ANIFEST, TEPLICE - CZECH REPUBLIC

[Barry]

APRIL 30th somewhere in the Czech Republic.

Hallo from a beautiful, calm, green town an hour away from Prague. I'm half way through being the President of a wondrful, truly action packed, and international festival. I've little time to sit and write now, but after four days my mind is awash with films I have seen, talks I have given, people I have met, and puppets I have met. To stand two inches in front of some iconic Trnka puppets was a thrill indeed, as was to meet the trnka family, and some of his animators, particularly a beautiful, twinkly eyed lady who came to my big talk last night. She'd worked on most of the major Czech films. So many images so far, and I will write at length when I get my breath back, but what joy to catch up with Will Vinton after all these years, and to spend time with Vivian Halas, and to see Sayoko Kino(expletive not allowed)a jumping up and down giving my films an ovation, and to meet so many students from around the world, to watch presentations from Liaka, to watch early British puppets films, to see Tintin in Czech on a big outdoor screen, to rather embarrassingly start crying at the end of my own Tchaikovsky film, to be staying in the hotel that Beethoven wrote Symphony no 7....so many images. More to come.

[Barry]

May 5th 2012

The last few days of the festival were just as action packed. A trip to the Casanova castle was very interesting indeed. I had only ever associated Casanova with Italy, but there was the chair in which he breathed his last. Quite an amazing house - a certain faded grandeur to it. Some amazing rooms and artefacts. Even a loosly animating mannequin of Casanova himself writing at his desk. Great to sit with lots of the festival people in the sunshine. It has been a very sociable festival, and hundreds of films. Ian did a great talk about his company, and he and the puppets were duly mobbed at the end. A hush went up as he unveiled each one with a suitable piece of theatre. That, I'm afraid, does not happen with a computer image. By tuesday I was ready for home, anxious about work, and Monteverdi, and Aida and so many things, but what a tremendous festival and some responsibility to be President, being the public face of it. I hope I did them proud. I certainly spoke to enough people.