"Papa Pasquale" festival selections.

"Papa Pasquale", my animated short about the amazing life of Italian-Canadian Pat Folino and his twelve siblings, has been honoured by two more festival selections.

Official film poster with laurels, yay!

The 49th Annual Humboldt International Film Festival has chosen my film in the animation category; it will screen in Arcata, CA, April 20th to 23rd 2016.  I think this festival is cool because not only have they been going since 1967, but they seek films that inspire social and environmental change. AND they have a special award called the Ledo Matteoli Award for Best Film with an Immigration Theme. Hurrah! Fingers and toes crossed for that.

I'm also thrilled to announce that "Papa Pasquale" has been officially selected by the Italian Contemporary Film Festival! It's an annual celebration of Italian heritage, arts and culture, taking place June 9 - 17, 2016 in a number of Canadian cities including: Toronto, Vaughan, Niagara, Hamilton, Montreal and Quebec City. Since I'm half Italian (the top half), this selection means so much to me. I'm excited about the film potentially screening in multiple locations. More people should know about the Folinos' amazing story.

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Anim!Arte laurel for "Papa Pasquale".

Proud, pleased, thrilled, delighted and totally gobsmacked over here: my new film Papa Pasquale has been accepted for the Official Selection of the 2015 Anim!Arte 12th International Animation Festival of Brazil. It will be screened in the International Professional category of World Cultures; the schedule's not available yet but the event runs from December 1-6, 2015.

Papa Pasquale is the true story of an Italian immigrant who comes to the west in the early 1950's and makes a life for himself as a hairsylist, eventually bringing over all of his twelve brothers and sisters. You can read more about it here.

A personal detail: the film was made possible by my wonderful cousin, Ralph Zarboni. He came to me with the idea of the film as a way of paying tribute to his friend Pat Folino, and I couldn't resist it. We had a private screening at a gala celebration in Toronto to honour Pat and his family in September. There were some dignitaries present, including the charming former Senator Consiglio Di Nino, who I got to meet, and the (then) Minister of Finance Joe Oliver who gave a really nice non-partisan speech. The best part about the screening was not the standing ovation - WHY YES THERE WAS A STANDING O - it was getting to finally meet all the people I'd been drawing for two months. Awesome.

The screening at Anim!Arte will be the World Premiere for Papa Pasquale. It's entered in a few more festivals so the film is not out on the Innerwebs yet. Having said that, I'd like to make it available for my fans and friends so if you want to see it / review it, be sure to reach out and I'll get the private link/password to you.

I have no idea about how to do film festival laurels so I just put it on all four stills.

YAY.

Comments are here.

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Sunny Ways: Blinking in the Light.

On October 19th my country elected a new government and a new leader. The old leader was bad for most of the country; he favoured the rich over everyone else, he did not care about the planet, he put all our eggs in one fragile basket and he was secretive until the end. This last bit worried me; we never knew what he was up to. In fact, we weren't even sure he'd actually resigned as Prime Minister of Canada until yesterday when Justin Trudeau and his promising new cabinet were sworn in.

The last ten years have seen a slow and steady dimming, so incrementally slow that you hardly noticed until one day you realized you had to squint to see across the room. The oxygen had thinned and you couldn't breathe or stretch out. People became suspicious of one another and lashed out in the darkness. We were choking. Four more years would have cemented fear and division as a way of life.

So I've been cautious about celebrating. Is Stephen Harper really gone? Is it safe to come out?

My vote went to the Green Party. I knew they wouldn't win, but I wanted my voice to count with the roughly 600,000 other Green Canadians. Our collective verdure might help push a greener agenda no matter who got elected. I did not vote for Justin Trudeau, but I'm glad he's there. Watching him move forward, I kind of feel like he's my little brother; I'm proud of him. 

We'll be keeping an eye on him. For now, it's so good to finally bask in the light of hope after a long decade of darkness.

Comments are here.

