Director
It’s my message of love to Gaza and the Palestinian people, in particular to animator Haneen Koraz, Shorouq Darwish and Nour abdel Jawad and their team of women animation artists who devote themselves tirelessly to bringing hope to the children of Gaza. My little film was inspired by the poem Hamza by the great Palestinian poet FADWA TUQAN. I chose the part of her poem that compares and connects the mystery of the fertility of the Palestinian land to the mysterious power of it’s women.
Joanna Quinn talks us through the journey of a scene of Affairs of the Art from Script to the Screen, paying special attention to her unusual way of working out the mouth shapes!
Animation is team work and Joanna Quinn often gets asked how she is able to keep her style when working with other animators on my films.
What does it take to be a successful animator - patience, attention to detail, obsession and more patience! Welcome to the animated world of Joanna Quinn. In this masterclass Joanna will be talking with students about her life as one of the most successful women animators and will give us a rare practical insight into the way she approaches animation and her own animation technique. A unique opportunity to see inside the weird and wonderful mind of an animator.
How many obsessions can one family have? In Joanna Quinn and Les Mills’ Affairs of the Art, we reconnect with Beryl, the working-class heroine who not only reveals her own obsession with drawing but exposes the addictions of her eccentric family, which include pickling, screw threads and pet taxidermy.
Beryl and her friends work in a Japanese factory in Wales. She is overweight and consequently ridiculed remorselessly by macho supervisor, Vince, who is the bane of her life. However the time comes for Beryl to get even.
Joanna Quinn completed a foundation course in art at Goldsmiths College, University of London before studying for a BA in Graphic Design at Middlesex University. There she first discovered the magic of animation, quickly adapting her unique drawing abilities to produce beautifully fluid and dynamic animated passages. In 1985 she founded Beryl Productions with her partner, producer/writer Les Mills, and the couple have collaborated ever since. Joanna is now a highly acclaimed figure in world animation, having won over 90 international awards, including Emmys, Baftas and Jury prizes at all the major animation festivals. Two of her films have received Oscar© nominations. She has been honoured with retrospectives of her work in all over the world including Rome, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Stuttgart, Zagreb, Hiroshima, Toronto, Montreal, Gothenburg, Bradford, Cordoba, Tampere, Ottawa, Valencia and Taiwan.
On acquiring a new Digi Video cam Beryl becomes obsessed with the art of filmmaking, using it to articulate her desires, dreams and thoughts as a video diary. As 'cinéaste par excellence' she agrees to video the wedding of her friend Mandy, seizing the opportunity to 'strut her stuff filmically' with disastrous and often hilarious results.
An arrogant knight of King Arthur’s court has raped a young woman and is sentenced to death unless he answers the question “What do women most desire?”
A biting and savage indictment of the development and demise of British Imperialism.
As a birthday treat, housewife Beryl is taken to see a male stripper and shows her true colours.