18TH INTERNATIONAL TOURNEE OF ANIMATION, THE

THE 18TH INTERNATIONAL TOURNEE OF ANIMATION returns to its tradition of selecting innovative and prize-winning works from all over the globe after paying tribute last year to animation from the National Film Board of Canada. This year 20 films chosen from 12 countries form one of the Tournee's most exciting programs to date. In memory of Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker, masters of pin-screen animation, the program opens with their wonderful A NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN (1933) in which images of death and rebirth are created through reflected light on pins. The 18th Tournee's titles are produced on an Alexeieff/Parker pin screen by Dennis Pies, head of animation at Harvard. Leaping to the high-tech age, the program next features Randy Roberts' PANASONIC GLIDER in which a paper plane soars, its image generated by computer, using digital design graphics in narrative form. Highlights include WILD ABOUT ANCHORAGE, a whimsical animal spoof of “All That Jazz” and “A Chorus Line”: THE GREAT COGNITO (Academy Award Nominee for 1983), a professional impersonator's life is improved by the “Claymation” technique; PRIVATE NIGHTMARE, a fantasy of bizarre visual connections; Australian newcomer Max Bannah's VIOLENT AND BRUTAL, a male/female, ego/id battle; Paul Driessen's ON LAND, AT SEA, AND IN THE AIR, a complex triptych; and PIG BIRD, a Canadian First Prize winner showing what results from smuggling strange critters into the country.