September 13, 2002 - Today's Other News Items

Documentary On UO Animation Course Wins Award

A short documentary film created in a journalism course at the University of Oregon has won a second-place award in the education category at the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International (KAFI).

The documentary, entitled "Animania," is an 8-minute short about the UO Department of Art's motion graphics and animation classes. Three students created the film in a documentary filmmaking class led by Dan Miller, assistant professor of journalism and communication.

Students Amy Mills, Sridevi Palanivelu and Mark Roush shot and edited the film in fall 2001. First, it garnered recognition when the UO Student Film and Video Association accepted it. Then, UO art professor Kenneth O'Connell entered the film in the KAFI competition in January, where it competed with 12 other entries from prominent national programs. The KAFI results were announced in May.

The film features top-tier fine arts students who did independent projects in O'Connell's animation and motion graphics program. "Animania" is about the UO art department's success in teaching the physical craft of animation and storytelling. Several clips of students' projects are featured in the short.

The film also includes an interview of former art professor David Foster, who started teaching animation and film in the 1950s and introduced video and computers to the curriculum decades later.

"Dan Miller is an old friend, and he was talking with me in the art department and saw all of the interesting activity," recalls O'Connell. "He said to me, 'This would make a great documentary!'"

Miller has had plenty of success with his students' work. Since Miller started teaching the documentary filmmaking course in 1994, 24 student projects have aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting. One film created in Miller's class, on first-generation Chinese immigrants, won a Northwest Regional Emmy Award and has been nominated for three other projects.

OPB's series "Oregon Lens" showcased another film also created by Amy Mills in Miller's class. Mills' film, "WOW! Not just a building," a documentary featuring Eugene's WOW Hall, was aired in August.