An Inconvenient Truth, 2006

From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, An Inconvenient Truth, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. A catastrophe we have helped create. Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb!

Davis Guggenheim's documentary is based mostly on Gore's multimedia presentation on climate change, a lecture he has delivered hundreds of times in recent months. While Gore is managing the show with powerful efficiency, there is nothing dry or tired about it. The former Vice President Al Gore re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. With wit, intelligence and hope, An Inconvenient Truth ultimately brings home Gore's persuasive argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue - rather, it is the biggest moral challenge facing our global civilization.

I did not find a single negative review based solely on the film’s art. But I found so many errors in this movie!
If the movie will help you judge for yourself which direction we should take, then Gore should dig deeper into the material. If you want to read a full report, you can download this pdf file.
However, this is on the whole a good film. It explains the facts very well, explains away the objections that people have been hearing about from the media and is also pretty funny at times.
You can buy An Inconvenient Truth and An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It.

Small Configuration 2

Patrick Smith has written, produced, animated, and directed five award winning films from 2000-2006. Smith made his directorial debut for the Emmy nominated MTV series "Down-Town", continuing on to direct the popular animated series "Daria." His bizarre, morphing style tells symbolic stories of identity and emotion, and have extended beyond film. His Public Art Installations have earned the artist a multitude of accolades outside the world of animation, his fine art is currently represented internationally by CVZ Contemporary Gallery in New York.. You can buy: Liquid Tales, Avoid Eye Contact, Vol. I, Avoid Eye Contact, Vol. II, Spike and Mike's Cutting Edge Classics.

Sukkis' Story (2005)

Sukki's Story reflects on Thomas Leung's changing relationship with his mother when he leaves Hong Kong to start his new life in a new country. The narration is often non-linear as we are unsure of where Sukki's new life will take him or what obstacles lie ahead in the future which could lead to an inner and/or imaginative journey.

This short film has won the Victorian Student Animation Festival 2005 for Best Sound Design. It has also been selected as part of the Australian Digital Shorts Program at the Sydney Film Festival 2006.
You can feel the sorrow and the joy the scenes bring. It is a simple and yet powerful film with a soul. It's not just a story. It's an incredible animation for its magical atmosphere and tenderness!

La Scala di Schild (Schild's Staircase)

by Franco Brambilla. He has created the cat and dog character Full & Berto. He collaborates weekly with the economic supplement of the Corriere della Sera. He also founded AIRSTUDIO, together with Pierluigi Longo and Giacomo Spazio.

He has worked for some of the biggest italian publishing houses creating the covers for various sci-fi books and novels.

Rhythmus 21 (1921)

Richter's earliest experiments were hardly more than tests, Rhythmus 21 is a serious abstract animation composed solely of squares and rectangles that change shape. Artists like Luis Bunuel & Fritz Lang were influenced by him.
Hans Richter was a painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, film-experimenter and producer. He was influenced by Cubism and Expressionism and joined in the Dadaist movemet in the 1916. Richter’s collaboration with Viking Eggeling on drawings, abstract sketches, and most importantly on ‘scroll paintings’, provided the inspiration for Rhythmus 21.

The original film was roughly two minutes long. Over the next two years Richter worked on the film and extended it to almost seven minutes. Before October 16th, 1927 when the film was screened at the Film Society in London, Richter divided the film in two parts and later on called it Rhythmus 21 and Rhythmus 23. In the following year Richter created another chapter, Rhytmus 25, which didn't survive.
These forms appear in very simple to very complex compositions-from the beginning shots where the squares appear with the frame. In Rhythmus 23 there are more angle and line overlays rather than adherence to the squares as in Rhytmus 21.
It's very interesting how these short films resemble some aspects of 1950's beatnik art & 1960's op art. The final effect is a subversion of the cinematic illusion of depth. Richter creates a precise rhythm with the movement of these shapes and suggests connections through opposites: black/white, left/right, top/bottom and creates visual associations with geometric patterns.

