Gus Arteaga, MA Animation graduate from 2007 has won the best UK film prize at the London International Animation Festival.
http://www.liaf.org.uk/2009/program.html
Mexican by birth, Gus settled in the UK many moons ago. He came to the medium of animation via photography, bringing with him a sensibility of lens-based image making, and thereby a sophisticated use of the camera apparatus in animated 3D stop Motion film. He incorporates ocular trickery, using disorientating angles and distortions, shadows and silhouettes, focus pulling and other visual illusions, creating a strange, otherworldly viewing experience. Perhaps his magic realist style is attributable to his mexican roots, coupled with his links to the renowned Estonian Nuku film Studios, where he worked for a short period of time in 2005.
Gus graduated from the MA Animation programme at Newport in 2007, after completing the Newport BA Animation programme.
A judge’s comment :
‘In some way this film reminded me of the work of the late, great Oliver Postgate - which is one of the biggest compliments I can give. By skillfully combining traditional storytelling, simple but effective puppet animation and beautiful abstract photography, the director has created an atmospheric and magical world, evoking a child-like sense of innocence and wonder’.
Programme Leader Caroline Parsons's Comment :
Caroline says : This success is significant because Gus’s work invites us to return to a pre-digital, altogether more innocent form of filmic storytelling, which celebrates puppet animation at a time when it is most threatened. He clearly champions film making as craft, a position that has been become rarefied by the predominance of digital production.
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