Stache And The Inner Walk

Directed and animated by Joanne Fisher

Sound Design: Ryan Von Hagen and Brock Geiger

Producer, Production Support: Tyler Klein Longmire

Mentorship: Carol Beecher

An animated short film.

Produced at Quickdraw Animation Society for the Chris J. Melnychuk Memorial Scholarship and Residency program, 2018-2020.

Winner, Jury Award for Best Alberta Short Film, GIRAF Animation Festival, 2020.
Winner, Jury Award for Best Experimental Abstract Animated Short, Palm Springs International Animation Festival, 2020.
Winner, 1st Place Mixed Media/Independent Experimental Animation, Florida Animation Festival, 2021.

Official Selection:

  • AniMate - Australia Animation Film Festival, Australia, 2023
  • Les Femmes Underground Film Festival, USA, 2022
  • T-Short Online Animation Festival, 2022
  • Cardiff Animation Festival, UK, 2022
  • Detroit International Animation Festival, USA, 2021
  • Animation Celebration Festival, USA, 2021
  • Florida Animation Festival, USA, 2021
  • Unknown Film Festival, Russian Federation, 2021
  • Insomnia Animation Festival, Russian Federation, 2021
  • Overmountain Animation Festival, USA, 2021
  • Craft International Animation Festival, Indonesia, 2021
  • Big Cartoon Festival, Russian Federation, 2021
  • Animae Caribe International Animation and Digital Media Festival, Trinidad and Tobago, 2021
  • Tbilisi International Animation Festival, Georgia, 2021
  • Montreal International Animation Film Festival, Canada, 2021
  • Ottawa International Animation Festival, Canada, 2020
  • Animafilm International Animation Festival, Azerbaijan, 2020
  • Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival, Canada, 2020
  • Ionian Contemporary Animation Festival, Greece, 2020
  • Palm Springs International Animation Festival and Expo, USA, 2020

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Quickdraw Animation Society presents: "Stache and The Inner Walk" by Joanne Fisher.

Salvador Dali's moustache rises in the crypt and journeys into the world of its subconscious.

Produced as part of QAS's Chris J. Melnychuk Memorial Scholarship and Residency program, 2018-2020.

Film completed February 29 2020.

TYLER'S NOTES:

When I worked as the Production Director at Quickdraw Animation Society, an artist-run centre for animators in Calgary, I had the pleasure of supporting this amazing paint-on-glass film by Joanne Fisher. Joanne was a student in one of our scholarship programs, and wanted to make a film about Salvador Dali's moustache coming to life and going on a romp through a surrealist landscape. Of course, we had to make it happen!

Joanne shot this film over a couple years, but final production was completed on a classic vintage multiplane Oxberry Animation Stand (which I had the dubious pleasure of rebuilding after we moved studios.) Joanne was a willing test subject in our multi-plane studio, working with me to establish the right lensing options, proper depth of field for various shots, and establishing how exactly someone could film an animation on the stand using modern digital workflows.

We shot this with a DSLR strapped to the Oxberry, into Dragonframe, with some light compositing and clean-up in After Effects. Our friends and colleagues Ryan and Brock provided an incredible sound design for the film. I was mostly production, producing, and technical support, helping Joanne set up her studios, troubleshooting the inevitable camera and lighting problems, and doing the final compositing and cleanup pass.

She finished the film right on the eve of the 2020 pandemic, oof. However, Stache had it's debut screening at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, which isn't too shabby of a start. From there, it's had a stellar international run, picking up a few awards along the way.

I am very proud to have supported this film through pre-production to its final festival run, and very proud of Joanne for powering through production!