ASIFA-East’s Evening of Calendars and Films
What do PBS, NPR, The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon and ASIFA-East all have in common? They all survive on donations in order to survive. Last week ASIFA-East held the first ever calendar fundraiser event featuring art from a number of NYC animation superstars.
On hand to sign the calendars and share their films were nine out of the twelve artists who contributed artwork. The audience was treated to a sneak peek of Bill Plimpton’s newest feature Cheatin. Michael Sporn showed a couple of his favorite shorts while Debra Solomon shared a few songs from her newest film for HBO, Getting Over Him in Eight Songs or Less. Candy Kugel brought her award winning piece Command Z and George Griffin shared a film he made 30 years ago as a younger man. Jen Oxley screened a couple of her latest shorts made for Sesame Street and Xeth Feinberg showed a few of his latest Xethtoons. Emily Hubley played one of her classic films Octave and Signe Baumane showed a few of her lesser known Teat Beat of Sex shorts which are always uplifting. Mo Willems, who was not in attendance, sent along a sneak preview of his newest short Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.
In addition to the featured artists, Dick Rauh (President of ASIFA-East from the late 1960s through 1989) was there to lend his support and didn’t know why we hadn’t thought to do a calendar before.
Having all that talent in one place at the same time made for a fantastic event. The animation veterans were able to catch up with each other while those newer to the field were able to meet and get advice from artists whose work they have admired for years.
If you missed the event, don’t worry, there is still time to pick up one of our ASIFA-East full-color calendars (SRP $10) and have Mr. October (John Dilworth) autograph it for you by attending our December 9th event. So come out and show your support for ASIFA-East by buying a calendar or two for everyone on your holiday list. All proceeds go to ASIFA-East and count as a charitable donation on your taxes.