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Finishing my new film, "Papa Pasquale".

Picture-lock. Final mix. Final outputs. After three months of 90 hour weeks, it's time to push this baby out.

"Papa Pasquale" is an animated short about a family of immigrants to Canada from Italy, set in the 1950's. The film will have a private screening gala celebration in Toronto on September 24th (Next week!). There will be some members of the Italian community, some press, and I heard there will also be a few Canadian dignitaries present. I'll be a guest there, but the focus will not be on me; it will be on this incredible family, the subject of the film. Still, I will really enjoy watching their reactions, and meeting them for the first time.

It's a timely release, as we are now in an election in Canada - a country made up of First Nations and immigrants from all over the world - immigration being quite a topical issue at the moment. 

Excitement.

Comments are here.

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Animating a maple seedling.

Hurtling towards the deadline in two weeks, but I want to share my process for animating a falling maple seed in Adobe Flash.

There are different kinds of animation to consider in the art form: acting, action, and motion. Usually we spring from what we know, the laws of physics, gravity and so on - animators can be true to reality, or really move away from it. In this case, I didn't want to go too far, but I also didn't want it to be stiff or obviously roto-scoped (traced from live-action). And of course, it has to fit with my signature style, which is visually simple. And supposedly effortless. Haw haw haw.

Although the animation plays along the timeline, I stacked the frames here and left the pretty onion skins so you can see how I mapped it out. Using two ellipses as path-of-action guide, I created a single drawing of a maple seed and deformed it in a series of key frames.  This spinning loop sits in a dedicated symbol, which I then animated fluttering downward on the main timeline.

Comments are here.

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Rob Ford is OUT OF THIS WORLD!

Space...the final frontier. And Rob Ford is certainly boldly going where no one has gone before. No one seems to know what to do with a Mayor who refuses to resign in the midst of an swirling scandal, and neither can they force him to leave. It's an unchartered galaxy!

I wonder if there's any corner of our planet that hasn't yet heard of the wacky Canadian Mayor of Toronto? Raise your hand if that's you! 

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I WON!

Welp. The Circle of Moms Top 25 Canadian Mom blog contest thingie has ended and I lost.

Or did I...?

I don't usually jump into those voting contests, but I wanted to reach out to Canadian bloggers. Because I'm Canadian. (Sorry!).

I was hoping that I was unique enough, with the whole animation thing, that I could stand a chance of making it into the Top 25 and maybe gain some recognition. But these vote-every-day contests are prolly not a measure of distinction, nor are they a measure of popularity. They reflect one's ability to rally the troops to click that little pink heart every single day.

And that's just not me. Cuz you know that I would rather be drawing than vote-slutting.

However, I did discover a couple of homegrown blogs that I really liked: Colleen Anthony's Curtains are Open, and "t" McCallan's Happy Soul Project. And I reconnected with my friend Tanya Toledano from the MontrealMom.com blog.

But my big win here is that I have YOU. Every single one of your votes was the richest, sweetest cream of the crop. My tribe may be small, but it's a quality tribe.

This little pink heart is for you...because I love you.

Thank-you for letting me be annoying, spam your groups, bump the Facebook convo's and basically twerk the Internet badly.

And now, it's back to the old drawing board.

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The Doug and Rob Ford Caption Contest.

WARNING: political tooning.

Resistance was futile; I finally caved and drew Rob Ford, embattled Mayor of Toronto. Of course you can't really draw Rob without his older brother City Councillor Doug Ford.

I do not like the feeling I get when I listen to what this man says about ....well, anything really. The way Doug Ford talks makes me feel intensely uncomfortable; I don't trust him. One gets the idea that he's the one pushing his blurt-happy little brother along and pulling the strings behind the "Ford Nation" ideology. And watch out Canada, Doug Ford has his sights set on the Ontario Premiereship. If what Prime Minister Harper says about the municipal/provincial/national hat trick in this video is anything to go by, I may start to secretly hope Quebec separates because it'll actually be more Canadian here than anywhere.

