Filmmaker Tess Martin visits Anim'est, Romania's biggest annual animation event.
The post Festival Review: Anim’est 2015 appeared first on Cartoon Brew.
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Filmmaker Tess Martin visits Anim'est, Romania's biggest annual animation event.
The post Festival Review: Anim’est 2015 appeared first on Cartoon Brew.
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Cherry blossoms and bunnies... 'Tis the season |
Judgement Day painting on the Voroneț Monastery done in 1547 |
Detail of the seraphim at the Humor Monastery painted in 1535 |
Lives of the saints or rather the martyrdom of them, Voroneț Monastery |
More seraphim at Voroneț Monastery |
A new depiction of Judgement Day |
Seraphim detail |
New Judgement Day at a church in Bucharest |
Detail of the Judgement Day painting in Bucharest. Ioana and I were pleased to see the artists credited inside. |
All of the Judgement Day paintings have the people being 'reconstituted', even if devoured by wild beasts. Such delightful imagery! |
Me Sketching at Voronet |
Detail from the exterior of Voronet. All of these churches have paintings of the Last Judgement... This is the place you want to avoid... |
This is from the Humor Monastery located in Mănăstirea Humorului. |
Me sketching at Humor Monastary |
Detail of the battle in Constantinople. |
Sketch of the Museum of History and Archaeology in the city of Piatra Neamt. |
Recently restored fortress that was much more vertical than the sketch suggests in order to defend from the Turks. |
Sketch of the Carpathian mountains before a hike on September 7th. |
Picture on location from the porch at our little pension. I sketched during breakfast. |
Just call me Indiana Wald! Hiking over a safe but rickety looking bridge in the Carpathians |
I just returned from an awesome week in Bucharest, Romania where I was on the jury of the 9th edition of the Anim'est festival.
Add a CommentWhile animation has been made in Romania for many decades and the country has even produced some internationally recognized figures like Ion Popescu-Gopo, the contemporary animation scene hadn't received much exposure until the founding of the Anim'est festival.
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Red line shows our itinerary... |
The Brasov town square |
A peacock is a good image in Brasov. It is a proud and beautiful city. |
Did you think I would not sketch it? |
Queen Marie's Chapel we thought... Gorgeous with all the moss... |
Me, walking up to the castle... |
Title: The Buried Children
Written by: Daniel Farcas
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc
Language: English
ASIN: B00MBU7I66
Synopsis: This true story is the journal of an orphan child born in Romania in 1980's during Nicolae Ceauscu's communist regime, Daniel becomes a homeless child on Bucharest streets and in the city underground sewers after he runs away from the orphanage and lives through the 1989 Anticommunism Revolution.
Daniel ends up running from the Romanian Secret Service and police that want him dead and he manages to fly to U.S. using someone else passport help by Mariana, an American girl that falls in love with him while in a Humanitarian Mission in Bucharest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Multi Award-winning Children's Author
Ignite curiosity in your child through reading!
Connect with Donna McDine on Google+
A Sandy Grave ~ January 2014 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ 2014 Purple Dragonfly 1st Place Picture Books 6+, Story Monster Approved, Beach Book Festival Honorable Mention 2014, Reader's Favorite Five Star Review
Powder Monkey ~ May 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ Story Monster Approved and Reader's Favorite Five Star Review
Hockey Agony ~ January 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ Story Monster Approved and Reader's Farvorite Five Star Review
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval, Readers Favorite 2012 International Book Awards Honorable Mention and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist
Maggie Steele, the storybook heroine who vaults over the moon, has been attracting thousands of visitors from around the world. So many visitors, in fact, that she’s using a time zone map to keep track of them all.* People are … Continue reading
By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: August 16, 2012
Mirela Roznoveanu is a literary critic, writer, and journalist who has published novels, literary criticism, essays, and poetry. She was also noted as a dissident journalist during the turbulent period in Romania during the late eighties. We talked to Roznoveanu about her book Old Romanian Fairytales, in which she has translated the fairytales she loved as a child.
Bianca Schulze: Can you share a little on your background and describe the moments from your early days, which you would say define you as a writer?
Mirela Roznoveanu: I have always loved to read and this is the most important aspect of my life. I spent my early years reading intensely. The books I came across in my childhood shaped my literary taste. I am grateful to my parents for this gift. From those books I learned not only the craft of writing but also the craft of living. The books I read have helped me win life’s battles and also helped me sustain hardships, go over obstacles, and deal with challenges. The story of my life is too complicated and complex, but it is part of my writing. For a writer, life is the primal matter of inspiration.
