Cinema Pacific gives special emphasis to animation in its programming each year, reflecting the importance of animation in Oregon film and across the Pacific Rim. This year’s festival program includes a special presentation of Portland Animation Now, brought to the festival by Sven Bonnichsen, director of the Northwest Animation Festival.

Two programs in the Focus: Japan section explore the experimental side of Japanese anime, Midori-ko and The Echo of Astro Boy’s Footsteps. And the festival will kick off on April 18 with a screening and gallery talk by animator Stacey Steers at the Schnitzer Museum of Art.

 

 

Animator Stacey Steers: Screening and Installation at the Schnitzer Museum

Stacey Steers will present her animated films in a special Schnitzer Cinema program on Wednesday, April 18 at 7:00 p.m. in the JSMA Lecture Room. She will also guide viewers on a tour of her installation Night Hunter House, on view in the JSMA April 19–May 13. The film is composed of cut-up and reassembled eighteenth- and nineteenth-century engraved book illustrations depicting dense forests and brooding interiors, and resurrects silent film star Lillian Gish, who sews and cooks but also contends with giant worms, swarming moths, and a menacing snake. The fifteen-minute film took Steers four years to make and has been screened at the Sundance, Telluride, and AFI film festivals. Steers will also screen her films Phantom Canyon (10:00, 2006), Totem (11:00, 1999), and Watunna (24:00, 1990).

Stacey Steers makes labor-intensive films composed of thousands of individual, handmade works on paper. She has stated that “animation was greatly underutilized and ghettoized as a form of mere entertainment. Any relevant art form can communicate the full range of human experience.” After earning her advanced animation certificate from the Zagreb Film Studio in Croatia, Stacey Steers acquired her BFA in Fine Arts and Film from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her animations have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, New Directors New Films in New York City, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Steers is also a recipient of a 2012 Creative Capital grant.