Greenland

Olaf Otto Becker


Exhibitions

2008 Gallery Cohen Amador New York, Broken line, January - March 2008
2008 Gallery Stephen Cohen, Los Angeles, Broken line, 20th of March 2008
2008 Gallery f.5.6, Munich, Broken line, 3rd.of April. 2008
2008 Powerhouse New York, Shifting Landscapes, April 2008
2008 New York Photofestival, Mai 2008

Le Coeur Est un Metronome (2007)

Father and son. The relationship between children and their parents is always problematic. A father is proud of his new baby son, takes photographs of him and throws the child into the air for sheer joy. What happens when both adults throw a tantrum and storm out of the house? Will the son be proud of the father?

In this short film, dancing is the high point of the exchanges between the two characters: it is their only means of communication.
Le Coeur Est un Metronome is Jean-Charles Mbotti-Malolo's graduation movie and was awarded the "Recommendation Prize".

E.S.U. 5

If you want to read E.S.U. 4, click here.

Rabbit Stories (2006)

Sean Conway has directed Rocco Paris, A Place that Glows, Rabbit Stories and Son of Steve.

Rabbit Stories is a study of mental illness; a portrait of a young schizophrenic man called Fenton Fuller. The film doesn't really have a start, middle and ending narrative because Fenton himself jumps all over the place. We learn things about him but we cannot be sure if they are true or just in his head as many of the scenes (if not all) exist within his head rather than in the reality of the film. Life is an exploration made more manageable by like associations, similar philosophies, and a belief in liberation as both a blessing and a curse .It’s a movie that sticks with you long after the final image has faded away.

Behind the scenes

Aaron Hobson has created a series of images that are quickly gaining international attention with their unique approach to the traditional genre of panoramic photography.

Exhibitions:

Tenderpixel Gallery, 2008
Drkrm. Gallery, Fall 2008
Ivy Brown's Go Fish Gallery, December 2007
7444° Gallery, Septermber 2007

Persepolis (2007)

Marianne Satrapi believes that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. But Perspolis isn't a politically oriented film with a message to sell. It is first and foremost a film about Satrapi's love for her family. This animated film is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
Unlike the comics book series, the film is a long flashback. Marianne Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud create something altogether different but with the same material. It's a one-of-a-kind piece. There was no point filming a sequence of panels. People generally assume that a graphic novel is like a movie storyboard, which of course is not the case.

They started with 2D images on pen tablets but they were not totally happy with the result. The lines lacked definition. It was therefore clear that a traditional animation technique was perfectly suited to Marjane's and Vincent's idea of the film. Satrapi drew all the characters: over 600 model sheets!

In addition to animation director Christian Desmares, other twenty animators worked on the movie. Each sequence (1,200 shots) was given to an animator. Satrapi insisted on being filmed playing out all the scenes.

Using only black and white, they were closer to Japanese animation because of the story’s realism, but they couldn't apply the techniques used in manga. As a result, they had to develop a specific style, both realistic and mature. The film is a combination of German expressionism and Italian neo-realism. It features very down-to-earth, realistic scenes and a highly design-oriented approach, with images sometimes bordering on the abstract. It could be defined as "stylized realism. Satrapi and Parronaud realized that the usual codes in animation didn't seem to fit, so they used movie-style editing, with a great many jump-cuts; even from an aesthetic viewpoint, they drew their sources from cinematic techniques.
Persepolis has been nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 80th Academy Awards, tonight we'll know if it has won an Oscar!
You can buy Persepolis (French edition) and Persepolis (English edition).

