By CAROLYN GIARDINA
Next week (1/25) the Canadian Consulate General in tandem with the New York City Economic Development Corp. (EDC) and the Quebec Government House is presenting the CanApple Animation Forum, an event designed to showcase the talents of Canadian and New York-based companies with expertise in design, digital effects and animation.
Executives from New York-based ad agencies, film studios, broadcast networks and the new-media community have been invited; roughly 300 are expected to participate, according to Canadian Consulate representative Tony Raposo. At press time, roughly 17 Canadian companies and about six New York-based companies had committed to participate at CanApple, Raposo reported. Danny Bergeron, president/director of Tube Image, a Montreal-based digital animation and effects studio, is scheduled as keynote speaker for the event. And, along with Sheridan College, a top animation school based in Ontario, CanApple is presenting Sheridan Animates Manhattan, which will include an evening show-and-tell presentation by several Sheridan alums, including Steve Spaz Williams, an Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor who is repped as a commercial director by Complete Pandemonium, San Francisco.
Raposo called CanApple, which is sponsored by the Quebec Government House, the EDC and Silicon Graphics Canada, a win-win situation for both Canada and New York. Our goal at the consulate is twofold: raise awareness of animation expertise in Canada and forge cross-border relationships, he explained.
The involvement of the EDC as a co-sponsor, however, has raised some eyebrows in the New York community. It seems ironic that our tax money is going to promote offshore competition that will realize no tax benefits for the city of New York, commented one New York-based industry insider, who requested anonymity.
Morty Dubin, who chairs the newly formed New York Production Alliance, said his organization told the EDC it feels their support of a group clearly looking to bring work to Canada is inappropriate. He said NYPA urged EDC not to repeat the action.
The EDC did not respond to repeated requests from SHOOT for an interview.
Even before CanApple was scheduled, U.S. work escaping to Canada had become a growing concern in New York and other parts of the country. Canadian government subsidies and the buying power of the U.S. dollar in Canada are frequently mentioned by New Yorkers as reasons projects have been going north.
Richard Winkler, board member of the East Coast Digital Consortium (ECDC) and executive producer at bicoastal Curious Pictures, said ECDC and Curious were invited to participate, but both declined. We are all for establishing relations in new areas, he said, adding, however, that neither saw a benefit in supporting an event aimed at its existing New York customer base.
Click 3X New York, however, is participating. President/ creative director Phil Price said the reason is to make a presence for New York companies and to show that there is plenty of great talent in town. Price added that he would like to see New York sponsor an event promoting the benefits of keeping work in the city.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More