Blind Vaysha

Last updated

Blind Vaysha
Blind Vaysha poster.png
Film poster
Directed by Theodore Ushev
Written byTheodore Ushev
Based onBlind Vaysha
by Georgi Gospodinov
Produced byMarc Bertrand
Narrated by Caroline Dhavernas
Music by Kottarashky
Production
company
Release date
Running time
8 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish/French

Blind Vaysha (French: Vaysha l'aveugle) is a 2016 animated short by Theodore Ushev, produced by Marc Bertrand for the National Film Board of Canada, with the participation of ARTE France. Based on a story by Georgi Gospodinov, the film tells the story of a girl who sees the past out of her left eye and the future from her right—and so is unable to live in the present. Montreal actress Caroline Dhavernas performed the narration for the film, in both its French and English language versions. The film incorporates music from Bulgarian musician and composer Kottarashky and is his and Ushev's fourth collaboration. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Development

Ushev has stated that the project began at Fontevraud Abbey in France, where he worked for a month on the story and was inspired by medieval drawing. He did fifty paintings during his stay in Maine-et-Loire, drawing inspiration from the Abbey's architecture and with the design of the film's central character influenced by paintings of Eleanor of Aquitaine. [2] [4]

Ushev was already working with a text by Gospodinov for an upcoming film when he and a group of friends had the idea of making "an omnibus out of some of his short stories." While reading them, Ushev was captivated by the story of Blind Vaysha, which immediately struck him as being suited to his style of filmmaking. [5]

Production

The film is animated on a Cintiq tablet in a linocut-style, a medium Ushev had worked with since the age of 12. Ushev sought to reproduce the visual artifacts of the linocut technique by never using the "Undo" command on his computer while drawing: "Because with linocut, once your hand carves it, it is gone. You cannot put the black back. This creates a natural feeling of the unpredictable, of mistakes and the holy imperfection of the image—which is the basis of every creation." Ushev has estimated he did between 12,000 and 13,000 drawings for the film, which took him about six months to make. As with two of Ushev's earlier films, Drux Flux and Gloria Victoria , Blind Vaysha was produced as a 3D film. [5] [6]

Reception

Blind Vaysha had its world premiere at the 2016 Berlinale. [4] It received both the Jury Award and Junior Jury Award at the 2016 Annecy International Animated Film Festival. [7] In September 2016, the film received the Cartoon Network Award for Best Narrative Short Animation and the Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. [8] The film was also included in the list of Canada's Top Ten shorts of 2016, selected by a panel of filmmakers and industry professionals organized by TIFF. [9]

In March 2017, Blind Vaysha won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Animated Short at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards, [10] and in June it won the Prix Iris for Best Animated Short Film at the 19th Quebec Cinema Awards. [11]

It was also nominated for Best Animated Short at the 89th Academy Awards (lost to Pixar's Piper ). [12] Ushev stated that with 16 films to his credit to date, he had given up hope of ever being nominated for an Oscar because he worried that his films might be "too abstract, too avant garde, too elitist, too dark" for the Academy. He stated that upon hearing the news of his Oscar nomination, he had a strong emotional reaction: "When I heard the name of my film, I just stopped watching, because I fainted... I cried. At first I laughed and then I cried again. It's out of control.... It's all strange and exciting." [13] On February 26, upon the eve of the Oscars, public television in Ushev's native Bulgaria aired a dubbed version of the film, narrated by Teodora Duhovnikova. [14]

Virtual reality

The eight-minute animated short will reportedly be adapted next into a virtual reality work by the NFB. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Film Board of Canada</span> Canadas public film and digital media producer and distributor

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 13,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has bilingual production programs and branches in English and French, including multicultural-related documentaries.

Caroline Leaf is a Canadian-American filmmaker, animator, director, tutor and artist. She has produced numerous short animated films and her work has been recognized worldwide. She is best known as one of the pioneering filmmakers at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). She worked at the NFB from 1972 to 1991. During that time, she created the sand animation and paint-on-glass animation techniques. She also tried new hands-on techniques with 70mm IMAX film. Her work is often representational of Canadian culture and is narrative based. Leaf now lives in London UK and is a tutor at The National Film and Television School. She maintains a studio in London working in oils and on paper and does landscape drawing with iPad.

George Garnett Dunning (1920–1979) was a Canadian filmmaker and animator. He is best known for producing and directing the 1968 film Yellow Submarine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torill Kove</span> Norwegian-Canadian animator and film director

Torill Kove is a Norwegian-born Canadian film director and animator. She won the 2007 Academy Award for Animated Short Film for the film The Danish Poet, co-produced by Norway's Mikrofilm AS and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Ushev</span> Bulgarian animator and filmmaker

Theodore Asenov Ushev is a Bulgarian animator, film director and screenwriter based in Montreal. He is best known for his work at the National Film Board of Canada, including the 2016 animated short Blind Vaysha, which was nominated for an Academy Award. He is a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France.

When the Day Breaks is a Canadian animated short co-directed by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis and featuring the voice of Canadian singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright singing the titular song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgi Gospodinov</span> Bulgarian writer (born 1968)

Georgi Gospodinov Georgiev is a Bulgarian writer, poet and playwright. His novel Time Shelter received the 2023 International Booker Prize, shared with translator Angela Rodel, as well as the Strega European Prize. His novel The Physics of Sorrow received the Jan Michalski Prize and the Angelus Award. His works have been translated into 25 languages.

Tower Bawher is a 2005 constructivist-style abstract animated short by Theodore Ushev, set to the musical composition "Time, Forward!" by Russian composer Georgy Sviridov.

