What is ASIFA International by David Ehrlich
from Frame By Frame, Spring, 1995
ASIFA was founded in 1960 in France, chartered under UNESCO, as a membership organization devoted to the encouragement and dissemination of film animation as an art and communication form. In its 35 year existence, it has grown to over 1100 members in 55 countries, with large national chapters in such unlikely places as UlanBaatar, Mongolia and Tehran.
The national chapters maintain the most immediate and direct contact with our members, many, like the American regional groups, with their own monthly newsletters and screenings. The international provides the linkage between all the chapters as well as a direct connection to International events such as animation festivals and seminars, which must adhere to ASIFA's regulations.
For international membership and general information:
ASIFA International web site
Borivoj Dovnikovic
Secretary General, ASIFA
Hrvatskog proljesa 36
41040 Zagreb, Croatia
You can become an international member through a local chapter like ASIFA Central. View a list of ASIFA chapters for the closest one to you.
ASIFA International Membership
ASIFA membership is open to all individuals interested in animations. Students, teachers and aficionados are most welcome. You get a lot of benefits with your membership, including the knowledge that you are supporting a world-wide organization that lobbies effectively for the best in animation, that brings the world a little closer to our shores, and that brings hope to hundreds of our colleagues living in poorer circumstances. We need you and we hope you need us. Give us a chance to show you what we can do together.
- David Ehrlich, vice-president, ASIFA International
ASIFA's Connection with Festivals
ASIFA support of a festival aids them with mailing lists, film retrospectives and animation artwork exhibitions. ASIFA maintains a booth at all animation festivals. There is usually an ASIFA party at most major festivals, and ASIFA hosts the CONVERSATIONS WITH A MASTER series. ASIFA has made sure admission to the week of screenings is either free (Zagreb) or discounted ($25 at Annecy).
ASIFA NEWS
ASIFA publishes a 32-page ASIFA NEWS four times a year in its three languages, English, French and Russian. The NEWS has become a source of some of the field's most interesting articles and interviews and is sent airmail to all our members.
ASIFA Employment Databank
Last year we inaugurated the Employment Databank in Praque, run by our Czech Board member, Jiri Kubicek. All ASIFA members may fill out the forms and have them input into the bank at no charge, with free updating. So far, 80 of our members have entered the bank and companies like IMAX and Warner Bros. have accessed the files at a small fee.
Free to ASIFA members, 10.00 US to non-members.
Open to both studios and individuals.
Contact:
Jiri Kubicek
ASIFA Employment Databank Strekovska 1342
182 00 Praha 8
Czech Republic
Fax/Tel: 42-2-858 3203
ASIFA Film and Video Archive
ASIFA has had a Film Archive in Berlin for many years. Under East German control until 1989, it was a bit difficult for members to utilize the films. With the political situation stabilizing the Archive is now affiliated with a University in Babelsberg which is transferring all our holdings to VHS. The films will be available to students and historians to view there, while videos will be freely circulated to ASIFA groups around the world.
ASIFA List of Animation Schools (Vol. No. 2)
Once a year, ASIFA publishes an updated School List, describing animation programs in schools and institutions around the world. The booklet is available free of charge to any ASIFA member who sends for it: Gunnar Strom, MRDH, N-6100 Volda, Norway.
Gunnar Strom
More and Romsdaal College
P.O.B. 188
N-6101 Volda, Norway
ASIFA Pamphlet on Contracts
Robi Engler, our Swiss Board member, is presently working on a pamphlet detailing differences between Anglo-Saxon contracts and French contracts. Antran Manoogian, president of ASIFA Hollywood, will work with him to differentiate American contracts. ASIFA has been asked by its members to consolidate and disseminate information on various legal issues.
ASIFA Children's Animation Workshops
Since 1982, the ASIFA Workshop Group, comprising children's animation workshops in over 30 countries produces one international collaboration each year. Each one run by a professional ASIFA member, films are produced which have been screened at festivals and sold to TV abroad and in the U.S. The project for 1995 is a series of segments based on UNICEF's Rights of the Child Declaration. It will be distributed by UNICEF.
Dissemination of Animation Artwork
ASIFA has done its best to further animation as a fine art. We encourage and organize exhibitions of animation artwork at animation festivals, and we have served as an informal agent for our members, selling art work to collectors in the U.S. and Europe.
Visiting Animators Program
Once or twice a year, together with our other American Board member, Marty McNamara, David Ehrlich brings a Visiting Animator to the U.S., to tour and screen films. In the past three years Lejf Marcussen (Denmark), Michel Ocelot (France), Barry Purves (U.K.) and Bordo Dovnikovic (Croatia) have all toured the U.S., screening films and lecturing at museums, schools and churches.
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