The Media Arts Project presents Karl Staven as part of the Southern Circuit tour of independent filmmakers at The Fine Arts Theatre in Downtown on Monday, February 12th at 7pm. Following a screening of a collection of his animated shorts, Staven will engage the audience in a discussion of the film and his work as a filmmaker. The event is free for UNCA and WCU students with ID.
"As an undergraduate psychology major, I only took two animation courses," confesses the animation veteran Karl Staven. His professional collection boasts over 20 films, acclaimed still photography, presentations and articles, as well as a full generation of teaching experience. Staven's name is synonymous with creative and innovative animation. He takes inspiration from all over the world for his animation - even the smallest objects in a dollhouse. He says, "I first had the opportunity to play around with different animation techniques in graduate school, like 16mm cameras and an Oxberry Animation Stand, and I had some fun!"
Staven will screen selections from his large body of work, including the animated short films Abandoned Dolls and Gabriel Goes for a Walk. Abandoned Dolls is a 6-minute puppet/object animation piece displaying two types of dolls vying for dominance in a post-apocalyptic city. "Despite open gestures and forgiving phone calls, it proves difficult to bridge the divide," writes Staven. Abandoned Dolls screened at International Surrealist Film Festival, 1999; Chicago Underground Film Festival, 2000; Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2000; and San Francisco Independent Film Festival 2000.
Staven juxtaposes the dark humor of Abandoned Dolls with the pixelation and optical printing short Gabriel Goes for a Walk. The narrator begins the film, "Gabriel is a large dog who lives in a small loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Occasionally he gets to go for a walk. He is generally pretty excited by the proposition." The audience follows Gabriel around the city on his walk seeing the harbor, meeting school children, and sniffing other dogs along the way. Gabriel Goes for a Walk received the Director's Award at the 1997 Black Maria Film and Video Festival.
Created by the South Carolina Arts Commission over thirty years ago, Southern Circuit takes independent filmmakers on a journey into communities across the South. Produced without studio backing and struggling to secure a distributor, many of these films would never be seen on a screen in this area of the country without Southern Circuit. The program also encourages audiences to interact with the filmmakers after the films. The Media Arts Project (MAP) is a proud presenter of this series. To learn more about the MAP, visit their website at themap.org.
Southern Circuit is a program of the Southern Arts Federation, a not-for-profit regional arts organization making a positive difference in the arts throughout the South since 1975.