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1975 was a decisive year in the life
of Takashi Namiki, the animation producer, historian and the chairman of
Anido (read his profile here). Kihachirō Kawamoto invited Namiki
to go to the Annecy International Animated Film Festival with him. It was not
only his first trip abroad, but also the first time attending such a large
festival dedicated to animation. He’d
attended and organized animation screenings before, but this one week at Annecy
“was like a dream.” To have so many
people gathered together who shared his enthusiasm for the art of animation
caused him to feel strangely elated.
At the time “manga eiga,” as
animation was then known, was not held in such high esteem in Japan. Before going to Annecy, Namiki felt that he
was the only one who truly understood animation as an art. This notion was
shattered completely at Annecy. To learn
that there were so many people interested in animation as an art and to
discover so many wonderful animated works at Annecy was an inspiration to
Namiki.
In 2000, Namiki published a
photographic chronicle of his friendship with the “animated people” of the
world called Animated People in Photo.
It documents the faces of animators, directors, historians, producers,
and the organizers of animation festivals that Namiki met during the 25 years
since that first festival in Annecy.
At Annecy 1975, Namiki could not
speak the language and he didn’t know anybody yet, so he wandered around and
took photographs. The photograph that he
is most proud of is of the great pinscreen animation pioneer Alexandre
Alexeieff (1901-1982), who had shot to fame in 1931 with the film he made with
his wife Claire Parker Night on Bald Mountain (Une nuit sur le mont Chauve). The photograph opens the collection and is
indeed one of the best photographs that Namiki shares with us in this
book. Other favourites of mine include a
shot of Kawamoto chatting with legendary stop motion animator Karel Zeman at Annecy 1987, Barry Purves with
chopsticks in Tokyo in 1995, Břetislav Pojar at Hiroshima 1985, a young Hayao Miyazaki in some kind of a truck or van outside
Shin-Akitsu Station in 1979, anime pioneer Kenzō Masaoka in his home (Tokyo,
1978), Les Drew at NFB Studios (Montréal, 1990), stop motion animation pioneer
Tadahito Mochinaga at Hiroshima 1998, Ward Kimball doing an impression of
Charlie Chaplin while holding a figurine of Chaplin (LA, 1991), legendary
Chinese animator Te Wei (Tokyo, 1981), Yasuji Mori in front of his home (Tokyo, 1992), and Yasuo
Otsuka in a Parisian antique shop (1999).
The photograph of the author himself at Annecy 1975 was taken by
Kawamoto and is also one of the best photographs of the bunch.
Animated People can be ordered
online from Anido. The photos are not
printed on glossy paper, but still look reasonably good. This is a must-have collection for the animation aficionado – though it’s hard to beat Namiki as a
collector: his private archive boasts over 5,000 films and many relics of early
animation. The afterword by Namiki is only in Japanese, as are the profiles of the people photographed, but the photographs are all labelled in English.
Here is a complete list of the people
included in the book by country:
Belgium: Raoul Servais (b. 1928),
Véronique Steeno (b. 1950)
Brazil: Marcos Magalhães
(b.1958)
Canada: Frédéric Back (b. Germany,
1924), Ishu Patel (b. India, 1942), Jacques Drouin (b. 1943), Les Drew, Wendy
Tilby (b. 1960)
China: Yan
Ding Xian (b. 1936), Shuchen Wang (1931–1991), Te Wei (1915-2010)
Croatia: Joško Marušić (b. 1952)
Czech Republic: Břetislav Pojar (b. 1923), Jan
Švankmajer (b. 1934), Jiří Barta (b. 1948), Karel Zeman (1910-89), Michaela
Pavlátová (b. 1961), Pavel Procházka, Pavel Koutský (b. 1957), Vlasta
Pospíšilová (b.1935)
England: Barry Purves (b. 1955), Bob Godfrey
(b. 1921), Brothers Quay (b. 1947), John Halas (b. Hungary, 1912-95), Mark
Baker (b. 1959), Nick Park (b. 1958)
Estonia: Borivoj Dovniković (b.
1930), Priit Pärn (b. 1946)
France: Alexandre Alexeieff (1901-82), Bernard
Palacios (b. 1947), Jean-Luc Xiberras (1941-98), Jean-François
Laguionie (b. 1939), Michel Ocelot (b. 1967), Nicole Salomon, Paul Grimault
(1905-94)
Germany: Bärbel Neubauer (b. Austria), Marec
Fritzinger
Holland: Paul Driessen (b. 1940)
Hungary: Csaba Varga (b. 1945), Edit Bleier, Eva
M. Tóth, Ferenc Mikulás (b. 1940), Gizella Neuberger (b. 1953), József Gémes
(b. 1939), Mária Horváth, Péter Szoboszlay, Szilágyi Varga Zoltán (b. 1951)
Israel: Edward Herscovitz (b. Egypt, 1921-2006)
Italy: Bruno Bozzetto (b. 1938), Giannalberto
Bendazzi (b. 1946)
Japan: Fusako Yusaki (b. 1937, works
in Italy), Hayao Miyazaki (b.1941), Isao Takahata (b. 1935), Kazuko Komatsubara
(1943-2000), Takamura Mukuo (1938-92), Osamu Tezuka (1928), Kihachiro Kawamoto (1925-2010), Yoji Kuri (b. 1928), Yoichi Kotabe (b. 1936),
Yasuo Otsuka (b. 1931), Tadanari Okamoto (1932-1990), Yasuji Mori (1925-92), Norio
Hikone (b. 1936), Taku Furukawa (b. 1941),
Syo Yoshimura, Ryotaro Kuwata, Goro Sugimoto (1924-87), Tadahito
Mochinaga (1919-99), Shinichi Suzuki (b. 1933), Seiichi Hayashi (b. 1945), Kazuhide
Tomonaga (b. 1952), Yoshinori Kanada (1952-2009), Kenzo Masaoka (1898-1988), Masao
Kumagawa (1916-2008)
New Zealand: Bob Stenhouse
Poland: Aleksandra Korejwo
Russia: Aleksandr Petrov (b. 1957),
Fyodor Khitruk (b. 1917), Garri Bardin (b. 1941), Igor Kovalyov (b. 1963,
working in the USA), Yuri Norstein (b. 1941)
Switzerland: Bruno Edera, Georges Schwizgebel (b. 1944)
USA: Bob Kurtz, Caroline Leaf (b. 1946), Charles
Solomon, Chuck Jones (1912-2002), Frank Thomas (1912-2004), Jimmy Murakami (b.
1933), Joan C. Gratz, Marc Davis (1913-2000), Myron Waldman (1908-2006), Ray
Harryhausen (b. 1920), Renya Onasick, Ward Kimball (1914-2002), Will Vinton (b.
1947)
Author & Editor : Takashi Namiki
All Photo by Takashi Namiki
Illustration : Masahiro Katayama
First Edition : June 2000
size: A5 (H210×W148mm) 112P/
Hardcover
94 photos are all monochrome
