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Alla Gadassik: Media Scholar and Animation Curator

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Talks + Workshops

“Fabric of Celluloid” at San Francisco Museum of Craft & Design

SFMCD Curatorial Director Ariel Zaccheo invited me to give a public talk in connection to the museum’s VIDEO CRAFT exhibition(Feb – Aug 2026). Five artists in this exhibition were also featured in my exhibition Interlaced: Animation & Textiles. Both exhibitions began from our shared interest in media art and textiles, and but developed in distinct directions and approaches.

My talk “Fabric of Celluloid” focused on the material history of celluloid, following the kinship between textiles and moving images from early synthetic fabrics to camerlass animation on filmstrips, hand-inked cel animation, and contemporary artists who quilt and weave with cellulose acetate and polyester.

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Public Event: “Wendy Tilby / Amanda Forbis” at Cinematheque

I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a day with animation duo Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, three-time Oscar nominees, whose film When the Day Breaks (1999) has been so formative for animators and animation scholars worldwide. Tilby and Forbis were guests of honour at the Cinematheque Vancouver, and I was invited to moderate a conversation with the two artists following their presentation and film screening.

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Online Publication: “Trauma-Informed Research Ethics”

Drawn image of two people walking in conversation with a caption that says "Move at the Speed of Trust"

In my role as Chair of the ECU Research Ethics Board for the past three years, I organize an annual educational event related to the ethics of creative research and practice. This year’s event featured a conversation with Dr. Charlotte Schallié from Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives about working with survivors of violent trauma and atrocity. While we do not record our events, I wrote a post covering some key points that came up in the conversation and audience discussion that followed. Dr. Schallié commissioned ECU student Hannah Strocel to develop illustrations for the text, and it’s now published on the SCVN website here.

Public Talk: “Adventures of Prince Achmed” (1926)

Lotte Reiniger’s Adventures of Prince Achmed turns one hundred this year, and I was grateful to introduce this astonishing film at a special screening at VIFF (03-01-26). Musicians Gordon Grdina and Hamin Honari provided live musical accompaniment to a packed theatre. Honari, an Iranian percussionist now based in Montreal, spoke with feeling about the role of art in sustaining a common human spirit and imagination against the violence of war.

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Public event: Research Ethics Board

Organized in my current role as Chair of the ECU-Research Ethics Board, I invited Dr. Charlotte Schallié, co-director of the Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives project, to speak about ethics of arts-based research with survivors of violence and mass atrocity. Our conversation focused on ethical considerations and protocols of arts-based research with trauma survivors. This hybrid event took place 02-09-2026 at Emily Carr University and online. An illustrated essay was subsequently published online.

Public Talk: “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul”

I’m introducing this matinee screening of 𝘈𝘭𝘪: 𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘌𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘭 (1974) at VIFF Vancity Theatre (June-15-2025) and moderating a post-screening discussion of the film. Looking forward to discussing its portrait of tenderness and human connection against a backdrop of social isolation and xenophobia. Since the screening takes place on Father’s Day, it’s fitting to acknowledge (a content warning, of sorts) its historic place in the German New Wave, popularized at the time under the slogan “Papa’s cinema is dead.” Tickets can be purchased here.

Conference Paper: “Inuit Storytelling in Contemporary Animation”

I presented this research-in-progress at the annual conference of the Film and Media Studies Association of Canada (FMSAC) at Queen’s University (May 28, 2025). My presentation discussed the adaptation of Inuit stories for contemporary animation, identifying the opportunities and challenges of interpreting oral storytelling through this media form.

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International Thesis Review: Tokyo University of the Arts

It was an honour and delight to receive an invitation from the famed GEIDAI animation program at Tokyo University of the Arts, to serve as an international reviewer for their Masters thesis projects. This animation school is bursting with creative energy, storytelling sincerity, and — under the leadership of the brilliant Koji Yamamura — fully committed to artisanal animation.

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Virtual Roundtable: Ethics of Accessibility

ECU-REB event poster with event title and photographs of three roundtable participants.

How can researchers and community-engaged artists centre accessibility and equitable participation of disabled participants, when selecting research or creative methods, designing their recruitment materials, or establishing consent processes? What responsibilities should researchers and creative practitioners have to disabled participants, whose experiences or stories they solicit or share? This virtual roundtable, presented by ECU’s Research Ethics Board (February 11, 2025), featured three participants speaking through lenses of crip theory, health design principles, and disability advocacy in the arts.

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