NEWS & EVENTS:

Rockefeller Foundation Selects John Canemaker for Bellagio Residency

John Canemaker will work on a new personal animated film during a Rockefeller Foundation Creative Arts residency
at the Villa Serbelloni on Lake Como, Italy, from August 31 to Sept. 28, 2009. During a previous Rockefeller Foundation
residency in 1999 (photos above and below), he created storyboards and a script for his Academy Award-winning animated short,
The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation.


The cylindrical "La Veduta" was Canemaker's Bellagio studio in 1999.


Interior view of the studio, with preliminary concept drawings for The Moon and the Son.


John Canemaker wins 2008-2009 NYU Distinguished Teaching Award

John Canemaker has been selected to receive New York University's Distinguished Teaching Award. 
Canemaker, professor of animation at the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, Tisch School of the Arts, is one of six
NYU faculty members to be honored for "exceptional teaching, inside and outside the classroom."  NYU established
the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1987. It is presented annually to recognize outstanding full time faculty members.


Chuck Jones Memories of Childhood Available on DVD June 23

Chuck Jones Memories of Childhood, a documentary directed by Peggy Stern with original animation sequences directed by John Canemaker,
is included in the Warner Home Video DVD set Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection, to be released on June 23. The 26-minute film,
which aired on Turner Classic Movies in March, looks at the early life of the legendary Warner Bros. animation director, who died in 2002.

The WIRED blog Geek Dad said, "Memories of Childhood is a compelling glimpse into the fertile imagination behind that work, as well as the unstable youth from which it emerged, battered and bruised but still resolute in its pursuit of timeless, hilarious self-expression. Don't miss it."


Kansas City Lecture Trip Includes glimpse of Disney's First Studio


In April, John Canemaker lectured and taught a class on animation action analysis at the Kansas City Art Institute.
On the way to the airport for his return flight to New York, his host showed him the old McConahy Building,
where Walt Disney started his film career in 1922.


Walt founded the short-lived Laugh-O-Gram Studio in the second-floor space shown above.
The building, currently under restoration, was the birthplace of Disney/Hollywood animation,
for Disney's staff included future animation luminaries Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Friz Freleng.
(Photos by Doug Hudson)


New Photos on Teaching Page

A photo gallery of John Canemaker teaching a Fall 2008 Storyboarding class at NYU has been posted on the Teaching page.


Canemaker Directs WonderPets! Episode "Save the Pangaroo"


"Save the Pangaroo," an episode of the pre-school children's series WonderPets!, premiered on Nick, Jr. on Friday, February 29, 2008. John Canemaker directed the episode and designed the characters of Pangaroo and Butterdeer for production company Little Airplane. WonderPets! follows the adventures of three animated classroom pets who travel around the world as a team to rescue animals. In this case, the animal in need is a child's discarded drawing, part parrot and part kangaroo. The WonderPets find a home for the Pangaroo by drawing a new landscape that he can live in. They also combine two children's drawings to create a friend for him, the Butterdeer, who is part butterfly and part deer .


"The Moon and the Son" on iTunes

THE MOON AND THE SON is now available for download at Apple’s iTunes Store.  Just enter “THE MOON AND THE SON” in the search box at the upper right corner of the iTunes Store home page to preview the film.  THE MOON AND THE SON is one of more than 100 award-winning short films offered exclusively on iTunes by Shorts International.


Canemaker Animation Featured on MoMA Kid's Website Destination Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art has selected John Canemaker's 1998 animated short, Bridgehampton, as the centerpiece of a learning module about filmmaking at its new interactive learning site for children, Destination Modern Art.

Destination Modern Art is a virtual museum that allows children to explore various works from MoMA's renowned collections of painting, sculpture, design and film. Users can "enter" the works of artists such as Picasso, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Romare Bearden, sculptor Umberto Boccioni and architect Marcel Breuer, as well as access a variety of related learning activities and projects.

At the site's Movie Theater, one can watch the full six-minute film Bridgehampton, as well as select individual scenes and see original storyboard sketches from Canemaker's painterly study of the seasons on eastern Long Island.

Learning activities include a step-by-step example of how animation is done and a downloadable flip book, both of which were designed and animated by Canemaker specifically for the site.

For more information: http://www.moma.org/destination/