Brazil
Please give us a brief summary of your work, including, if possible, a description of your creative process (e.g., how your creative ideas first appear and take shape).
What is your work’s relation to experimental form and technique? Is there something you want to articulate with your work that can’t be expressed through conventional narrative means?
I’ve been messing with animation since 1998, and I’ve made dozens of short films and commissioned pieces. I’ve participated in animation festivals and events all over Brazil and in several other countries as well, presenting my films, giving lectures, workshops and engaging with people from the field.
An experimental approach is definitely my preferred choice. My exploration usually starts with sensations, diverse things that move or inspire me somehow. At some point these small observations transform themselves into ideas, the work begins to grow organically, and I begin really living it. This means: Listening to music, watching tonnes of reference films, drawing and painting in my sketchbooks (I like to devote an entire sketchbook for this purpose), and so on. The film initiates its animation process pretty much without me noticing. It’s like tricking myself into it: working on the ideas, not on the film. Before I notice, the film is running on its own account, and in a few blinks of an eye, it’s done.
I also work mostly alone, doing the conception, animation, photography, editing and post-production myself. I use both analogue and digital methods – I know this will sound like a cliché, but the digital is really just a tool. Of course, a strong, ‘pumped-up’ tool, but nevertheless only that. It helps me reach my artistic goal, but isn’t the main objective in itself, otherwise the work would become empty. For me the benefits of the digital are to explore different aspects of the spectrum; to create a film on the go, drawing on the telephone screen, for instance. To be able to digitally compose two different physical techniques together. Experiment in a way that isn’t possible with another medium.
How would you define your animation practice in terms of its relation to fine art traditions, experimental animation or the (historical) avant-garde? Its relation to commercial industry? Who/what are your strongest influences?
Is material or media a particularly important component of your practice? How does it operate in your work?
My practice in animation is very much guided by instinct. That said, every artist or art movement that operates in a similar fashion can influence me. In the beginning, my two biggest animation influences were Mike Jittlov – his feature The Wizard of Speed and Time (1988) blew my mind when I saw it the first time when I was 10 years old – and Norman McLaren. The simplicity, playfulness, yet strong personality in his films continues to speak to me.
I would also name Oskar Fischinger from Germany, Ishu Patel from India (although he produced animation in Canada) and Len Lye from New Zealand. I greatly admire Juan Camilo González’ animations, and we have been in contact over these last few years. He has selected my films for screenings throughout the world, alongside several incredible works by Latin-American animators. From Brazil my influences come mainly from painters and drawers, such as Iberê Camargo, Newton Mesquita and Carla Caffé. I like the atmosphere and personality in their work. I think that above all I most admire the personality of one’s work. The true feeling of it.
The Fundamentals of Animation (2006), by Paul Wells, is a book that really opened my eyes, in the way that it respects every part of the animation process. Some books on animation only focus on the technical aspects, and list only the best-known films as case studies. Wells explores other areas and places great value on the artist animator, with chapters such as ‘The Animator as Performer’ and ‘Working as an Independent’. In the chapter ‘Alternative Methods’ he has put together a brilliant essay on the possibilities of alternative approaches, going beyond the general term of ‘experimental animation’.
I always look for character and personality in works, and much of this can be found in the Polish School. I admire their animation a great deal, as well as that of Eastern Europe in general. Recently, at the StopTrik festival in Slovenia, I met Miloš Tomić in person. The man is a genius, whose personality flows beautifully into his films. The bottom line for me is that we always have so much to learn from each other’s works and culture. For me the ultimate personal question is: How can a film be made that truly comes from the heart? A vibrant work emanating directly from one’s soul? Without any barriers from industry and medium standards, but using every technique and approach needed for it to come into being?
I’m also inspired by everything in life that happens in a natural, unpredictable way, even if it is not ‘art’. I view animation as a way of living rather than an ‘industry’ or ‘market’. Actually, I hate those two words. To be able to see the beauty of movement and rhythm, joyfully executed in time, is the main thing. I’m constantly experimenting with different art media, and old and new ideas quickly find their way into my experimentations.
Why animation?
Animated art is really an extension of life. I love searching for these kinds of works and talking to the people who make them. I really enjoy this great, limitless and ‘nationless’ world of experimental animation.
I like that quote that says something like ‘you do not choose things; they choose you’. Almost 20 years after my first contact with animation, and 12 years of making short films, I still get excited and mesmerised when I see things moving in my films. It is as if some divine entity has come down and put a soul in things, creating movement from nothing, life from stillness. Every time is like the first time.
To be able to experiment with techniques, materials, approaches, and to put visions and crazy ideas into animated form is really addictive. Each new work is a journey into the unknown, and such a delicious one.
How do you see your work operating culturally? Politically?
Brazil is notoriously a country with a lot of character. It’s so vast and diverse that I always feel as if each state is a country in itself. We are currently experiencing a creative surge in animation, and Brazil is in the spotlight this year, at the Annecy Festival 2018. However I think that we are still to really show the world our true spirit and energy. We are naturally born with an impromptu ability which has become more than a cultural feature. It is like we really see things. We learn by doing, we make things and invent stuff, and these are all great skills for creating animation. It is really just a matter of time until the world witnesses the rich diversity of our animation.
In Brazil we have had some outsiders in animation, who have made brilliant direct-on-film works from the 1950s through the 1980s (Roberto Miller, Rubens F. Lucchetti, Bassano Vaccarini and Firmino Holanda). Nowadays very few – almost no one – dedicates him/herself to a more experimental approach. Apart from the more auteur-type animators – who make brilliant work that I admire greatly – a lot of people here are dedicated to producing industry-oriented works.
One Latin-American artist-animator in particular who is more than a reference and has become a friend is Tomas Welss, from Chile. I first saw his films when there was a screening of Chilean animations some years ago at a festival here in Fortaleza, and met him in person in 2015, in Santiago. Tomas’ work is very strong and has a unique personality, like very few others. He has created his own world, with his own distinctive style and tempo, using timing and loops in a fashion I haven’t seen before. He has just finished a new film, Magic Dream – created with the motion painting technique – and it is really awesome. Today we are close friends and we chat almost every day, often exchanging our thoughts on the animation scene in South America.
Culturally, the best way that I can see my work operating is in really moving someone. In an ideal world, inspiring them. Making them see things in a different way, provoking turmoil inside their soul, to the point where this person has to respond artistically, and create something. Give their best to the world. And his or her work can in turn move somebody else, and so the thing goes on. At least, that’s what happened to me. All the incredible things that I see or experience in life urge me to do something, and it is such a joy to do so.
References
Jittlov, Mike. The Wizard of Speed and Time. US, 1988. Film.
Wells, Paul. The Fundamentals of Animation. Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA, 2006.
Welss, Tomas. Magic Dream. Chile, 2018. Film.