Lectures & Events

Saturday-October 24th, 2009/ 6:30pm

Saturday-July 11th, 2009/ 6:30pm

Guest Speaker-Tom Gasek

Tom Gasek is an award winning stop-motion director and character animator with over 27 years of professional experience. His credits include animation on Aardman Animation’s “The Wrong Trousers” and “Chicken Run” to Henry Selick’s “Coraline.” Gasek has been involved in numerous projects from features and broadcast work to scores of commercials, many of which he has directed & produced through his own studio. Tom has conducted workshops in various universities around the Northeast including R.I.S.D., Harvard and The School of Visual Arts in New York. One of Gaseks’ commercials for Nickelodeon featuring “The Inside-Out Boy” is a part of the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. He earned a BFA degree in Design at RIT and his MFA at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University in Studio Arts in 2006. His short films have been included in The New York International Children’s Film Festival, The Chicago International Film Festival and the Ottawa Animation Festival. He currently teaches Stop-Motion Character and Experimental Animation, Acting for Animation, Animation Pre-Production and the Business of Animation at The Rochester Institute of Technology. He has just completed a new independent animated short called “Off-Line.”

A Homecoming Spectacle

A Film by Sunanda K Sanyal
 
The documentary examines specific aspects of the visual culture of Durga Pujo, a grand religio-cultural festival held in West Bengal, India. Locally, it is seen as the occasion of the Hindu Goddess Durga’s annual visit to her parental home. Central to the rituals is a sculptural image of the Goddess killing Mahisasura, or the buffalo-demon. This mythic event is considered a symbol of the eternal battle between Good and Evil, and of female empowerment.
 
While examining some of the temporary public spectacles/installations produced for the event by professional artists, the film explores the currently evolving hybrid, globalizing character of the festival, where fragmented, cross-cultural signs override notions of cultural authenticity; yet also celebrates ---in a seemingly paradoxical gesture --- indigenous traditions and sentiments. Throughout this inquiry, a personalized narrative also reflects on the notions of home, homecoming, and legacy.

(2008; 58 mins.)