Joanna Priestley

I have been blogging for almost a year now. Looking back I found 19 of my posts are labeled animation. The National Film Board of Canada has produced some of my old favorites: Richard Condie's "The Big Snit," Co Hoedeman's "The Sand Castle" and Norman McLaren's "The Star and George."

And just recently I have discovered the amazing animated films of Joanna Priestley.

I first found Fighting Gravity on Netflicks and actually mailed it back before I had a chance to view the Bonus Features. I was happy to discover Relative Orbits on Joanna Priestley's website. The extra interviews and studio tours on both DVD's made me want to move west and take her classes. Joanna is a collage artist, too, and has employed collage techniques in a number of her films. The occasional glimpse of the physical set-up (pay close attention to that woman behind the curtain!) reveals the mechanics involved.

I also find it educational to watch segments in slow motion (the dots and squares shifting around in "Surface Dive" or the figure-8 loop of dancing stars near the end of "The Rubber Stamp Film") without the distraction of sound. The music and sound effects are delightful, by the way, as is the extra interview with the sound engineer.

I received an original drawing from "After the Fall" (on Relative Orbits) with my order. As you can see by the date inscribed on it, I'm very tardy in expressing this: Thank you so much, Joanna! I'm looking forward to your next compilation.