-Joe’s-Garage-cover-band, we’d put Alex Winter’s level of worship somewhere near an eight.

Alex Winter’s musical documentary Zappa is a fun movie which frames Frank Zappa the way he should be, as a hero. While this may ring particularly true for fans of the original Mother of Invention, the film is also a must-see for anyone who plugged in a guitar, banged drums, pounded a piano, ruined their teeth on clarinet reeds, or waited for their triangle part to come up in a Julliard School of Music chamber ensemble. It is also for social justice warriors stretching to see beyond the warning labels. The feature documentary is an intimate look at an artist who defied labels, both the record industry ones which curtailed output, and the easy, cheesy, tags of pundits, critics and frightened senate committees.

“This is the beginning of your new future,” Zappa assures an appreciative audience in the archival concert footage which sets the tone. Winter begins the film in the Czech Republic,...

Zappa is an intimate look into the innovative life and eclectic works of Frank Zappa, the composer. The Beatles, Brian Wilson, and Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd pushed boundaries of what rock could do in the mid-1960s, but Zappa ignored any preconceived compositional restraint. He mixed rock with classical, jazz with chamber, and twelve-tone with Spike Jones. From his 1966 proto-punk, garage band debut, Freak Out, through the immediate experimental turns he took on Lumpy Gravy, We’re Only In it for the Money, and continuing through his career, Zappa’s music sounds unlike any other sonic unit.

Not only was Zappa a unique composer and bandleader, he was a ground-breaking film director, an innovative theatrical presence, and a voice of rebellion in worlds beyond music and the arts. His politics were far ahead of their time, and his critiques of society resonate strongly to this day. A vast majority...

Monday, December 2 - Los Angeles, CA - The Cinefamily has released the lineup to their 2013 Fantastic Elastic 24-hour Holiday Telethon--a marathon fundraiser with 24 straight hours of special events featuring guests, interviews, live music and comedy. The event will be held December 14th-15th, from 1pm to 1pm at the Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles’ West Hollywood, and the first lineup announcement includes appearances, Q&A's, and surprise events to be announced featuring cultural icons luminaries, including Anjelica Huston, Bruce Dern, Mike Judge, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, Father John Misty, and Bushwick Bill.

According to Cinefamily’s Executive Director Hadrian Belove, “We didn’t think the CInefamily should have the usual kind of fundraiser, cause we’re not the usual kind of cinematheque. The 24 hour Telethon allows us to echo the wide range of programming for which Cinefamily has become known, and include the many parts of Los Angeles we love.

DVD Release Date: June 4, 2013

Price: DVD $14.98

Studio: Eagle Rock

Frank Zappa: A Token of his Extreme is the 1974 television special recorded at Kcet in Hollywood that was produced by Zappa and aired only in France and Switzerland.

The program, as thoroughly tweezed and produced by Zappa for his own Honker Home Video label, includes the following musical performances by Zappa and his band: T”he Dog Breath Variations/ Uncle Meat,” “Montana,” “Florentine Pogen,” “Stink-Foot,” “Pygmy Twylyte,” “Room Service,” “Inca Roads,” “Oh No,” Son of Orange County,” “More Trouble Every Day” and “A Token of My Extreme.”

In the words of Zappa himself as he said it on The Mike Douglas Show in 1976, “This is put together with my own money and my own time and it’s been offered to television networks and to syndication and it has been steadfastly rejected by the American television industry. It has been...

Plastic Paper is a festival of animation and puppet films that will run at the Park Theatre in Winnipeg, Canada on May 5-8 and is presented by the Big Smash! Film Collective. The program, listed below, includes short films, features, documentaries, installations and special events.

The feature films include Rocaterrania, Brett Ingram’s documentary on scientific illustrator and secret fantasy artist Renaldo Kuhler; 2010 Oscar nominated film The Secret of Kells; the little seen 1982 environmental and animal activist film The Plague Dogs; a new surreal work by underground animator Bruce Bickford; and more.

For special events, there will be a continuously-running video installation by Winnipeg animator Leslie Supnet called How to Care for Introverts; a one-day Master Class taught by the legendary Bill Plympton; a Saturday morning cartoon feast; a T-shirt making class; and more.

Below is the full lineup of all the films screening at Plastic Paper, but for more info on them,...

How do you create a kick ass trailer for an animation festival? By having two of your invited animators make them, of course.

Winnipeg's Plastic Paper is just around the corner and the festival has just released a pair of trailers for the event cut together by Clint Enns and Leslie Supnet. They aim to inspire lust amongst animation junkies. They succeed.

Plastic Paper: Winnipeg's Festival Of Animated, Illustrated + Puppet Film is an international festival that takes place May 5-8, 2010 at the Park Theatre in Winnipeg, Canada. The festival is one component of the year-round organizational activities of the Big Smash! Film Collective. Plastic Paper's programming is a mix of premieres, retrospective screenings, short films and features with special guests, workshops, multi-media presentations, installations and exhibits, artist talks, and gatherings where the artists and the audience can interact more informally.

Confirmed special guests for Plastic Paper 2010 include Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton,...

We'll let this one speak for itself:

Plastic Paper: Winnipeg's Festival Of Animated, Illustrated + Puppet Film is an international festival that takes place May 5-8, 2010  at the Park Theatre in Winnipeg, Canada. The festival is one component of the year-round organizational activities of the Big Smash! Film Collective. Plastic Paper's programming is a mix of premieres, retrospective screenings, short films and features with special guests, workshops, multi-media presentations, installations and exhibits, artist talks, and gatherings where the artists and the audience can interact more informally.

Confirmed special guests for Plastic Paper 2010 include Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton, who will be presenting an animation master class, and puppeteer and curator Heather Henson (daughter Jim Henson), who will be premiering a new "best of" selection of her ongoing Handmade Puppet Dreams series of independent puppet films. Toronto-based curator Naomi Hocura will be appearing in person to present Seconds Under The Sun, an amazing...