Bilder einer Ausstellung

Sandra was invited (along with a colleague) to represent Auckland University at the opening of the "Animated films from Germany" showcase exhibition at AUT's St. Paul st. Gallery thanks to Goethe Institut and Institut fuer Auslandbeziehungen. It will be open until next week, then the exhibition will move to Porirua (and be there) until February 2008. We enjoyed a lot the exhibition. They have the actual puppets and miniature models used for stop motion, also the original drawings and story boards for the films. Only two small TVs to see the movies. I expected a projector or something bigger... and maybe copies for sale of the DVD! Anyway, there were many interesting works... like Sandra said, some are "very German". Not so good was the wine! They had Villa Maria's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2005 and it was horrible! It was like drinking isopropyl methanol with grape juice!

We specially liked "the message" by Raimund Krumme (check here another of his movies called Crossroads). Harara is amazing work of stop motion and the latex and small models are amazing. Another extraordinary work of stop motion is Der moderne Zyklop, the dancing sequence at the start of the film is extraordinary! I didn't expect much from the drawings for Die Flickenkönigin, then I saw the movie and changed my mind. Rubicon: Sandra says that her uncle was always teasing them with that kind of German riddles. Cherchez la Femme is one of my favourites. Neulich 2 is one of those "very German" expressionist films, unlike Der Rabe an interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's poem with a quite simple (black, white and red) but strong graphic composition (watch it here) Each frame is a work of art! Really amazing to see the artistic technique behind the animation was "the moment" each plate is painted on glass, then scratched over the fresh paint to draw each image.

The good news, is that they announced that New Zealand will be guest of honour at the Hamburg animation awards 2008 which means, there will be a special prize only for New Zealand films of EUR 2,000 and an invitation to attend the ceremony in Hamburg on June 2008. Great opportunity to eat Hamburguers at the Repperbahn.

ciao