JOAN C. GRATZ Animation Director
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
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.
Role: Producer, director, animator
Year: 2023
Time: 2 min 56 seconds
Cats, a dog, and a fish head perform the ballet, Swan Lake.
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.
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.
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.
Running time: 3’42”
Year: 2011
Role: Director, producer, animator
An animated painting based on Samulel Taylor Coleridges’ poem.
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.
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.
