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The Visionary Animation of John and Faith HubleyPost an Event »
The Hubleys were exciting to work with because they had a strong sense of adventure in their filmmaking. John was never tied down to techniques that he was already familiar with. Each picture was a new experience, because the appearance of the film was always dictated by the content. —Shamus Culhane
Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present The Visionary Animation of John and Faith Hubley, an animated program of films by the first family of animated experimentation as part of our Masters of Animation series.
In the 1940s (up to 1951), John Hubley worked as a director and animator at UPA, defining their mid-century style of minimal and stylized backdrops, a style that would take over the animation industry for decades to come. John was blacklisted from the studio system in the age of McCarthyism and so he and his wife struck out on their own, working out of their kitchen, experimenting with form and technique and creating some of the most ingenuitive, forward-thinking, and politically conscious - but nonetheless humorous and entertaining - cartoons in animation history and winning several Oscars in the process. Inspired by jazz (and often scored by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones and Benny Carter), the Hubleys films have the same feeling of improvisation and experimentation.
This program will highlight both John and Faith's solo-careers as well as their plentiful and imaginative collaborations. We will begin with the last Mr. Magoo short John Hubley directed for UPA, the hilarious Fuddy Duddy Buddy (1951) in which our nearsighted hero mistakenly befriends a tennis-playing walrus. Adventures of an * (1956) - the first collaboration between John and Faith - features a stunning experimentation of imagery and a soundtrack from the great Benny Carter. Dudley Moore and Dizzy Gillespie improv a tale of two soldiers on either side of a borderline discussing the absurdities of war, the nature of humanity and even dinosaurs in the hilarious and thought-provoking The Hat: Is This War Necessary? (1967). A runaway city on legs devours everything in its path in the engaging allegory of urbanization Urbanissimo (1967). A taped recording of the couple's toddler daughters, Emily and Georgia (from Yo La Tengo) provide the naturalistic soundtrack to the delightful Cockaboody (1973). Take a ride on the carousel of life in excerpts from Everybody Rides the Carousel (1975). A rock pushes a little boy into the center of the earth to teach him about pre-history in Dig: A Journey into the Earth (1972). We will be finishing the evening with Faith's first solo work, the inspiring and beautiful Women of the World (1975).
Plus! Two John Hubley commercials: Maypo (1956) and doggy Flavor Snacks (1966, a Clio award-winner) and the AT&T produced We Learn About the Telephone (1965) a mix of live-action and Hubley animation for the early birds.
Date: Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117 Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
