Concordia Journal Home > Archives > January 31, 2008 issue >

Animators drawn to Oscar’s red carpet 

Concordia continues to turn out clever, original young filmmakers. Two remarkable animated shorts by recent graduates have been nominated for this year’s Academy Awards.

They are I Met the Walrus (see film image, left), whose main animation was done by alumnus James Braithwaite, and Madame Tutli-Putli, by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski.

I Met the Walrus was featured in Robert Redford’s indie festival, Sundance, which just took place in Utah. Braithwaite, who is originally from Edmonton, got his BA in English literature at Concordia in 2005 and makes Montreal his home. He’s a witty artist (see his website, www.thebathwater.com) whose work has graced the pages of Maisonneuve and En Route.

His five-minute film, written and directed by Josh Raskin, is based on an incident in 1969, when a 14-year-old teenager called Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon’s Toronto hotel and interviewed him on audiotape about world peace. Braithwaite’s animation accompanies the original interview.

Madame Tutli-Putli is a National Film Board of Canada production about a woman taking a train trip that turns into a metaphysical voyage. Szczerbowski is a 1994 graduate of Concordia’s Design for the Theatre program. There’s a clip of the film on the NFB website, at www.nfb.ca/webextension/oscars

The filmmakers were featured in the Jan. 26 issue of the Gazette.
The Oscars will be awarded on Feb. 24.