After years of giving interviews on animation-related journalism stories, I finally made it to primetime ☺️. I was recently featured on CBC News — The National broadcast (11-01-26) and online article — on the occasion of Toy Story‘s 30th anniversary. The story asks whether Pixar can recapture its early magic, and I weigh in on what made the studio’s first films so technically and culturally groundbreaking, how the barriers to entry in 3D animation have fundamentally shifted, and what that means for the future of the form. Read the story on CBC News.
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.
Continue reading “Public Talk: “Adventures of Prince Achmed” (1926)”
My review of the luscious exhibition Heart On: Joyce Wieland was published over the holidays in PUBLIC Journal online here. Below is a version of the review that includes my documentation of the exhibition.
Continue reading ““Ohhh, Canada… Joyce Wieland’s Erotic Citizenship” (exhibition review)”
I’m introducing this matinee screening of Walt Disney studio’s Fantasia (1940) at VIFF Theatre (Dec-14-2025) and moderating a post-screening discussion of the film. Looking forward to discussing this film in the context of Visual Music cinema, colour on screen, and feminized labour in the studio’s ink-and-paint department and animation at large .
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.
Continue reading “International Thesis Review: Tokyo University of the Arts”
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.
Continue reading “Virtual Roundtable: Ethics of Accessibility”
[Update: the position has been filled] Animate Materials Workshop is hiring a research assistant for a project on Indigenous storytelling for animation. Supported by interviews with contemporary animation producers, this project explores the possibilities and barriers of adapting oral stories for animation, with a focus on contemporary Inuit animation.
Continue reading “Hiring Student RA – Indigenous Storytelling in Animation”
This public talk (December-21-2023) opens the VIFF’s December 2023 series The Wonders, following a screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, Walt Disney Studio). The talk discusses the pivotal role that Snow White played in the history of the Disney studio and theatrical feature-length animation more broadly. Just as the film’s titular dwarfs descended into the mines to source lustrous diamonds, hundreds of workers entered Walt Disney’s animation studio between 1934 and 1937 to produce and polish a new vision of spectacular, expensive animation.
Alla Gadassik: Media Scholar and Animation Curator 