Porto Marghera

Claudio Calia. His works are: I Baccanti, Nuvole and Porto Marghera, la legge non è uguale per tutti (BeccoGiallo, 2007). He collaborates with Nonzi and Self Comics, and he illustrated the musical album Senza sicura's Quattro città and Il potere del nulla, and Alberto Cantone's Angeli e Ribelli. He's the curator of the anthology Lucio Fulci, poeta del macabro (Nicola Pesce, 2006); he's also the curator, together with Emiliano Rabuiti, of Radio Sherwood Comix against Global War, Vite Precarie, Fortezza Europa (Coniglio Editore, 2006) and Resistenze - Cronache di ribellione quotidiana (Becco Giallo, 2007).

Deliver Us From Evil, 2006

When Amy Berg decided to hang out a shingle and produce feature documentaries two years ago, she wasn't quite sure what subject might both consume her interest and hit a nerve with audiences. When "Deliver Us From Evil" debuted at the Los Angeles Film Festival, it immediately won the Target Documentary Award and a $50,000 cash prize; the film was subsequently acquired by Lionsgate for theatrical release.

Moving from one parish to another in Northern California during the 1970s, Father Oliver O'Grady quickly won each congregation's trust and respect. Unbeknownst to them, O'Grady was a dangerously active pedophile that Church hierarchy, although aware of his predilection, had harbored for over 30 years, allowing him to abuse countless children. Juxtaposing an extended, deeply unsettling interview with O'Grady himself with the tragic stories of his victims, filmmaker Amy Berg bravely exposes the deep corruption of the Catholic Church and the troubled mind of the man it had sheltered.
Ms. Berg's film exposes the truth about sexual abuse in a compassionate and sensitive way. This film will make no one feel indifferent about what has been going on in the Catholic church for centuries.
You can buy Deliver Us from Evil.

Bulbs

by Kate Peters


Awards

Creative Futures 2005
Metro Imaging Student Bursary, Winner 2002

The Mermaid (Rusalka, 1997)

This story is about an old monk living with his apprentice near a river. The old man recalls from time to time the old days; how he betrayed his true love and therefore she drowned herself. It's said that a woman, who drowns herself because of lovesickness, will become a mermaid. Her only goal will be to trick young men with her charms and drag them down to the deeps.

The Mermaid is here identified with the mythological Slavic creature the Rusalka, which seeks vengence upon life by tempting and drowning the living.
Russian director Aleksandr Petrov has been nominated for several Oscars for Best Animated Short Film-- for The Cow and The Old Man and The Sea. Each features a style totally unlike any other studio, as Petrov's shorts are like little epic movies and moving tapestries combined. This short movie was painted on glass by using fingers and brushes. The artwork is like a painting that moves in a very fluid style.
You might be interested in Petrov's My Love.

E.S.U. 4

If you want to read E.S.U. 3, click here.

Ballet mécanique (1924)

Leger was the first of the Cubists to experiment with non-figurative abstraction, contrasting curvilinear forms against a rectilinear grid. In 1924 he made a 'film without scenario', Ballet Mecanique, in which he contrasted machines and inanimate objects with humans and their body parts. The film was premiered by Frederick Kiesler in Vienna on September 24 1924. The original version of Antheil's music ran almost 30 minutes, and a married print of film and music was not made until 2000 by sound engineer and composer Paul Lehrman.
This masterpiece is a landmark film in the development of montage, a cinematic tool that juxtiposes two or more images to infer related ideas or events. The film also explores many Cubist themes, among which the concept that all machines were taking human nature out of humanity.

Vienna Cityscapes

Daniel M. Kanemoto is an award-winning director based in New York City (or wherever else his projects happen to take him). His 1999 debut, A LETTER FROM THE WESTERN FRONT, won the Gold Medal for Best Animated Short at the Student Academy Awards. For the past decade, Dan’s diverse body of work (from national commercial campaigns to feature films) has been featured on Nickelodeon, MTV, the Discovery Channel, and film festivals around the world.

Finding Madame Tutli Putli (2007)

Glitterbead

Michael Mouris is an incredible artist, who made this pixilation featuring a glittery piece of art. The music “Spider Hangout” is by Dominic Bisignano.
I find it so mesmerizing.

