What a pleasure it is to have super-talented animator Katalin Egely back at the Femme Filmmakers Festival. This marks her 4th time at the event, totally 7 short animations submitted over the years. And Egely’s films have won prizes each time, including that Gold Sovereign for Land Without Evil. A very busy lady indeed, but I managed to get Egely’s attention enough to throw some questions her way once again.
With your three films this year – To Know to Fall is a Science, Water Ashes, and Para saber que te quiero – you have once again demonstrated your vivid, layered animated style. How do you define your artistic style?
Visually I want to be as simple as possible to gain more space and freedom for the movements. Maybe the dynamic, the transformations, and the transitions define my style well and that I always have something to tell, animation or any form of art is just a media that helps to express myself.
I always love to ask you about the materials you use to create these beautiful projects. With these 3 films in particular, what art materials do you use? And why do you use certain materials at different times?
If I change techniques in one animation it’s always because I want to separate a message or narrative, not just because something looks better than another thing. I do like to use this change as a tool to add different layers of understanding.
In these films, I used watercolor on paper and papercut/stop motion animation. I love watercolor because it has no limitations in changing any form into any other shape. And I like paper cuts because there I have more dimensions, I have the light, the shadow, the depth of field, and can make very complex visuals, using different kinds of textures.
How much of the work you do is for you, and how much is for other mediums such as music videos? How do you choose the projects you do?
In the last few years I worked only with projects I could identify myself with. Luckily once I do more of these, it’s less possible to be charged by something that has nothing to do with me. For a quite long time I haven’t been looking for only found for projects.
Now I will start to work on my first animated short film script and try to find a found or some kind of economical help. It should be a 2 years process so probably I will need to do some other work parallelly. Traditional animation takes lots of time and work.
What sort of timescales do you work on with animation? It is such a delicate, patient process for such short films.
They are short to watch but not to make… with watercolor one minute takes a month of work, with cutout I can make maybe two minutes in a month.
And what is your process from start to finish? How do you structure your workload and discipline yourself?
First I think about the idea/storyline and then I start to draw. I almost never finish the whole story at a sketch level but start working already on the details of some parts.
Self-discipline was never a problem for me but lately I don’t feel the same motivation that I used to, just because I worked so many years alone. I am quite tired of that. I want to work at least with one other person. I had recently a project with another woman from Canada who asked me to make some animation for her documentary short and I enjoyed a lot working with her. It was inspiring and hopefully we will keep working together soon.
I know you love to travel. Where have you been in the last few years? How much do the cultures around you inspire your work?
I’ve been to many places in the past year, my worst experience was Singapore (not because of objectively, but based on my values nothing is interesting there, instead very frustrating) and maybe the most interesting Cabo Verde, where I wanted to go since like 10 years ago and finally got there and also going to back to Valencia (Spain) where I used to study. It was an interesting time travel with some conclusions. Twelve years ago I decided there that I wanted to move to South America and now I kind of felt the opposite, that it’s nice to travel but still being closer to where I was born and to what I feel familiar in a different way. I think I got old 🙂
In a few days I go to South France for a festival and will visit friends, also excited about that.
What is the hardest thing for you about working in this field? What parts of it make you the happiest?
The hardest is the loneliness. So many hours spent alone. Without a very deep dedication, I believe that nobody could do this.
Happiest… when I first see the movement. Seeing that my drawings are alive and almost look real, and have (transmit) feelings is the best. That’s why it’s called animation
How can we make a greater awareness and importance of not just female filmmakers, but all corners of that including animators, documentarians, and short films too in general?
I never liked when art separates from people. I don’t make short films for festivals where other filmmakers can watch my work. I wish the industry wasn’t like that, I wish that artists spoke more about general problems for everybody and not only about themselves. This vibe irritates me a lot. The whole red carpet thing, spending money on stupid superficial things instead of giving to the directors and for the productions. Even directors have to pay submission fees which is just absurd. I want all my films to be online and available to everyone.
What will you do next regarding film-making? Any plans for yourself for the autumn and winter?
Prepare the short film that I mentioned before. It’s a not-very strict adaptation of one of the chapters of a Don Juan teachings book from Carlos Castaneda. It will be a big challenge… because of the adaptation itself, because of the length and because… I don’t have money for it yet… so you can wish me good luck! 🙂
Ah, and… generally slow down Like the Snail (my new animated music video that going to have the online premiere on the 2nd of October)
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