The party is in full swing!
On Thursday, January 16th, ASIFA-East held their “Post-Holiday Party” at Pour George in the lower east side of Manhattan. Pour George is a relatively new bar (their website is copyrighted 2011) and it seems to be part of a general transformation of an area of the city usually dominated by NYU and other college students. ASIFA-East provided some light snacks on the bars’ rough woodcut community tables: prosciutto and cheese on toast, spherical sliders, and chicken wings. There were also fried pickles, which I think are gross. But apparently that is the minority opinion…
Andrew Kaiko (animator, Geometry Global), Chris Conforti (animator, Team Umi Zoomi, Susan Godfrey (independent animator), Katie Cropper (ASIFA-East mailing list admin), and Caresse Singh (ASIFA-East membership secretary).
The bar, which appeared to have a comfortable ski-lodge theme with a hewn-stone fireplace and studded leather booths, offered whiskey flights of combinations of 3, but everyone stuck to beer, cocktails, and wine in elegant stemless glasses. I’m sure there were some teetotalers as well. When I arrived around 7:15, the place was already buzzing with happy animators, meeting and greeting, lubricated with alcohol and name tags.
Animators Nelson Diaz (animator, Nick TV), David Pagano (indie animator), and Ryan Peterson (animator)
Coats and bags were tucked into corners and benches on the side, while people circulated around the large table that cut the reserved back room in two. Masako Kanayama (our treasurer) was on call at a table by the fireplace checking people in on the membership list, distributing wristbands (for special ASIFA-East extended happy hour) and collecting business cards for the raffle (more on that later).
Caresse Singh, Justin Simonich (ASIFA-East postcard designer), Tristian Goik (ASIFA-East event coordinator), and John Lustig (ASIFA-East board member) being perfectly pleasant.
Screening the winners of ASIFA-East’s 2013 festival, “There Must Be Some Other Cat” by Mark Kausler
Our new friend Alba Garcia-Rivas (independent animator) lent us use of her laptop (which she was using to show off her upcoming stopmotion film, very savvy). Without her help we could not have screened the winners of last year’s festival as entertainment during our party! Thanks Alba! (For some reason, Pour George offers its customers use of its projector, VGA cable, and nothing else).
Ray Kosarin (ASIFA [main organization] treasurer), David Langkamp (ASIFA-East board member) and Dayna Gonzalez (ASIFA-East co-president) deliberating.
Caresse Singh (CBS Sports) talking to animator Jaime Ekkens (independent animator) about the importance of being earnest.
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Animators John Lustig (independent), Morgan Miller (independent) and Paul Sultan (Pysop)
Masako Kanayama (ASIFA-East treasurer, prod. manager Curious Pictures), Marina Dominis (indie animator), Luis Cubillos (indie illustrator)
Jamil Laham (indie animator) and Tristian Goik (Thomson Reuters Studios) grow beards slowly.
Cynthea Satsuki (indie animator) and Jennifer Bourne (animator, Curious Pictures)
Special thanks to everyone who came out that night! It looks like everyone was having fun catching up on old times, and scouting out new information.
Kristen Chiappone (animator, High 5 Productions), Jennifer Bourne, and Cynthea Satsuki, graciously letting us put Alba’s laptop on the table
L’inconnue de la Seine
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Nick Fox-Gieg (developer, Framestore) LOLing
Patricia Burgess (ASIFA-East board member, prod. coordinator, Gravity) Tristian Goik (indie animator) and Katie Cropper-Klein (indie animator), talking about shoes issues
Special thanks to Emmett Goodman (ASIFA-East boardmember, Viewseum editor, indie animator) for taking almost all of these lovely photos, including this dramatic B&W series!
Jamil Lahham and Nick Fox-Grieg becoming friends!
John Lustig blinking
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Susan Godfrey (proprietor, The Productive [co-working studio])
Katie Cropper-Klein, asking for business cards for raffle
Jacob Kafka (winner best in show ASIFA-East Festival 2013)
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Justin Simonich (animator, Sesame Workshop) and Candy Kugel (proprietor Buzzco Assoc., Inc) hug it out.
Robert Lyons (Media Arts Prof, University of the Arts) laughs it up.
Candy Kugel (ASIFA-East board member), David Langkamp (admin, NYU) and Linda Beck (line producer, Nick Jr.) put it in perspective.
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Linda Beck shuffles the deck for the business card raffle!
Katie Cropper-Klein ensures it is highly shuffled.
We at ASIFA-East encourage you to make and carry your own business cards. (Guess who accidentally only brought 2 cards >:| ) So we thought a raffle would be a nice incentive, and we promise we definitely won’t send you any spam. Thanks to Linda Beck for bringing in some cool free swag as prizes, and to Ray Kosarin for making a funny joke about cocktails.
We super swirled those cards all over the place.
And we have a winner!
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Showing off the swag that you win. Background film “Based on a True Story” by Jacob Kafka
Congrats to Erin Natal (animator, Curious Pictures) and Christopher Monti (indie animator) for winning t-shirts!
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Ingrida Pleiryte (intern, Plymptoons) and Linda Beck. Background film “Sidewalk” by Celia Bullwinkel
Christopher Monti (indie animator) and Grant Lindhal (indie animator)
Thanks to David Langkamp for making reservations at Pour George, and all our board members for helping out. Thank everyone for attending, our holiday parties are made possible by our members and by our festival. Thank you ASIFA-East, you continue to be an endless source of entertainment, knowledge, and comraderie.
Alisa Stern (animator, The Doctor Puppet) won a free drank in the raffle! It is unknown what she ordered…
Everyone has a warm glow!
By 10/11pm everybody was wrapping it up, and heading home with lots of nice new memories, ready to face the new days ahead (unless they had a hangover).
Our last party was way back in 2010 at Gonzalez-y-Gonzalez, and even though no surprise celebrity guests dropped by, I think we outdid ourselves!
Linda Beck and Dayna Gonzalez, the co-presidents of ASIFA-East