Inter-Action Animation In Wallingford

There’s a new program of animated films being shown this Thursday, June 16th as part of the NW Film Forum, and Wallingfordite Aaron Wendel presents his piece Dwelling in it, in which “two houses slowly destroy each other”. It’s on-line, click the image at right to view it.

We caught up with Aaron on-line and asked him a few questions about his work:

Wallyhood: What was the first animation you created? What drew you to the form?

Aaron Wendel: The first animations I created were little flipbooks I made out of post-it notes as a kid.  I don’t think I took animation seriously though until college.  I had one vhs tape from the NFB that had some really great animated shorts on it, and I really liked how diverse the medium was.

WH: Your animation (like your web site) has a very minimalist, spare aesthetic. I mean, you’re hand drawing on paper, without color. Is this a reaction to the multi-million dollar high tech animation extravanganzas like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Kung Fu Panda? Or is it just easier to draw simple lines? Or something else?

AW: I think the minimal aesthetic of my animations has been dictated by the ideas I was working with.  With an animation like “Dwellings”, it would have been easy to create really lush, complex visuals, but it would have ultimately distracted from the experience I was looking for.  I like films and animations with big productions, and I don’t think all my films will be minimal, but there is something that I like about the isolation and quietness of black and white.

WH: Do you have any projects underway that you’d care to share?

AW: At the moment I am piecing together some things for a couple shorts that I hope to produce over the summer.  Unfortunately this is the worst time to get a lot of things done.

WH: Why did you move to Wallingford?

AW: Wallingford is where I landed when I moved from Chicago, where I went to school.  I have no complaints so far.

Neither do we. Thanks, Aaron!

This screening takes place on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 at 8:00PM at the NW FIlm Forum, 1515 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122. Price is $9/general public, $6/Film Forum members, $6.50/Seniors, Children under 12 and Students with valid photo ID. The program will screen subsequently in New York, London and Berlin. More info on-line.