Kottarashky is a musician and composer who fuses original recordings taken in his native Bulgaria, with electronic music, hip hop, jazz and other music genres. He personally defines his style as “Balkan psychedelic”, but critics consider him as part of the "Balkan beat wave". In November 2009 the German label Asphalt Tango Records released Kottarashky’s debut album “Opa Hey”. A few months later he founded the band Kottarashky & The Rain Dogs. In 2012 they released together his second album “Demoni” under the same label.

<i>Lipsett Diaries</i> 2010 Canadian film

Lipsett Diaries is a 2010 short animated documentary about the life and art of collage filmmaker Arthur Lipsett, animated and directed by Theodore Ushev and written by Chris Robinson. The 14-minute film was produced by the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, where Lipsett had worked from 1958 to 1972, before committing suicide in 1986. The film is narrated by Xavier Dolan.

Subconscious Password is a 2013 3-D animated film by Chris Landreth offering an imaginary, comedic look at the inner workings of Landreth's mind, as he tries to remember someone's name at a party.

<i>Gloria Victoria</i> 2013 Canadian film

Gloria Victoria is a 2013 3-D anti-war animated short by Theodore Ushev, produced in Montreal by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). A film without words set to the music of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony, Victoria Gloria is final film in a trilogy of NFB animated shorts by Ushev on art, ideology and power, following Tower Bawher (2005) and Drux Flux (2008).

<i>Me and My Moulton</i> 2014 film

Me and My Moulton is a 2014 Canadian-Norwegian animated short film written and directed by Torill Kove. It premiered at the 2014 Annecy International Animated Film Festival on 10 June 2014. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 87th Academy Awards. Me and My Moulton won the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Animation at the 2015 Yorkton Film Festival.

<i>The Tesla World Light</i> 2017 Canadian film

The Tesla World Light is an 8-minute 2017 black and white avant-garde film by Montreal director Matthew Rankin imagining the latter days of inventor Nikola Tesla in 1905 in New York City. Rankin has stated that he was interested in exploring Tesla's optimistic utopian vision. The film is a fanciful amalgamation of elements from Tesla's life including his 1905 pleadings for J.P. Morgan to continue funding his World Wireless System and his love for a pigeon. Rankin has stated that "everything in the film is drawn from something [Tesla] wrote or said." The film uses excerpts of Tesla's actual letters to Morgan, which the filmmaker found in the Library of Congress; even a reference to Tesla falling in love with an "electric pigeon" was based on an interview with Tesla, according to Rankin. The film is produced by Julie Roy for the National Film Board of Canada.

<i>Animal Behaviour</i> (film) 2018 Canadian film

Animal Behaviour is a Canadian animated short film directed by Alison Snowden and David Fine, which was released in 2018. The duo's first animated theatrical short since their 1993 Oscar-winning film Bob's Birthday, the film centres on a group of animals who meet weekly for a group psychotherapy session in the offices of psychiatrist Dr. Clement.

Demoni is a Canadian-Bulgarian animated short film, directed by Theodore Ushev and released in 2012. A music video for the song of the same name by Bulgarian musician Kottarashky, the film depicts scenes of Eastern European folk art on a spinning vinyl record.

<i>The Physics of Sorrow</i> 2019 Canadian film

The Physics of Sorrow is a Canadian animated short film, directed by Theodore Ushev and released in 2019.

<i>The Flying Sailor</i> Animated short film inspired by real events

The Flying Sailor is a 2022 Canadian independent animated short film directed by Oscar-nominated directors Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis. The film debuted at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and has received several nominations and awards, including a nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 95th Academy Awards, and winning the award for the Best Canadian Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

References

  1. ↑ "Berlinale 11-21 Feb 2016 Journal" (PDF). Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin. p. 62. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 December 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Duchesne, André (29 November 2016). "Vaysha l'aveugle voit du pays". La Presse (in Canadian French). Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  3. ↑ Milligan, Mercedes (4 August 2016). "NFB Animations Head to TIFF". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Wysocka, Natalia (19 February 2016). "Berlinale: Vaysha l'aveugle, regard présent". Métro (in Canadian French). Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  5. 1 2 Mitchell, Ben (17 February 2016). "Theodore Ushev discusses latest work 'Blind Vaysha'". Skwigly . Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  6. ↑ Brownstein, Bill (24 January 2017). "Eyes on the prize: Montrealer's NFB short Blind Vaysha gets Oscar nod". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  7. ↑ "L'ONF remporte deux des plus grands honneurs à Annecy". Le Huffington Post (in French). 18 May 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  8. ↑ Milligan, Mercedes (25 September 2016). "'J'Aime les Filles,' 'Louise' Take Ottawa Grand Prizes". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  9. ↑ "TIFF announces lineup for Canada's Top 10 Film Festival". CBC News, December 7, 2016.
  10. ↑ Brent Furdyk, "2017 Canadian Screen Awards: And The Winners Are…". ET Canada , March 12, 2017.
  11. ↑ Pat Mullen, "'It's Only the End of the World' Leads Quebec's Prix Iris Winners". Cinemablographer, June 4, 2017.
  12. ↑ 2017|Oscars.org
  13. ↑ Ahearn, Victoria (24 January 2017). "NFB animated short 'Blind Vaysha' by Theodore Ushev among Canucks up for Oscars". Winnipeg Free Press. The Canadian Press. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  14. ↑ ""Сляпата Вайша" оживява на български с гласа на Теодора Духовникова". Impressio (in Bulgarian). 17 February 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.