Steven Woloshen (born 1960) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

film animator and a pioneer of

drawn-on-film animation Drawn-on-film animation, also known as direct animation or animation without camera, is an animation technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or ...

Biography

Born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Woloshen first attended

Vanier College Vanier College () is an Quebec English, English-language public College (Quebec), college located in the Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1970 as the second English-language public coll ...

, where he worked with Super-8 film and video. Woloshen specialized in 16mm independent film techniques at

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

in Montreal. He initially made documentaries and collage films, but the freedom and accessibility of scratch animation won him over. He has since created animated and experimental films, which have been shown at screenings and festivals around the world. Working in camera-less animation since 1982, Woloshen has used scratches and lacerations on film to create emotional content. After taking a hiatus of more than a decade, Woloshen returned to filmmaking in 1996. The years Woloshen spent working on film sets and in labs helped his output: Woloshen’s work “post-hiatus” is more assured compared to his films from the 80s, showing progress in aesthetics, graphic technique and understanding of lab processes. Since 1999 Woloshen has worked exclusively in 35mm CinemaScope, an oddity in the independent film world that is made possible by his otherwise thrifty means of production. His works have screened worldwide at festivals including the

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (), commonly abbreviated MWFF in English or FFM in French, was an annual film festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1977 to 2019.Annecy International Animated Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring ever ...

Ottawa International Animation Festival The Ottawa International Animation Festival is an annual animated film and media festival that takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OIAF was founded in 1975, with the first festival held from August 10 to 15 in 1976. Initially organized b ...

, and I Castelli Animati in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Woloshen was the subject of a retrospective screening at Saw Video Gallery, hosted by the

Canadian Film Institute The Canadian Film Institute (CFI) () involves Canada in the film production, study, appreciation process of film/moving images for cultural and educational purposes. The Canadian Film Institute organizes ongoing public film programming and artist ...

. He is also featured in an anthology on animation, The Sharpest Point: Animation at the End of Cinema, edited by Chris Gehman and Steve Reinke and co-published by YYZ Books, the Ottawa International Animation Festival and the Images Film and Video Festival. In 2003, his film, '' Cameras Take Five'', was included in the 5th annual Animation Show of Shows.

Work

Woloshen is heavily inspired by music, particularly jazz, and has made numerous short abstract works in which the images are created in synchronization to a music track. While most of his films are exuberantly colored, Me Me Ma Ma (2000) is done in spare black and white. White scratches resembling rubbings, chalk drawings or electronic static jitter across a black background, matched to the driving beat of a techno music piece. Bru Ha Ha! (2002) takes a piece by

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (born 17 May 18661 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire but was an undi ...

and translates it into abstract imagery. The deep, masculine sound of a tuba appears in blocky shapes of colour, contrasted with delicate white squiggles corresponding to a woman singing. The tuba and voice play off each other as if in conversation, male and female.

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

’s jazz classic “

Take Five "Take Five" is a jazz standard composed by Paul Desmond in 5 beat per measure, the melody relying on the blues scale, with harmony E-flat minor. It was first recorded in 1959 and is the third track on ''Time Out'' by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. ...

” is the inspiration for ''Cameras Take Five'' (2002), in which fluid lines represent the saxophone voice, moving over top of color fields of electric blue and green interspersed with playful shapes and doodles. These are vibrant, light-hearted works, which capture the spirit and energy of the music. As in jazz, improvisation and chance are important aspects of Woloshen’s work. Because his films are self-funded and the tools of his craft (film leader, markers, inks, brushes and craft knives) are readily available, he can seize on an inspiration and act on it immediately. He writes: “I think spontaneous urges and desires are the best part of handmade film making.” Woloshen even constructed a portable scratch box so that he could do scratch animation during breaks on his job as a driver in the feature film industry. Some of his films depart somewhat from this method, such as ''The Babble on Palms'' (2001) and ''Two Eastern Hair Lines'' (2004). ''The Babble on Palms'' features various found-footage scenes of everyday life, accompanied by music by

Ali Akbar Khan Ali Akbar Khan (14 April 192218 June 2009) was an Indian Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Trained as a classical musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, ...

. The outline of a hand appears over all of the scenes, partially blocking one's view. The hand is treated with constantly changing decoration such as dots and spirals, and patterns and colors reminiscent of both the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

and cells under a microscope – the universe is contained in the hand. The film suggests a thread connecting all people, but also the limitations of each person's viewpoint and the individuality (the “hand print”) that sets people apart. ''Two Eastern Hair Lines'' also employs found footage, and is composed primarily of scenes of two or three people – a man and woman in a room together, two men seated across a desk from one another, a couple seated side-by-side. Parts of the images are framed, blocked out, or painted over, dividing and isolating the figures from each other. Set against a 1939

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

recording, “Parting at Yang Kwan,” ''Two Eastern Hair Lines'' is full of longing. It reflects on the unbridgeable distance between people and the difficulties of communication. As Woloshen writes in his description, “Sometimes the rifts between us are as wide as rivers, and sometimes as small as hair lines.” He has been a five-time Jutra/Iris award nominee for

Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

, receiving nods at the 6th Jutra Awards in 2004 for ''Two Eastern Hair Lines'', the 8th Jutra Awards in 2006 for ''The Curse of the Voodoo Child'', the

12th Jutra Awards The 12th Jutra Awards were held on March 28, 2010 to honour films made with the participation of the Quebec film industry in 2009. The nominees were announced on February 16.19th Quebec Cinema Awards The 19th Quebec Cinema Awards ceremony was held on 4 June 2017, hosted by actors Guylaine Tremblay and Édith Cochrane, to recognize talent and achievement in the Cinema of Quebec. Formerly known as the Jutra Awards, the Prix Iris name was annou ...

in 2019 for ''Casino'', and the

22nd Quebec Cinema Awards The 22nd Quebec Cinema Awards were presented on 10 June 2020, to recognize talent and achievement in the cinema of Quebec. The planned 7 June ceremony was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but nominees were announced 23 April. Abenaki document ...

in 2020 for ''Organic''."Les femmes brillent aux nominations du Gala Québec Cinéma"

Ici Radio-Canada #REDIRECT ICI {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

, April 23, 2020.

Writing

2010 "Recipes for Reconstruction" Scratchatopia Books. Montreal 2015 "Scratch, Crackle & Pop" Scratchatopia Books. Montreal

Filmography

*Son of Dada 1982. 16mm. sound. *Didre Novo 1983. 16mm sound. *Pepper Steak 1984. 16mm. sound. *Get Happy 1999. 35mm. sound.

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic format, anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its cr ...

*MeMeMaMa 2000. 35mm. sound. *Ditty Dot Comma 2001. 35mm. sound.

*Bru Ha Ha! 2002 35mm . sound *'' Cameras Take Five'' 2003. 35mm. sound. Featured music by

*The Babble on Palms 2002 35mm . sound *SNIP 2004. 35mm. sound. Featured music by

Fats Waller Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and singer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz piano. A widely popular star ...

*Minuet 2003 35mm . sound *'' Two Eastern Hair Lines'' 2002 35mm . sound *Rebuttal 2005 35mm . sound *''

The Curse of The Voodoo Child ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

'' 2005. 35mm. sound .

*Changing Evan 2003. 35mm. sound. Featured music by

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

*Phont Cycle 2006 35mm . sound *Shimmer Box Drive 2007. 35mm. sound. Featured music by

Buddy Rich Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time. Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, ...

*RH Factor 2008 35mm . sound *Chronicle Reconstructions 2008 35mm . sound *Zero Visibility 2008 35mm . sound *Scrapbook 2008 35mm . silent *The Homestead Act 2009 35mm . sound *Fleeing Rotland 2009 35mm . sound *Vista 2008 35mm . silent in

VistaVision VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format that was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. Paramount did not use anamorphic processes such as CinemaScope but refined the ...

*''

Playtime ''Playtime'' (stylized as ''PlayTime'' and also written as ''Play Time'') is a 1967 Satire (film and television), satirical comedy film directed and co-written by Jacques Tati. Tati also stars in the film, reprising the role of Monsieur Hulot ...

'' 2009. 35mm. sound . Featured music by

Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso who is considered to be one of the greatest Jazz piano, jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordin ...

. Tribute to the paintings of Canadian

Painters Eleven Painters Eleven (also known as Painters 11) was a group of abstract artists active in Canada between 1953 and 1960. They are associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. History Since the 1920s, artists in English Canada had been heavily i ...

esp.

Jock Macdonald James Williamson Galloway Macdonald (31 May 1897 – 3 December 1960), commonly known in his professional life as Jock Macdonald, was a member of Painters Eleven (Painters 11, or P11), whose goal was to promote abstract art in Canada. Macdo ...

. *The Rosetta Stone 2010 35mm . sound *2010 Melbourne International Animation Festival Trailer 2010 35mm . sound *Fiesta Brava 2011 35mm . sound *Visual Music for Ten Voices 2011 35mm . silent *When the Sun Turns into Juice 2011 35mm . sound *Free Jafar 2012 35mm . sound *Frobisher Bay 2013 35mm . sound *National tapestry 2012 35mm . silent *1000 Plateaus (2004 - 2014) 2014 35mm . sound *Implosion 2016 35mm . sound *''

Casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

'' 2016 35mm . sound *National Tapestry 2017 *This shadow, over each departure 2018 *The Dead Sea Scrolls 2018 *Objects Within 2018 *Father Knows Father Best 2018 *Uprising 2019 *Organic 2019 * The Zolle Suite 2021 *Perf Dance 2022 *Orbiter 2023

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Woloshen, Steven Living people 1960 births Artists from Montreal Film directors from Montreal Anglophone Quebec people Concordia University alumni Canadian animated film directors Canadian experimental filmmakers Visual music artists Drawn-on-film animators