Ancient Culture Meets Animation At Annecy With World Premiere Of “Wolf Dog Tales” On June 4, 2012
New York, NY (May 30, 2012) — Wolf Dog Tales, an animated short film based on ancient beliefs of animal wisdoms, will be having its world premiere on June 4th at this year’s Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Wolf Dog Tales is director Bernadine Santistevan’s first animated film.
The film’s story borrows from Bernadine’s own experience as part of a community of Spaniards living among the Pueblo and Navajo Indians of New Mexico for hundreds of years–a community that continues to practice traditions dating back to the time of Cervantes.
To create Wolf Dog Tales, Bernadine teamed up with Igor, an Emmy winning animator/designer based in New York City and classically trained at Zagreg Film school of animation. A recent example of Igor’s cutting edge animation projects is Stickman, which he developed for the internationally acclaimed techno-illusionist, Marco Tempest. Stickman has been presented at numerous venues across the world, including TED Global and the World Economic Forum at Davos.
Not only are the messages in Wolf Dog Tales based on ancient beliefs, so is the animation. An original technique called ‘Faux Sand Painting Animationâ„¢’ was created for this film inspired by Navajo sand paintings–an ancient religious art form. Details of this technique can be found on the film’s website, www.wolfdogtales.com. In addition, the film’s design features indigenous symbols believed to date back thousands of years.
Asked what’s next, Bernadine said, “Igor and I just completed a series of children’s books based on Wolf Dog Tales, and I’m in the middle of finishing a live-action feature film called Wolf Dog.”
Bernadine added, “Making this film, I learned what it means to create art. I’m hoping that everyone who watches Wolf Dog Tales will feel this magic.”
Wolf Dog Tales will be having its U.S. premiere at the Brooklyn Film Festival on June 5th. You can follow the film on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/wolfdogtales or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WolfDogTales.