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Skip Battaglia

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Skip Battaglia
Born
Carl Battaglia

(1948-04-03) April 3, 1948 (age 76)
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationB.A., Boston College
M.A., Syracuse University
Alma materBoston College
Occupation(s)Animator
Filmmaker
Educator
Years active1980–present
Known forExperimental animated films
AwardsCINE Golden Eagle
Cannes Film Festival Prix du Jury

Carl F. "Skip" Battaglia (born August 14, 1948) is an American experimental filmmaker and animator.[1]

Education

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Battaglia was raised in Buffalo, New York, where he states his introduction to Circle Art in High School changed his life.[2] In 1966 he graduated from St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Philosophy from Boston College,[3] graduating in 1970.[4] He returned to St. Joseph's Collegiate, and from 1971 to 1973 taught high school English.[3] He received his Master of Arts degree from Syracuse University Newhouse School of Public Communications, graduating in 1974. From 1977 through 1981, he was Adjunct Faculty for the University of Rochester Department of Fine Arts. From 1981 through 1987, he served as associate professor in the Department of Communications and Journalism at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. He currently serves as professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology,[5][6] where he teaches courses on film language,[7] and other related film and film production courses.[1]

Battaglia's animations range from pencil, and pastel on paper, as well as paint on film. He has won various awards from film festivals around the world, such as in New York City, Canada, Taiwan, New Zealand, and London.[8] His film Parataxis is taught as part of courses on American Expressionism.[7] He is known for his 1980 short film Parataxis[9] and his 1997 music video for the song Taki Dom.[10] He is best known for his experimental and abstract animation, Crossing the Stream.[11] In 2008, the Ottawa International Animation Festival featured a retrospective of Battaglia's work,[12] and also in 2008 his name was added to the St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute Fine Arts Wall of Honor in recognition of his accomplishments.[13]

Always involved with sound design, Battaglia wrote the libretto for "Car Crash Opera" and took it to Michaela Eremiasova and Jairo Duarte-Lopez, then PhD candidates in music composition at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester NY. The three worked on the opera as a soundtrack, and the soundtrack was performed at the 2006 New York Opera Festival. The animated film short (8 min.), "Car Crash Opera," premiered in January 2012. It has won national and international awards for image and sound.

Battaglia retired in 2016. Presently he is working on two animated films: "Local Squalls" (fully animated; sound design) and "Postcards of People Looking at Landscape" (collage).

Select filmography

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  • Parataxis (1980)[9]
  • Boccioni's Bike (1982)[14]
  • How the Frog's Eye Sees (1985)[15]
  • Pigment Forest (1985)
  • Brainstormers (1986)
  • Academy Leader Variations (1987)
  • Geologic Time (1989)
  • The Animated Star-Spangled Banner (1990)[16]
  • Restlessness (1994)
  • Los ángeles del fin de milenium (1996)
  • Taki Dom (1997).[10]
  • Second Nature (2000)
  • I Would Always Slow the Ocean Down (2001)
  • More True Shit (2003)
  • Crossing the Stream (2006)
  • "Car Crash Opera" (2012)

Recognition

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Of Boccioni's Bike, Boston Globe wrote the film "offers the most successful union of imagery and music".[17]

Of How the Frog's Eye Sees, The New York Times called it a "witty look at the flies, fish and plant life that pass through the title creature's field vision".[18]

Of The Animated Star-Spangled Banner, Philadelphia Inquirer wrote "The Animated StarSpangled Banner is just that, the national anthem sung by a chorus of fifth graders" and "given a highly literal cartoon expression",[19] and Pittsburgh Press called it "hip and original",[20] while Washington Times noted the film "takes punning license with the words of the national anthem as they're spoken by a group of fifth-graders."[21] Variety wrote that the film was "inventively animated," with such imagery as the rocket's red glare becoming a line of Rockettes and then changing into an angry Karl Marx.[22]

Awards and nominations

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Skip Battaglia bio". Rochester Institute of Technology. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  2. ^ "Remembering the Circle Art". Buffalo News. June 7, 1994. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  3. ^ a b "Skip Battaglia education" (PDF). Rochester Institute of Technology. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  4. ^ "Boston College Class of 1970". Boston College. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  5. ^ "RIT faculty talk films in monthly series". The Daily News. November 8, 2010. Archived from the original on 10 November 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  6. ^ Garner, Jack (December 2, 2004). "Cartoon fans can enjoy clever homegrown fun". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. pp. C.1. Archived from the original on January 31, 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  7. ^ a b Steven Heller, Michael Dooley (2008). Steven Heller, Michael Dooley (ed.). Teaching Motion Design: Course Offerings and Class Projects from the Leading Undergraduate and Graduate Programs (illustrated ed.). Allworth Communications, Inc. ISBN 9781581155044.
  8. ^ "Animatus". Animatus. 2008-01-01. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  9. ^ a b Everleth, Mike (April 13, 2010). "Skip Battaglia: Parataxis". Underground Film Journal. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  10. ^ a b Everleth, Mike (November 25, 2010). "Music Video: Taki Dom (With Commentary)". Underground Film Journal. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  11. ^ Garner, Jack (Jan 13, 2006). "Also Playing". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. pp. C.3. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  12. ^ Zahed, Ramin (May 8, 2008). "Ottawa Festival Deadline Only 3 Weeks Away". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  13. ^ "Honor Roll / Recognizing the accomplishments of Western New Yorkers". Buffalo News. May 4, 2008. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  14. ^ a b Coy, Peter (January 5, 1983). "Demand Increasing For Cottage Industry Films". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  15. ^ "Atlanta Film and Video Festival". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. April 14, 1985. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  16. ^ "Short Cartoons Long on Laughs in Animation Compilation". Sacramento Bee. July 12, 1991. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  17. ^ McLaughlin, Jeff (April 8, 1983). "CH.2 Spotlights Animation". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  18. ^ Maslin, Janet (April 5, 1985). "Wildrose by Hansen". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  19. ^ "Animation from around the world". Philadelphia Inquirer. Mar 29, 1991. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  20. ^ Winks, Michael. "Animation Celebration' A Feast For 'toon Junkies". Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  21. ^ "Biograph animations fall short". Washington Times. Dec 26, 1990. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  22. ^ Prouty (1994). VARIETY TV REV 1991-92 17. Volume 17 of VARIETY TELEVISION REVIEWS (illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780824037963.
  23. ^ "Animafest 1986: Specijalna nagrada za zvuk". Animafest (in Croatian). Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  24. ^ "Awards 1987". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
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