Rose Bond

Martin Cooper’s documentary feature explores the lives and work of six internationally renowned, independent animators and animation directors. These multi-award-winning artists are Jim Blashfield, Rose Bond, Joan C. Gratz, Zak Margolis, Joanna Priestley and Chel White. Their animated films span a period of over 40 years and reflect a wide range of techniques, from direct animation and classic stop-motion, through 3D models, clay painting, computer-generated imagery up to AI. History, Mystery & Odyssey is entirely filmed in Portland Oregon, where all these animators live and work.

A brief survey celebrating form through the morphing of objects from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Craft.

Gaia’s Dream is a vivid animated film made by drawing and painting directly on 16mm clear film. Emerging from images which suggest primordial beginnings, a running horse becomes the focus of this rhythmic and abstract animation. At its climax, the horse is transformed and takes flight before disappearing into the sun from which it came. The musicians of Gwinyai performed a soundtrack of traditional music from Zimbabwe expressly for the film.

This superb retelling of a traditional tale from early Irish literature explores the shift from kinship to kingship as the basis for social unity in ancient Ireland. In the story, the pregnant goddess Macha is unwittingly betrayed by her husband and forced by the King of Ulster into an ill-fated race against his horses.

A dramatic rendering of an ancient Celtic myth, Cerridwen’s Gift vividly recounts the tale of how the Welsh people received the gift of poetry and prophecy. The film’s heroine, Cerridwen, is a wise woman and brewer of the cauldron of inspiration. The film tells the story of Cerridwen’s plans to bestow a gift on her son, and the twist of fate which results in the wrong person receiving the gift.

Woven images set the stage for a woman’s vision of discovery. Drawn and painted directly on 35mm film, Nexus explores connections between art and nature through symbols and patterns associated with ancient matricentric cultures. Zimbabwe marimba music performed by Sukutai provides upbeat accompaniment to this evocative piece as images metamorphose from abstract pattern to natural realism with joyous artistic ease.

A childhood memoir recalling impending parental loss. Using humor and haunting simplicity, Bond infuses the memoir with intelligence and grace that transforms the personal into a powerful cinematic experience—delving into the complexity of family dynamics, death and dying, and the germination and growth of the creative process. The memoir interweaves animations of seventh grade drawings with vintage TV footage, lost and found sound, and metaphoric imagery.

Inspired by the oral tradition of pre-Christian Ireland, Deirdre’s Choice presents an epic Irish tragedy. The film pits the headstrong heroine, Deirdre, against an emerging patriarchal force and sets her life, her love, and her story, within the conflicting mores of a society struggling with change. This 23 minute animated film is unique in that it is driven by highly dramatic voice tracks with versions in both the English and the Irish language. An original music score was composed and performed by Micheal O Domhnaill.