The Beholder

by Jose A. Mercado

Exhibitions:

2008 Minna Gallery, 20×20 January group show

2008 Space Gallery SF, My Vice Group Show

2007 Versus Gallery, Revenge of the Empire group art show

2007 Foundation One Gallery GA, The Grind group art show

2007 Las Vegas NV, GM/Jada Toys Kulture Klash Custom art show

2007 Crewest Gallery, Top Of the Dome 4 group show

2007 Minna Gallery S.F., Fighting for dreams group show

2007 Agesong Gallery S.F., Heavy Hitters group show

2007 Los Angeles Crash Mansion, Panthaland group show

2007 Thinkspace Gallery, ISM Untitled Love Project

2007 OCCCA GALLERY, ISM Untitled Love Project

2007 MF Gallery NYC, Zombies Attack

2007 URB Gallery, Represent,Represent! Tempt One Art Benefit

2007 Crewest Gallery, Canceptual Art show V.2

2007 Lost Souls Cafe, Make Believe group art show

2007 Las Vegas NV, Hit The Deck skateboard show

2006 Crewest Gallery, Top of the dome 2 group show

2006 ISM White Elephant Show

2006 Orange County County Museum of Art, Little Squares Project

2006 Las Vegas Arts Factory, Malicious Vinyl Group Show

2006 Crux Gallery, The Red Show

2005 Fulcrum Records Gallery, Vinyl Show

2005 Crux Gallery, Door Show

2005 Crux Gallery, Group Show

2004 Self Help Graphics, Day of the Dead Celebration Group Show

2004 Coba, Mini Board Group Show

2003 Artistic Insomniacs, Group Show

Jesus Camp, 2006

“Jesus Camp” is the second film by the documentary team of Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady to explore the molding of young minds. The majority of the children in “Jesus Camp” are home-schooled by evangelical parents who teach them creationism and dismiss science.

It is a straightforward documentary, with no narrator or fancy cutting to present an opinion. The footage really does speak for itself. The film follows Becky Fischer, a Pentecostal children’s minister who runs the “Kids on Fire” summer camp in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Becky’s methods of reaching the children are powerful and at times, thought-provoking. But, some of her methods are a bit more radical.

The film also follows three children, Levi, Rachel, and Tory.

It is rather disturbing to see the children in this movie being instilled with thoughts and ideas that they do not have the full capacity to understand.
The film is being marketed as an even-handed, unbiased look at the Evangelical movement, but it lacks any obvious focus.
You can buy Jesus Camp.

New York 2007

by Christian Reister.
Publications:

Berlin Art Info // Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung // Berliner Morgenpost // Bunte // design report // Die Welt // HörZu // Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung // Kreiszeitung Syke // Kunstzeitung // Prinz Berlin // Rheinische Merkur // scheinschlag // Tagesspiegel // taz // Tip // Vorwärts Magazin Zeitblende // Welt am Sonntag // Zitty.

The Danish Poet (2006)

Produced by Lise Fearnley and Marcy Page for Norway’s Mikrofilm and the National Film Board of Canada, The Danish Poet is the story of Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet the famous writer, Sigrid Undset. As Kasper's quest for inspiration unfolds, it appears that a spell of bad weather, an angry dog, slippery barn planks, a careless postman, hungry goats and other seemingly unrelated factors might play important roles in the big scheme of things after all. Can we trace the chain of events that leads to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter?
Attached to the National Film Board of Canada, Kove also works as a designer, illustrator, animator and scriptwriter. Her previous film, Min bestemor strøk kongens skjorter (My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts), was also nominated for an Oscar in 2006. Kove works in an old-fashioned animation style, drawing the original figures and backgrounds in pencil and scanning in the images and adding colour using digital technology.

E.S.U. 3

If you want to read E.S.U. 2, click here.

