Joanna Priestley Explained

Joanna Priestley
Birth Place:Portland, Oregon, United States
Nationality:American
Spouse:Paul Harrod
Field:Filmmaking, animation, teaching, Burning Man events
Training:Rhode Island School of Design
Alma Mater:University of California at Berkeley (BFA 1975), California Institute of the Arts (MFA 1985)

Joanna Priestley (born November 25, 1950[1]) is an American contemporary film director, producer, animator and teacher. Her films are in the collections of the Academy Film Archive[2] in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Priestley has had retrospectives at the British Film Institute,[3] Museum of Modern Art [4] and Hiroshima International Animation Festival in Japan.[5] Bill Plympton calls her the "Queen of independent animation". Priestley lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

Early life and education

Priestley was born in Portland, Oregon to Mae Irene and Arthur James Priestley. She grew up in a wooded area near the Willamette River with horses, dogs, a cat and a huge collection of comic books.

Priestley began experimenting with animation early in her life. In an interview with Harvey Deneroff,[6] she explained: "One of the first toys I was given was a zoetrope, which worked on a little turntable and had little zoetrope strips with it. I loved it! I'm sure I became an animator because of that toy. Then I started drawing on the corners of my textbooks in grade school, and later studied art in high school and college, where I specializing in painting and printmaking."

Education

Priestley studied painting and animation at Rhode Island School of Design and received a BFA in Art (with a minor in Art History) from the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with honors.[7] During her final year there she produced thousands of posters used in protests against the Vietnam War and she was the Art Department representative to the Ad Hoc Committee to End the War.

Priestley received a Master of Fine Arts in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts, where she received the Louis B. Mayer Award. For two years she was the teaching assistant for famed abstract animator Jules Engel. Priestley made the first computer-animated film at Cal Arts, Jade Leaf (1985), using the Cubicomp, early animation hardware that was purchased by Cal Arts in the fall of 1984. Priestley and Engel co-directed Times Square (1986), also using the Cubicomp[8] to generate images and recording them on a 16mm Bolex camera on a tripod, positioned in front of the monitor.

Career

In 1977, Priestley co-founded and co-directed (with Martha Kelley) Strictly Cinema in Bend, Oregon. They presented film festivals in Bend and weekly film screenings at Bend and Redmond High Schools. She became the regional coordinator, editor of The Animator and coordinator of the Northwest Film and Video Festival at the Northwest Film Center at the Portland Art Museum from 1978 to 1983. Gene Youngblood, one of the jurors of the Northwest Film and Video Festival, encouraged her to apply to Cal Arts, which she did in 1983. In 1988, Priestley founded ASIFA-Northwest with Marilyn Zornado. This ASIFA chapter included the northwest region of the United States which comprised Portland, Seattle, Vancouver B.C., and the areas in between. Priestley was president of ASIFA-NW for four years. The organization is now known as ASIFA-Portland.

In 1985 she founded her own company, Priestley Motion Pictures, where she has directed, produced and animated 31 short films,[9] the IOS app Clam Bake[10] (2014) and the award winning abstract feature film North of Blue[11],. Animated Women: Joanna Priestley,[12] a short documentary with three of Priestley's films, was broadcast on PBS and BBC2 in 1995–96.[13] Priestley has directed animation segments for Sesame Street ("“The Lumps: Rejection Victories” and “The Lumps: Social Skills”, 1990), and directed and animated music video sequences for Tears for Fears (“Sowing the Seeds of Love”, 1988) and Joni Mitchell (“Good Friends”, 1985) and a PBS series title: “Making Peace” (1996). After directing and producing short films from 1979 to 2015, Priestley made an abstract feature film, North of Blue, which premiered at the Annecy International Animation Festival[14] in France in June, 2018. North of Blue has won multiple awards, including Best Experimental Film at the Indie Film Awards (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Best Animated Film at the Yosemite International Film Festival (CA, USA),[15] Best Feature Film at the Los Angeles Animation Festival (CA, USA)[16] and Best Sound Design Award and Best Feature Original Score Award at the Local Sightings Film Festival, NW Film Forum (Seattle, WA, USA).[17]

