Mid-week, Miah suggested we go to his family's place in Ottawa, to see the Ottawa International Animation Festival. I thought, why not? We went up Friday after class (probably dawdled longer than we should have). We got there past 9, had a late dinner with his mother.

I stayed the first night at Miah's parents place. They have 13(!) or so rescued cats, so there was a lot of fur. For some reason, there was a pile of naked cabbage patch dolls....

I took a handful of sots in downtown Ottawa - ici, le Chateau Laurier!

National Art Gallery.

Uhhh, forget!

Our first stop was the National Gallery, for the Animation School Fair, checking out the competition, wondering why our school isn't there. It took longer than we thought, and we missed the first screening.

Here's Miah drawing at the Algonquin booth.

After, we walked around quite a bit, looking for where the cinema was, and buying our passes (need to plan things better next time). We bumped into a former colleague of Miah's. We barely got to the cinema for the 1 o'clock show, Shorts Competition 2. Shorts are always a mixed bag of funny or serious works, narrative or abstract, good or pretentious, sweet and to the point or just too long (long pauses doesn't make something deeper). There's also a mix of professional, student and commercial work.

A Letter To Colleen, an odd autobiographical one about drugs and sex.

A Sheep On The Roof, about a sheep on the roof (i think maybe he was hallucinating?).

Baerenbraut, a weird one about a woman living with a bear, as it grows up.

Bernie's Doll, funny, but disturbing, about a guy who buys a torso for sex.

Chainsaw, a too-long but funny one, connecting the real-life Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner with an Australian couple.

Guardian: Rhythm Of Life, inventive stop-motion commercial.

Idaho Lottery Twister, a funny commercial featuring a pitch for a 'twister' lottery commercial with an octopus.

Lost Utopia, abstract take on Adam and Eve.

Optical Percussion, what i thought was a recreation of a 1930s idea, turns oput to be fictitious, and pretty simplistic for animation these days. Flash or Maya could do this in a few hours.

Platform Box, a fun stop-motion.

Retouches, an interesting abstract painting.

Stomachboy, a high school production about good eating.

Western Spaghetti, a really fun stop-motion using odd household objects - maybe my favourite piece for this show.

After the show, we found out that Ryan (former student) and Suzanne were at the show, and ran into Mack (former student) in line. Miah and i went to a pub in the market area and had a very late lunch.

We walked around the market a bit, i bought a beaver tail (so good), then went to the Labyrinth animation book sale, bumped into Ryan and Suzanne again, and arranged for a drink/food at a pub before the next show.

Also, we met Nadia, a female friend of Miah, who also joined us. We were a bit late for the show at 7 - luckily, i arrived in time for the start, but Miah and Nadia missed the first scene.

The show we saw was a feature, called Idiots And Angels, by Bill Plympton. His own summary: "Angel is a selfish, abusive, morally bankrupt man who hangs out as his local bar, berating the other patrons. One day, Angel mysteriously wakes up with a pair of wings on his back. The wings make him do good deeds, contrary to his nature. He desperately tries to rid himself of the good wings, but eventually finds himself fighting those who view the wings as their ticket to fame and fortune."

Some trademark Bill Plympton weird/exaggerrated perspective.

Fantasies from the point of view of a bug on her surface?

It was pretty funny, even without Plymptons usual head-eating-itself weirdness.

After the movie, we hustled to the car, and went over to Quebec to the Museum of Civilization to see the International Showcase. Miah and Nadia waiting before we go in to the show.

Bait, funny, gruesome sense of humour.

Boy, "The life of the old horse is finishing. But fate presents him last fantastic vision before death. Vision opens him the world with endless life and love." Uhhh, this is the best example of the worse type of animated short, over long, a story that doesn't come across to the audience. There's no way to get that description from what we saw - what we got was that horses are assholes.

Ergo, a bit long, a fascinating set up, but an unfocussed ending.

Glago's Guest, a Disney short (they still make them, outisde of Pixar?).

La Vita Nuova, a dark stop-motion, a bit Tim Burton-ish.

Presto, a wonderful piece from Pixar, which you should've seen by now.

Refrains, a bit long, and a bit of an airy-fairy story, but beautiful looking.

A Streetcar Named Perspire, a funny story about menopause.

The Employment, my favourite piece for this show - yes, someone is holding up his mirror.

The Weatherman, a fun stop-motion about weather prediction.

We dropped Nadia off, and Miah and i circled Ottawa a few times before Miah remembered where his sister lived, where we stayed the night, after watching a bit of SNL.

Sunday morning, we got up decently earlier, and were only a little late for Behind the Aardman Curtain at 9 am at the National Gallery. Helen Brunsdon, head of shorts development and manager for television production, showed off their reel, and a message to the OIAF from people in England, and answered questions about their work. Everyone knows about Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, and probably Flushed Away and Creature Comforts, but we got to see samples of all the things they work on (a lot). A good talk.

Angry Kid - Bone

Chopsocky Chooks - didn't think they were very funny.

Disco.

Pib and Pog.

The Pierce Sisters - they did the characters in 3D, and painted the frames after.

Shaun

Town Called Panic - Cake - another very funny stop motion animation, with toys (why did the horse bake a cake?)

We needed breakfast (me) and coffee (Miah) right away. I took some pics along the way. The Centre Block of Parliament (i think), Library of Parliament on the right.

Peacekeeping Monument: Reconciliation.

So that's what that big building with the large fence was. We got breakfast is the world's least organized McDonald's, which made us late for Short Competition 3 (missed the first four).

1st-Date, a cute, funny, a little raunchy cartoon.

Ambiguously Gay Duo, ha ha, i love them.

Big Baby Rookie, a giant baby joins the police force.

Cats' Gathering, a very good anime short, about cats getting their tails stomped and their seeking revenge - until it's feeding time (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb_bLpcx8Sk).

DINO ORANGE - How Birds Fly, everything but the kitchen sink - the orange is being kept prisoner in the castle by the monster, to stop the dinosaurs from flying.

Like Me - Only Better, a funny pro-Prozac animation.

Nishimatsuya - Mimi in Wonderland, a cute anime-type commercial.

Seadogs - Devotion, the story is a little cloudy, although it involves love, but the art style itself was amazing..

Sony Bravia - Playdoh, another stop-motion piece (commercial) i enjoyed - bunnies are cute.

Superjail - Combaticus, not quite as random as Dino Orange, but still kinda weird.

The Comic That Frenches Your Mind, another deliberately weird one, but one that wins for its name.

The Mixy Tapes, an animation about making an animation, but it didn't really work for me (yeah, they called it themselves, it was pretentious).

That was it for the Festival - too bad i missed so much, but we were there for only 2 of 5 days. On the way out of town we met up with Ryan and Suzanne for brunch.

The trip was going well until just past Kingston, when we ran into a blockage on the 401 - took us 40 minutes to get off the highway, and because i'm smart, i had a road atlas to pick a different route than everyone else. We got back on the highway in no time. But then Miah insisted we get off the highway to look for a Tim's, and we took the scenic route from Deseronto to Cobourg. This lawyer's office was in Colborne. It would be funny if he'd actually changed his name. I think he should keep going with it, and edit it to "Peter, A Hustler".