Schwarzfahrer (1993)

Pepe Danquart's short film captures the dignity of a man confronted with a problem many of us may have faced in a foreign culture. A young black man is verbally harassed by an older woman on a streetcar, while the other passengers remain silent. He finally exacts his revenge.

Its beautiful cinematography, good subject matter, great characters, totally surprise and not only has it won the Academy Award (1993) for best live action short film, but it has also won more than 30 awards and screened at more than 60 film festivals including Berlin, Cannes, and Sundance!
When dealing with ignorance and intolerance, nothing makes more of a statement than the power of humor.

Megan Brain's Paper Sculpture

by Megan Brain

Memory (1964)

Osamu Tezuka was heavily involved with experimental animation and had won several international animation awards, including the Grand Prix for Jumping at the 1984 Zagreb International Festival, the Grand Prix for Broken Down Film at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival, and the CIFEJ award for Legend of the Forest at the 1988 Zagreb International Film Festival.

This short film is a privately produced animated film. It does not look like an anime, using photographs and cut-outs as well as hand-drawn animation. The story develops into a tale of destruction of human beings, turning the existence of the earth into a memory of the universe. It's an insightful look at the psychology of memory in the life of an individual and a culture. How will the initial reality change in the end?

Radio Science Funnies Inc.

Ryan Heshka has painted for BLAB!, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Popular Science, Dreamworks SKG, Fast Company, PC World, Smart Money, Esquire, Harper Collins, and Newsweek.

My Country, My Country (2006)

My Country, My Country was motivated by a sense of despair. Laura Poitras was determined to see the contradictions of the war in Iran from the perspective of the people living there. Filmmaker and crew are invited into the home and personal lives of Riyadh and his family. Poitras and her crew are granted behind-the-scenes access to the election preparations, too.

Working alone in Iraq over eight months, Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. Her principal focus is Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni political candidate. My Country, My Country is, in fact, an impartial documentary depicting the controversial 2005 Iraqi national elections. The documentary follows the agonizing predicament of one man caught in the tragic contradictions of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its effort to spread democracy in the Middle East.
Still the tale told here is not so much a political one as it is a human one, which is why this film rates a wide audience.
You can buy My Country, My Country.

Hommage

by Heidi Spicker.

You can buy her books: BANGKOK, Im Garten, Concrete. She's also coauthor of Asia City Strangers.

Dog (2002)

A moving tale from Suzie Templeton about a young boy who, grieving for his dead mother, seeks reassurance from his father.
This film is about a relationship between a father and son. To protect each other they bravely hold their agony inside, where it festers.

Suzie will intrigue you with this darkly comic film. Dog captures frail, complex emotions that teeter on the edge of darkness, like when the father rubs his temples or like the lifeless swing of his arm after he flicks off the bedroom light.
Everything about this animation is wonderfully subtle and delicate. The puppets are beautifully crafted and the music is just right!
Winner of the 2002 BAFTA for best short animation and of the Grand Prix at the Ottawa Student Animation Festival

Esu 2

If you want to read the previous E.S.U. strip, click here.

Censored (2005)

Censored is a Video Performance by Gruppo Sinestetico.

The distinction between a government censor and a private one is not always clear. Many private entities receive governmental support through funding and other means. With such support often comes some degree of governmental oversight or control.

Art is supposed to be the expression of feelings, the visual representation of what the artist is feeling or trying to show. All people need to have the freedom to express opinions and feelings to the extent that is acceptable, but who is to say what is acceptable? The public should have a choice in deciding whether to view the resulting content. Censorship is always a very blunt tool.
Today, some artists can only choose to censor themselves if they really want to be free.
Art represents a person’s identity. In such cases self-censure is the only identity left to artists.

