Sean Uyehara, who has been with the San Francisco Film Society for 5 years, offers an academic perspective on film and animation.Lis: How did your interest in animation begin?Sean: I'm interested in movies...and one thing about animation that I think is especially interesting is the way that it implies the relationship of the production world of film to an audience.  One thing I'm interested in about movies in general is not only how they create meaning, but how they create authority.  There a...

What follows are the short films from this weekend's San Francisco International Animation Festival that in my opinion were most fantastic and that I think in one way or another stick with me forever. I Forgive You (Pierre Mousquet, Cauwe Jerome, Belgium 2009)Played as part of the Best of Annecy Program. An animation style reminiscent of The Simpsons. Two wrestlers fight, plot turns unexpectedly and the result is hilarious. San Francisco crowd chuckled with glee. Jean-Francois (Tom Haugomat, Bru...

Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, a 4 part visual representation of the Decemberists' 2009 album The Hazards of Love was meant to only be a one-time show- a backdrop for a performance of the album played live start-to-finish in LA. The result was so well received the film is now being shown in festivals. Last night it opened the San Francisco International Animation Film Festival, which runs until Sunday. Guilherme Marconde and Andrezza Valentin, husband and wife team who w...

Today is a very exciting day!  The San Francisco International Film Festival begins, it runs  November 11–14, 2010.This year is the fifth annual.  Last year I had to miss it, but two years ago I met Gene Dietch and pondered the differences between hand drawn animation and digital, talked with Nina Paley about children's animation, and was introduced to the mind-blowing world of Encyclopedia Pictura, among other things.  That year I also interviewed founder Sean Uyehara about animation...(...