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Gratzfilm Filmography

 

History, Mystery, & Odyssey: Six Portland Animators

Role: Executive Producer

Year: 2023     

Time: 90 minute  

Martin Cooper’s documentary feature explores the innovative work and lives of notable independent directors: Jim Blashfield, Rose Bond, Joan Gratz, Zak Margolis, Joanne Priestly, and Chel White. 

Screenings: Ottawa 2023, Annecy 2024, Hiroshima 2024  

 

One-Minute Mistake

Role: Producer, director, animator

Year: 2023

Time: 14 min 32 seconds

A collection of eight shorts based on the theme, error; be it in science, taste, decisions or personal choice. The directors are Joan Gratz, Jim Blashfield, Chel White, Martin Cooper, Marilyn Zornado, Janet Perlman, Diane Obomsawin, and Chris Hinton.

 

Battle for Swan Lake

Role: Producer, director, animator

Year: 2023

Time: 2 min 56 seconds 

Cats, a dog, and a fish head perform the ballet, Swan Lake. 

 

No Leaders Please  

Role: Producer, Director, Animator

Year: 2020

Time: 2 min 56 sec

An animated film based on the poem by Charles Bukowski. Paintings inspired by Basquiat, Banksy, Haring,and Weiwei represent the poem’’s theme of self-invention.

 

Retention Department of Perpetual Exhaustion

Role: Producer, Director, animator

Time: 12 min 8 sec

Year: 2022

Six directors imagine the Retention Department of Perpetual Exhaustion. The directors are Chris Hinton, Jim Blashfield, Marv Newland, Martin Cooper, Chel White, and Joan Gratz. Inspired by my internet service provider, it is a place of last resort, where there is no hope and never a solution.

 

The One-Minute Memoir 

 Running time: 16 min 30 sec   

 Year 2018-2019    

 Role: Director, producer, animator, editor

The One-Minute Memoir is comprised of short films by directors: Chris Hinton,  Paul Driessen, Dennis Tupicoff, Joan Gratz, Theodore Ushev, Janet Perlman, Marv Newland, Jim Blashfield, Bill Plympton, Diane Obomsawin, and Chel White. I chose the directors, they determined the content and technique. The works range from the heartfelt to the absurd.

 

The World Below the Brine     

Running time: 2 min 25 sec    

Year: 2019   

Role: Director, producer, animator  

A poem by Walt Whitman read by a puffer fish in honor of the poet’s

200th birthday.

 

The Second Coming       

 Running time: 2 min 20 sec    

 Year: 2017   

 Role: Director, producer, animator

 An animated film based on William Butler Yeats’ poem

 

Primal Flux  

Running time: 3 min 12 sec   

Year: 2016 

Role: Director, producer, animator

Primal Flux is high-relief clay animated directly before the camera. 

It combines abstract and figurative images to explore the nature of conscious  and unconscious communication.

 

Night Weaver   

Running time: 5 min 45 sec

 Year 2015

 Role: Director, producer, animator

 An animated tapestry of abstract images inspired by the       

 decorative arts of the Islamic world.

 

Gibran’s the Prophet  Chapter on Work

Running time: 4 min    

Year 2014

Role: Director & animator of section “on Work”

      

Lost and Found

Running time: 3’35”

Year: 2012

Role: Director, producer, animator

Life’s passages are evoked in metamorphosing clay images. 

 

Kubla Khan

Running time: 3’42”

Year: 2011

Role: Director, producer, animator

An animated painting based on Samulel Taylor Coleridges’ poem.

 

Puffer Girl

Running time: 5 minutes

Year: 2009

Role: Director, producer, animator

The perplexing adventures of a puffer fish pushing her environmental boundaries.

 

Dowager’s Idyll

Running time: 5 minutes

Year: 2001

Role: Director, producer, animator

An animated kaleidoscope of abstract clay-painted images.

 

Innerplay

Running time: 11 minutes

Year: 2000

Role: Director, animator

An abstract animated film commissioned by the Portland Symphony 

screened in a live concert performance.

  

Dowager’s Feast

Running time: 5 minutes

Year: 1996

Role: Director, Producer, animator

An exploration of the subconscious using abstract images.

 

Pro and Con 

Format: 35mm

Running time: 8 minutes

Year: 1992

Role: Co-Producer, director, animator with Joanna Priestley

An animated documentary about life in prison from the point of view

of a Corrections officer and an inmate.

 

Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase

Format: 35mm

Running time: 7 minutes

Year: 1992

Role: Director, producer, animator

An animated history of 20th century painting . 

 

Digging in the Dirt

Format: music video

Running time: 4 minutes

Year: 1992

Role: Animator, designer clay sequences

Peter Gabriel’s music video, directed by John Downer, combines

live-action, animation and insect and botanical special effects.

Candy Jam

Format: 16mm

Running time: 7 minutes

Year: 1988

Role: Co- Producer, director, animator with Joanna Priestley. A whimsical tribute to candy by directors: David Anderson, Karen Aqua, Craig Bartlet, Tom and Elizabeth Gasek, Marv Newland, Christine Penuska

 

Meet the Raisins

Format: 35mm

Running time: 24 minutes 

Year: 1988

Role: Set designer

A television special produced by Will Vinton Studios for CBS.

 

Claymation Christmas Celebration

Format: 35mm

Running time: 24 minutes

Year: 1887

Role: Sequence director

A television special produced by Will Vinton Studios for CBS.  

 

Vanz Can’t Danz

Format: music video

Running time: 4 minutes

Year: 1986

Role: Set designer and animator

A music video for John Fogerty combining live action and clay animation.

 

Return to Oz

Format: 35mm feature film

Running time: 90 minutes

Year: 1986

Role: Animator

A live action, animation and special-effects feature based on the

books by Frank Baum.

  

The Adventures of Mark Twain  

Format: 35mm feature film

Running time: 80 minutes

Year: 1984

Role: Set designer, special-effects designer and animator

An all clay-animated feature film incorporating the stories of Mark Twain.

 

The Creation

Format: 35mm

Running time: 9 minutes

Year: 1981

Role: Production designer and animator

A claypainted film based on a poem by James Weldon Johnson

and  narrated by James Earl Jones.

 

Dinosaur

Format: 35mm

Running time: 14 minutes

Year: 1980

Role: Animator

An accurate, playful depiction of the time when dinosaurs ruled.

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