William Wegman's photography

William Wegman has created a series of compositions involving dogs, primarily his own Weimaraners in various costumes and poses.
Wegman's photos are well-respected in the art world, they are kept in permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His photos and videos have also been a popular success and have appeared in books, advertisements, films, as well as on television programs like Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live. In 2006, Wegman's work was featured in a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Norton Museum of Art, and the Addison Gallery. The 2007 solo exhibition Funny/ Strange runs at the Wexner Center for the Arts from September 28 through December 10.
His books: Cinderella (Fay's Fairy Tales), Dress Up Batty, Everyday Problems, Farm Days, Mother Goose, Polaroids.
His dvds: William Wegman's Alphabet Soup, Fay's Twelve Days of Christmas, ARTPIX Notebooks: William Wegman Video Works 1970-1999, The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold, Selected Video Works 1970-78, Dog Baseball 1986

Man and Whale (校長先生とクジラ, 2007)

Greenpeace commissioned Yamamura to make Man and Whale (校長先生とクジラ) as a part of their campaign to end Japanese whaling. Koji Yamamura has only 2 minutes to get his message across and he does so with great subtlety and his usual attention to detail.
Today, only one country in the world continues to conduct whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary: Japan.There was a time in Japan during the food shortage hardships of the postwar period when whale meat was taken as a valuable source of protein. We are alive today thanks in a very real sense to this gift, so should we not reach out in gratitude to whales now and seek a path of peaceful coexistence?
You can buy Koji Yamamura dvd.

Chiron

This is a page from Chiron, a self-published comic by Filippo Messina.

Sicko (2006)

Michael Moore interviews medics and investigators from private health insurance companies who admit denying legitimate claims for the most spurious technical reasons. According to Moore, it’s a scandal that can be traced back to Richard Nixon.
Health care isn't healthcare; bureaucracy, the labyrinth of paperwork and all legal language about pre-existing conditions and denial of service make having coverage as much of a challenge as lacking it.

To prepare for the film, Moore used the Internet to solicit health-care horror stories, not just from the 47 million Americans who don’t have insurance but from those who do. So he travels around to a bunch of countries that already have socialized medicine to see how they work and shows us how France, England, Canada and Cuba actually help sick people instead of letting them wither and die for lack of health insurance.

I don't know if we can accept Michael Moore's selected anecdotes as "proof", but the movie is very funny: only Moore can talk about political issues and make you laugh until you cry !
You can buy Sicko.

Tapeworks

by MARK KHAISMAN


AWARDS

International Animation Festival, Best Art Director Prize, Paris, 1988

OISTT competition "The Tour Theatre", Second Prize, Stockholm, 1986
UNESCO "Rehabilitation of a Decayed Urban Environment", Third Prize, Warsaw, 1982
World Architectural Biennale "The New Urban Space", Second Prize, Sofia, 1981

Vache Folle (1997)

Vache Folle is the first of Samuel Toruneux's short films. It won the Grand Prix IMAGINA 1997.
The picture quality is nice and bright. The sound is well done and uses the stereo mix very well.
A mad cow takes off from the prairie and flies away into a foolish trip. This is a very fun piece that takes you by surprise. I actually laughed a bit while I watched it.
You can also watch Meme le Pigeons vont au paradise.
You can buy Computer Animation Marvels.

E.S.U.

E.S.U. is a comic strip created by Carlo Coratelli and Davide Zamberlan. They began to issue E.S.U. on Il giornale dei fumetti (Free Comics Club) in October 2000. In June 2001, Cronaca di Topolinia issued new comic strips of E.S.U.; while the old stories are reprinted on the website ComicUs (where Coratelli is also editor and writes the column Movie Comics) and on the web-zine Cartaigienica. After five years of publications, Zamberlan retired, and Coratelli continued to issue E.S.U. with Eros Righetti, who is the author of 20, a comic series issued on Antani Comics.
Carlo Coratelli issued other webcomics: Distretto 41 (with Raffaele Aversa) and John Sanders: Reporter (with Andrea Briganti).

