East Los Angeles College, Cinema Without Borders and the Polish Film Festival Los Angeles are proud to present the Polish Animation Night Festival, the first of the annual East Los Angeles College International Animation Day Festival.
The goal of the ELAC World Animation Nights Festival is to give an in-depth and entertaining introduction to contemporary international animation. Screenings of short animated films from around the world, analyses and Q&A’s with a panel of well-known animation experts, and a tribute to an international animation artist working in the U.S. animation industry are all part of the festival program. An exhibition of animation art will be held at one of the East Los Angeles College galleries during the festival from 2016.
“Poland has an amazing history in animation, and artists around our planet have been inspired by their strong, but still simple character design and new approaches to storytelling.” said Bijan Tehrani, Editor in Chief of Cinema Without Borders and Director of the East Los Angeles College International Animation Nights Festival.
“Current Polish animation artists carry on with the Polish animation tradition while trying to explore new ideas and forms of expression.” added Bijan.
The Polish Animation Night Festival will be held on Thursday, May 7th at East Los Angeles College, located at 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park, CA 91754. Screenings will be held in the S1 Art History Lecture Hall.
Program:
7: 30 PM Reception – Polish appetizers provided by Polka Restaurant
8: 00 PM Opening Remarks
8: 15 PM Panel discussion, introduction of Polish Animation. Guests: Italian/American animator Cinzia Angelini, Polish/American animator Greg Jonkajtys, and American animator and 3D artist Mike Libonati. Terry Thoren, founder of Animation Magazine, will be the panel’s moderator.
8: 35 PM Screening of Polish Animated Shorts
9: 30 PM Panel Q & A
9: 50 PM Tribute to Greg Jonkajtys—The Polish/American Animator will be honored with a brief screening of his work, and an award presentation.
To attend please RSVP at rsvp@cinemawithoutborders.com
Free parking will be available in Parking Structure # 4, the corner of Collegian Avenue and Floral Drive.
List of Films:
Toto 12.11
What Happens When Children Don’t Eat Soup 8.32
Little Postman 4.24
Moonshine 10.21
Paths Of Hate 10.30
A Little Western 5.19
Chick 5.05
Panel Members:
Cinzia Angelini
Cinzia Angelini has worked as an animator and story artist in feature productions for more than twenty years. She began the American chapter of her career at Dreamworks, and then followed a path of opportunities that would lead to collaborations with all of the major studios in Hollywood. Her work includes “Prince of Egypt”, “Eldorado”, “Spirit”, “Sinbad”, “Spider-man 2″, “Open Season”, “Meet the Robinsons” and “Bolt”, the “How to train your Dragon” and “Kung Fu Panda” DVD specials, as well the Universal Theme Park ride for Despicable Me, “Minions Mayhem”. Following her work as story artist on the “Minions Movie” for Illumination Entertainment, she returned to Dreamworks Animation to work on Everest, due out in 2018. Cinzia is currently working as a story artist for Illumination Entertainment, on Despicable Me 3.
Cinzia is also currently directing her own independent short film, “Mila”, a collaboration of 150 artists from 25 countries around the world, due out in 2015. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children and their dog, Pepper.
Greg Jonkajtys
Greg Jonkajtys is a filmmaker, animator and visual effects artist.
He was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1972, graduated from Academy of Fine Arts and has worked in the advertisement, animation and feature film industry for over fifteen years.
Greg directed his first animated short Mantis in 2000, and won several international awards including the BAF and Imagina Independent Talent Award.
While working in Poland (Platige image) and USA (Digital Kitchen, Cafefx, Syndicate, Industrial Light & Magic), Greg has contributed as a visual-effects artist, and lead animator for such films as Sin City, Hellboy, Pan’s labyrinth, Mist, Terminator Salvation, Rango, Pacific Rim and the Transformers sagas, among many others.
He is most noted for writing and directing his second film Ark, for which he was nominated the Golden Palm at Cannes film festival in 2007, won the prestigious Siggraph Electronic Theater Best of Show award in the same year, and in 2008 won Hollywood Eagle Animation Award at the Polish Film Festival Los Angeles.
In 2010 Greg completed work on The 3rd Letter, a live-action dystopian drama starring Rodrigo Lopresti. The 3rd Letter received the Best Director prize at HollyShorts film festival in Los Angeles in 2010, Best of Show Jury award at Nevada City film festival and Best Short Award at Los Angeles New Wave Film Festival in 2011.
Greg is currently developing feature film “The Four Horsemen” with Intrepid Pictures.
Mike Libonati
Mike has been an animation and visual effects instructor for over 15 years. His students have had their work presented at Siggraph, CTN Animation Expo and various film festivals throughout the country. In addition to teaching, Mike works in 2D and 3D development in Los Angeles for various clients for both film and television including projects for Disney, Universal and Fox. Mike has also worked on renderings for architectural lighting design on projects such as the Coex Mall in Korea, Asia’s largest underground mall, and Tesla Motor Company in Los Angeles. Mike has a Master’s Degree from CalArts in Experimental Animation. He currently teaches animation at ELAC.
Terry Thoren
Terry Thoren is a transmedia entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in traditional media and custom digital applications for new media. He is the CEO of WonderGrove, LLC whose mission is to produce transmedia content for any child at risk, including those with special needs. His mission is to provide educators and parents with animation solutions that engage children emotionally and educate them through animated characters across all media.
With animation studios in Encino, California and Antwerp, Belgium WonderGrove currently has working relationships with Head Start, the Betty Ford Children’s Center, the Institute for Habits of Mind, Girl Scouts USA, Teri, Inc., the Orange County Food Bank, the Festival of Children, the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, the Wyland Foundation, the Dual Language Training Institute, n2y® and Signing Savvy.
The company’s flagship product is WonderGroveLearn.com, an education website for Pre School, Kindergarten, 1st Grade and 2nd Grade students (ages 4-7). It features engaging animated characters in 200 instructional animated stories and 1500 extension lesson plans that are aligned to 85% of the Common Core State Standards.
Terry was previously co-founder and CEO of TeachTown, Inc., which provides education software and animation solutions for children with special needs and autism, by addressing language learning, social skills, communications skills and emotional development. He was also the former CEO of Big Bad Tomato, an interactive studio specializing in family-based experiences for web, mobile, and social media applications.
For 11 years, Terry was the CEO of Klasky Csupo, Inc. where he oversaw the production of $700 million of family values animation for Viacom, Paramount and Nickelodeon, including “The Rugrats,” “The Wild Thornberrys,” “As Told By Ginger,” “Rocket Power,” “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters” and two Rugrats spinoffs.
Terry was also the creator of Animation Magazine, now in its 29th year of publication.
Organizers:
East Los Angeles College
East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). ELAC is one of nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) The college was established in 1945 and is situated in a secure, comfortable environment in the suburban community of Monterey Park, conveniently located 8 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Our multicultural student body of over 30,000 students complements the communities that ELAC serves. ELAC grants Associate in Arts/Science (A.A./A.S.) degrees as well as Certificate Programs.
Cinema Without Borders
Cinema Without Borders (www.cinemawithoutborders.com) is an international cinema webzine dedicated to covering and discovering the news, reviews, trends and new artistic milestones in independent film and filmmaking worldwide.
Polish Film Festival, Los Angeles
Polish Film Festival Los Angeles – Through presentation of features, shorts, documentaries and animation films, promotes Poland, Polish culture and Polish cinema.
www.polishfilmla.org
Sponsors: Polka Restaurant
Media Partner: Animation Magazine
Partners: Goethe-Institut Los Angeles – Hungarian Film Festival, Los Angeles