Anyways, the Rob Ford story has morphed from a crack to a crevasse to a yawning canyon. With stalagmites and pointy shit. And being a Canadian, I can't escape it. Allegations aside, what interests me mainly is the behaviour of these two men, and the people reacting to them, for and against. I find it all at once compelling, hilarious and terrifying.

But never mind all that! Here's a caption contest for you!

Simply leave your entry in the comments below - it can be a single caption, or a couple of speech bubbles between Dougie and Robbie. Have fun. You can enter as many times as you like: just be sure to leave your Twitter handle or email so I can contact you if you win.

How you win - I'll choose the funniest one, that's all there is to it. My decision will be final.
What you win - your choice of either mug or t-shirt with the above design on it.
When you win - contest closes Wednesday, May 29th 2013 at midnight. I'll announce the winner on Thursday between 9 and 10 PM.

Remember the Ultimate Goal here is to have a laugh (yes, at the expense of the Brothers Ford, but that's what you get when you're an insane public official) so please hit the share button.

UPDATE: May 30, 2013 Contest Winner Announced!

We have a winner! Congratulations @IamSauerkraut from Twitter!

Sauerkraut, please let me know if you want t mug or a t-shirt with this fabulous one-of-a-kind artwork and hilarious caption. Thanks to everyone for entering; you are lovely.

And remember folks: if you're lucky enough to live in a democratic society, don't piss it away by not bothering to vote in your next election. Because ROB FORD.

'Nuff said.

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Uh-Oh Canada...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn't listening.

He doesn't speak "Canadian".

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You Shall NOT Pass.

This was me last week.

I was on my way to deliver a keynote in the USA; to make a few hundred really nice people laugh, smile and hopefully leave them inspired by my drawings and my message.

But I never made it...

Have  you ever wanted something very, very much, and just when it's within your grasp it slips away?

You're allowed to grieve for a bit. And then you move on.

The silver lining: The thing I thought I wanted wasn't the thing I actually wanted. I already have that thing and it's right here inside me.

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The real Canadians.

The Cree Walkers completed the Journey of Nishiyuu in support of the Idle No More movement and aboriginal issues. In January six youths and one guide left Whapmagoostui and walked 1600 kilometers, their numbers swelling to 400, to arrive in Ottawa today. They were welcomed warmly by thousands of people on Parliament Hill.

Walk tall.

Meanwhile two very expensive giant pandas arrived in Toronto and were welcomed by Prime Minister Harper.

I find this somehow extremely embarrassing.

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My home.

Politics? Not usually something I engage in publically. But since Pauline Marois’ historic victory in the 2012 Québec Provincial Elections, this image has persisted in my mind's eye:

The election campaign, the results, and the fatal shooting at the Parti Québécois celebration rally left me with some lingering thoughts and feelings.

1. I’m reasonably bilingual and I like it. 
2. Language issues remain divisive for some folks. But those who speak with violence ne parlent pas pour moi. 
3. Although I don’t consider myself a separatist, I love living in Québec. I especially love Montreal, peu importe ma langue maternelle.  
4. Honestly... I’m no longer certain what it means to me to be Canadian since Harper was elected as Prime Minister. The Canada I loved feels like it's disintegrating.
5. Some Canadians outside of Québec seem to have a peculiar idea about what it’s like to live here.
6. The first people that lived in this land spoke neither French nor English. 

The Fleur-de-lys in the drawing is an emblem from the Québec flag. Did you know that “quebec” is originally a Mi’kmaq word? It means “strait”. I live here; it's my home.

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FaceBook whuuuut...?

I opened my FaceBook and saw this face in the ad for Canada Government Pardons. Will someone please tell Charlie Sheen that the Canadian Government might forgive him!!

Or maybe Charlie Sheen really is a Canadian? I don't know. But FaceBook finally got me to look at the ad section. Winning at jokes!

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