Berlin Film Festival 2008 - main prizes

The Golden Bear: "Tropa de Elite," directed by Jose Padilha

Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prix: "Standard Operating Procedure," directed by Errol Morris

Silver Bear - Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood"

Silver Bear - Best Actress:: Sally Hawkins in "Happy-Go-Lucky"

Silver Bear - Best Actor: Reja Nazi for "Song of Sparrows"

Silver Bear - Best Screenplay: Wang Ziaoshuai for "In Love We Trust" (Zuo You)

Silver Bear - Artistic Contribution: Jonny Greenwood for the score from "There Will Be Blood"

Best First Feature Award: "Asyl -- Park and Love Hotel," directed by Kumasaka Izuru

Alfred Bauer Prize: "Lake Tahoe," directed by Fernando Eimbcke

If you want to know who won the other prize, please click here.

Altavista (2006)

My dreams are of my dad, alive doing mundane things

Tealia Ellis Ritter

Selected Awards:

First Place Award at the Photographic Center Northwest Juried Member's Exhibition 2008,Awarded by Juror Marisa Sanchez, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seattle Art Museum
Awarded By The School of Art and Art History, The University of Iowa, the MFA Degree with the Schools Highest Honors of Commendation, May 2004
Awarded the Virgin M. Beall Fellowship for the 2003-2004 academic year, University of Iowa, School of Art and Art History
Recipient of Outstanding Columbia College Student Award May 24, 2000
First Place Award/Scholarship, Columbia College Chicago, 2000 Annual Hokin Honors Exhibit
Academic Excellence in Photography Scholarship, Columbia College Chicago, 1999

Kogepan

Kogepan (こげぱん, Kogepan) is a Japanese character from the company San-X. Kogepan, who lives in a panya (Japanese bakery), is a red bean bread who was accidentally burnt by a careless baker. No one would buy burnt bread or be nice to him, so Kogepan became an outcast with no emotion for others. He runs away from home, gets drunk off milk, smokes, and always says negative things about himself. Disillusioned with life, he roams the bakery making friends and being jealous of other bread items.

The anime series, animated by Studio Pierrot and produced by Pony Canyon, consisted of ten 4-minute shorts, the majority of which introduces simple aspects of the character.
The name comes from kogeru, meaning to burn or char, and pan, a word taken from the Portuguese and meaning bread.
You can download the other episodes, by clicking here.
You can buy Kogepan doll.

New Haircut

by Masha Krasnova-Shabaeva. She works as an illustrator for many magazines. She took part in more than 20 different exhibitions around the world.

No End in Sight (2007)

No End in Sight, which won the 2007 Special Jury Prize at Sundance (although it was released practically in secrecy), examines the failures of America’s ongoing occupation of Iraq. Narrated by actor Campbell Scott, this film retraces the U.S. government’s steps after the "fall" of Baghdad in April 2003.
Charles Ferguson utilizes on-camera interviews with key personnel intimately involved with the rebuilding of Iraq, including former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner , as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers and prominent analysts.

Emphasizing analysis over manipulation, the film details mistakes of the Bush administration. With a journalistic tone, Scott mostly recounts the facts of the occupation: one of the reasons for the postwar reconstruction’s collapse seems to be the administration’s lack of experience.
This documentary confirms what we thought we knew: American policy in Iraq was flawed from the start.
You can buy No End in Sight.

Three Portrait , Study 6

by Michael Kenna

AWARDS:
2003
Honorary Master of Arts, Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara, California, USA
2000
Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, Ministry of Culture, France
1996
Golden Saffron Award, Consuegra, Spain
1989
Institute for Aesthetic Development Award, Pasadena, California, USA
1987
Art in Public Buildings Award, California Arts Council Commission, Sacramento, California, USA
1981
Imogen Cunningham Award, San Francisco, California, USA

