Yes, he's Russian. I have no clue how to pronounce his last name, but his first name is Andrei.
Here he is autographing my sketchbook, looked on by my animation professor and mentor, PGA:
Apparently, thrusting a sketchbook and pen into the hands of an artist if the universal sign for "sign please!"
He doesn't look like a guy that stirred up much trouble, but apparently the Soviet secret police loved his work so much that they took his first film and locked it up for 20 years and then sent him off in the marines for two years (check the bottom of the post for the video)
These films were screened tonight:
SO TAKE NOTE! Timing is timing, no matter what culture you're talking about. I love the fast pace of these gags. I also love the fact that Andrei first screened this in the motherland when there actually WAS a butter shortage (due to distribution problems).
The other films they screened tonight were more... experimental...
One of the things I'm told is that Eastern European animators are REALLY good at subtlety. There are some very obvious symbolism in here... but if you were asked by the powers that be, it's just about a guy sticking his furniture inside his amoir because it IS!
A warning for the next film (2 parts): It's weird. It's trippy. It's cutout animation. There might be more than one reason why they locked this film up and sent Andrei on a military adventure:
yeah, it's weird and I love it.
I just wish I could speak Russian so that I could've conversed with this guy. My head's stuck in Hollywood right now and it'd be great to hear the other side.
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