BS: In your book Old Romanian Fairytales, readers encounter fabulous fairies and Prince Charming, betrayal, competition and love; they also witness battles with dragons. The tales convey important lessons about morality and responsibility. What do you feel children who read your tales relate to the most?
MR: The fairy tales I have translated are the ones that I loved as a child. As I matured, they brought to me more and more meaning and significance. The rule of law is the most important lesson children learn from these stories. Through fabulous characters they also hear about kindness, courage, responsibility, respect, hard work that overcomes difficulties, and the way they have to relate to society by way of their actions as a whole. These are definitely crucial in shaping any child’s life.
BS: Which age group did you create this book for?
MR: In a way it could be any reader of any age. The older you are the more philosophical meanings you discover in them. Fairy tales were meant in olden times to convey to society and to its future not only the knowledge but also the deep meanings of existence. And these meanings are alive today as well.
BS: The artwork on the pages is colorful and imaginative. How did you select Alexandra Conte to be the illustrator?
MR: Alexandra is my friend and a wonderful writer. She illustrated her books for children and those illustrations mesmerized me; so I asked her to illustrate my book and she
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The Children’s Book Review
Published: August 16, 2012
The present book of English translations by Mirela Roznoveanu, titled Old Romanian Fairy Tales, with illustrations by Alexandra Conte captures and conveys great narratives of the Romanian folklore. This is a book for all libraries that carries children’s books with collections of cultural studies, folklore, and cultural anthropology.
In Pinky the Brave, a King has three sons and one of the most beautiful gardens on earth. In this garden there is an apple tree with golden apples, but the King has never been able to taste them because every year they are stolen. Many heroes have tried to catch the thief but they have not succeeded, and among them there have been even two sons of the King. Finally, Pinky, the youngest prince, decided to try himself to catch the thieves and from this point on he engages in incredible adventures. Soon he finds himself close to an abyss, the portal to the other world. Pinky has the courage to go down, and once there, he encounters three palaces belonging to three dragons. And this is only the beginning of his trials.
Fairy Princess Ileana is the story of the daughter of an old king without male heirs; disguised as a brave prince, she goes to serve another powerful king. On the road, the princess disguised as a brave young prince obtains a magic horse, the brother of the magic horse of her old father. She also finds a golden tress lost by Fairy Princess Ileana. From this moment on the fairy tale will uncover a path no other fairy tales have touched upon before.
In Shinylocks the Brave the entire kingdom of the Red King is immersed in darkness because the ogres had stolen the sun and the moon. The Red King has promised his daughter and half of his kingdom to the one able to recover the sun and the moon from the ogres but all who have tried had been defeated. Shinylocks the Brave starts his own quest, with the Red King’s permission and the way he will succeed is startling and unexpected.
There is a Green King who rules at one edge of the earth in <
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Under a Red Sky by Haya Leah Molnar
A memoir of childhood under Communism, this book offers a real window into that world. Growing up in postwar Bucharest, Romania, Eva lives with her extended family in one house. This includes her grandparents, her parents, two uncles and one aunt. Eva is surprised at age 8 to discover that her family is Jewish, though readers will know it from the start. All of her relatives are unique and interesting. Her father, a filmmaker, survived the Nazi concentration camps. Her mother is a former ballerina who teachers dance to children. Her Aunt Puica spends most of her time in her bedroom reading romance novels while her husband, Uncle Max is running into trouble at work for joking too much about the Communists. Uncle Natan is a bachelor who still lives at home. Her grandmother is prickly and her grandfather is doting. The mix of all of these strong characters forms the background of Eva’s life. They quarrel, fight, make up, love, and joke. It is a family of very human people who are trapped behind the iron curtain, living lives so similar to our own and yet so very different and frightening.
Molnar has set just the right tone with this book. Its universal qualities of family and childhood are played out against the repressiveness of Romanian Communism, yet it is not grim. Moments of humor and humanity shine against the darkness, incandescent against the horrors of Communism. As the book moves on, Eva begins to understand the dangers of her life, creating a tension that makes for intense reading.
Molnar’s depiction of her relatives is told with great relish and delight. They are the sort of family members who shape who you are, and readers can see them shaping Eva as we watch. Each person has their own distinct style and reactions, they are vividly depicted and as the pressures of Communism grow around them, become more and more themselves. The characters are what make this book a pleasure to read, their colorful lives more than enough relief from what could have been a very grim tale.
Highly recommended, this book offers a memoir that reads like good historical fiction. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Reviewed from copy received from Farrar Straus Giroux.
Also reviewed by Killin’ Time Reading.
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