Paul Driessen: My Life in Cartoons
80 min.
Recipient of more than fifty international prizes, including a prestigious Annie Award and an Academy Award nomination, Paul Driessen is sure of his spot amongst the greats in the genre of animation. With his instantly recognisable style and drawn worlds inhabited by whimsical characters, he has been of great influence for the Dutch animation industry. Perhaps most fascinating is how Driessen has been balancing simplicity and complexity for decades now. Somewhere between cheerful and melancholic, playful and dead serious, lighthearted and profound, his filmography is original to the bone. And Paul is here to walk you through it on the occasion of the publication of his autobiography My Life in Cartoons, published by At Bay Press (2024).
Born in 1940 in Nijmegen, just before the Germans invaded the Netherlands, Driessen didn't have a prosperous future cut out for him. Yet, he was fascinated by drawing little, funny figures from the very beginning, arguably inspired by his parents who were arts and culture advocates. After an isolated time in post-WOII Russia and depressing school days in Rotterdam, he got his chance at a small studio in Hilversum under the auspices of Jim Hiltz. His big break came when he was invited to go to London to work on the imaginative Beatles film Yellow Submarine (1968). In 1970, Driessen made his directorial debut, The Story of Little John Bailey, which was one of the very first indie animated shorts in the Netherlands. Hearing of the artistic freedom at the National Film Board of Canada, he moved overseas and began a long on/off collaboration with the NFB while also producing his own shorts in his home country. Deservedly so, Driessen's vision led him to an Academy Award nomination in 2000 for 3 Misses (1998). And Driessen's story is far from over.
Although he has been heard saying on record that he prefers to walk out of the room when he has to endure a retrospective of his own work, Paul has promised to stay put to tell you all about himself, his films and cartoons, and his intriguing life story.
After the screening Paul will be signing copies of his book at the Kaboom Café.
3 Misses
Not all heroes succeed ... In Paul Driessen's Academy Award nominated short three women in three different ages are in mortal danger and are ready to be saved, but are our heroes actually good at saving? A spoof on fairy tales and rocking a Buster Keaton-esque humour, 3 Misses is an essential Driessen.
Cetabever: Fly
Everyone has to start somewhere, even legendary animators. And in the case of Paul Driessen, he started out with some commercials for Cetabever glue.
Air!
Even with some simple sketches, Paul Driessen is able to convey a strong message. In the early seventies, he began making short animations at the NFB in Canada. Air! is an animated quickie cartoon that illustrates the fate of all living things if man continues to pollute the atmosphere. A little reminder doesn't hurt anyone, does it?
On Land, at Sea and in the Air
An experiment in parallel action, On Land, at Sea and in the Air tells the story of a sleepless man on land, a bird in the sky, and a fisherman and his wife at sea. An animated triptych using split screen.
Uncles & Aunts I
Uncles and aunts and otherwise related people. Revealing snapshots of their lives and times. As long as they hold out, a series to be continued.
Uncles & Aunts II
The second snapshot of family life in Paul Driessen's series. Driessen didn't direct the short himself, but let his good Czech friend and animator Michaela Pavlátová take the helm.
The 7 Brothers
The seven Grimm brothers (mistakenly we always assumed there were only two) are looking for inspiration for their fairy-tales. But the new stories they are writing (in live action) end (in animation) differently from the tales we know.
The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg
About a boy with an over-active imagination. When our would-be hero, accustomed to eluding mobsters and monsters in his daydreams, finally finds himself facing a real-life drama, he can't believe his eyes..
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