BOOKS AND CATALOGS

2006 Hokkaido. Publishers: Nazraeli Press, USA. (English edition) and Shuppan Kyodosha (Japan edition). Text by Daido Moriyama. 84 photographs.
2006 In Japan . Publisher: RAM, Japan. Text by Ryuichi Kaneko. 53 photographs.
2004Retrospective Two. Publisher: Nazraeli Press, USA. Text by Anne W. Tucker. 130 photographs
2004 Ratcliffe Power Station. Publisher: Nazraeli Press, USA. Introduction by Jeremy Reed. 49 Photographs
2003 Boarding School. Publisher: Nazraeli Press, USA. Text by Michael Kenna. Limited edition. 8 Photographs.
2003 En Quete d’Horizon. Publisher: Chateau d’Eau Museum, France. Text by Jerome Bel. 18 Photographs
2003Et la Dentelle? Publishers: Marval, France (French edition) and Calais Lace, Nazraeli Press, USA (English edition). Preface by Frederic Mathieu. Text by Noel Jouenne. 50 Photographs
2002 Japan. Publishers: Nazraeli Press, USA (English edition) and Editions Treville, Japan (Japanese edition). Introduction by Kohtaro Iizawa. 95 Photographs
2002 A Twenty Year Retrospective. Publishers: Nazraeli Press, USA (English edition) and Editions Treville, Japan (Japanese edition). Reprint of 1994 Treville book. Essay by Ruth Bernhard. Introduction by Peter C. Bunnell. 130 photographs
2001 Easter Island. Publisher: Nazraeli Press, USA. Text by Michael Kenna. 44 Photographs
2001 L'impossible oubli. Publishers: Marval, France (French edition) and Impossible to Forget. Nazraeli Press, USA (English edition).Texts by Pierre Borhan and Clement Cheroux. 110 Photographs
2000 Night Work. Publisher: Nazraeli Press, USA. Preface by Debra Klochko. Text by Bill Jay, Tim Baskerville and Michael Kenna. 80 photographs
1999 Le Notre's Gardens. Publishers: The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Library, USA and Ram, USA. Text by Eric T. Haskell. Reprint with 60 photographs
1997 Monique's Kindergarten. Publisher: Nazraeli Press, USA. Text by John Bloom and Monique Grund. 63 photographs.
1997 The Rouge. Publishers: The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Library, USA and Ram, USA. Text by Eric T. Haskell. 40 photographs
1996 The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson. Publisher: Arion Press, USA. Limited Edition. Illustrated with 16 photographs.
1995 The Rouge. Publisher: Ram, USA. Preface by Ellen Sharp. Text by Lee R. Kollins.
50 photographs
1994 Michael Kenna: A 20 Year Retrospective. Publisher: Treville, Japan. Preface by Ruth Bernhard. Introduction by Peter C. Bunnell. 130 photographs.
1991 The Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing. Publisher: The Elkhorn Slough Foundation, USA. Introduction by Mark Silberstein. 30 photographs.
1990 Le Desert de Retz. Publisher: Arion Press, USA. Preface by Olivier Choppin de Janvry. Introduction by Diana Ketcham. Limited edition. 37 photographs.
1990 Michael Kenna. Publisher: Min Gallery, Japan. Preface by Mayumi Shinohara. Introduction by Kohtaro Iizawa. 37 photographs.
1989 The Hound of the Baskervilles. by Arthur Conan Doyle. Publisher: Northpoint Press, USA. Reprint of 1985 Arion Press book. Illustrated with 53 photographs
1988 Night Walk. Publisher: Friends of Photography, USA. Preface by David Featherstone. Introduction by Jerome Tarshis. 44 photographs.
1987 MICHAEL KENNA 1977-1987. Publisher: Min Gallery, Japan. Preface by Robert Lassam. Introduction by Mark Johnstone. 37 photographs.
1985 The Hound of the Baskervilles. by Arthur Conan Doyle. Publisher: Arion Press, USA. Limited edition. Illustrated with 53 photographs.
1984 Michael Kenna: Photographs. Publisher: Stephen Wirtz Gallery and Weston Gallery, USA. Introduction by Jean Francois Chevrier. 18 photographs.