Joanna Priestley is featured as one of six interviewees in Martin Cooper's feature documentary History, Mystery & Odyssey: The Lives and Work of Six Portland Animators (2023). The other interviewees are Joan C. Gratz, Jim Blashfield, Chel White, Rose Bond and Zak Margolis.[18] The film premiered at the 2023 Ottawa International Animation Festival.[19]

Priestley has received fellowships from Creative Capital,[20] National Endowment for the Arts (USA),[21] American Film Institute (USA),[22] Fundación Valparaíso (Spain), Millay Colony (USA), Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (Canada)[23] and the Caldera Arts Foundation (USA). She was awarded the 2007-08 Media Arts Fellowship from the Regional Arts and Culture Council[24] and her films are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, USA), the Academy Film Archive (Los Angeles, CA, USA) and the Library of Congress (Washington DC, USA).

Priestley's influences include Hilma af Klint, Mary Ellen Bute, Jane Aaron, David Hockney, Evelyn Lambart, Norman McLaren, Jules Engel, Len Lye and Antoni Gaudi. She has taught animation, portfolio design and cinema history at the Northwest Film Center/Portland Art Museum, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Art Institute of Portland and Volda University College (Volda Norway) as well as teaching animation workshops throughout the US and in Canada, Germany and Norway. She is an active proponent of animation as an art form and has worked throughout her career to improve the status and exposure of animation in academia, museums, galleries and the media worldwide. Priestley has presented two papers at the Society for Animation Studies Conference, including "Creating a Healing Mythology: The Art of Faith Hubley" in 1992, which was published in the Spring 1994 issue of Animation Journal.[25]

Priestley has been an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1992 and the Short Films and Feature Animation Executive Committee (2018 to 2022). She has served on the board of the Regional Arts and Culture Council and been a member of the Public Art Committee in Portland, Oregon.

Filmography

Music videos

Television

DVD compilations and iOS app

Retrospectives

Awards/accolades

Personal life

Priestley's interests include hiking, medicinal herbalism and designing and producing performative events for Burning Man[64] and All Hallows Eve.[65] She is married to award winning animation director and production designer Paul Harrod (Isle of Dogs,[66] Wendell & Wild,[67] and The PJs[68]).

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Bendazzi, Giannalberto. Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times. 2015-11-06. CRC Press. 978-1-317-51987-4. en.
  2. Web site: The Rubber Stamp Film - Academy Collections. oscars.org/ .
  3. Web site: Joanna Priestley Retrospectives & Screenings Set for Stuttgart, BFI. April 26, 2017.
  4. Web site: TJoanna Priestley. www.cccb.org/ .
  5. Web site: International Jury. August 21, 2014.
  6. Web site: Joanna Priestley Animator - Life and Work Interview. Dec 31, 2004. Jul 29, 2019.
  7. Web site: Michael Sporn Animation – Splog » Joanna Priestley. www.michaelspornanimation.com. 11 June 2018.
  8. Web site: Times Square (1986). 5 May 2018. www.imdb.com.
  9. Web site: Joanna Priestley. IMDb. 5 May 2018.
  10. http://www.primopix.com/articles/cartoonbrew_12.html
  11. Web site: North of Blue. IMDb. 5 May 2018.
  12. News: TELEVISION REVIEW; The Art of Women's Animation. John J.. O'Connor. The New York Times. 5 April 1995. 5 May 2018.
  13. http://f.norytimes.com/1995/04/05/arts/television-review-the-art-of-women-s-animation.html
  14. Web site: Annecy > Programme > Index. www.annecy.org. 5 May 2018.
  15. Web site: North of Blue - Awards. IMDb. 5 May 2018.
  16. Web site: North of Blue, Joanna Priestley. cinemarket.io. 5 May 2018.
  17. Web site: Local Sightings Film Festival 2018: North of Blue. nwfilmforum.org. 23 September 2018.
  18. https://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/2023/08/six-of-portlands-most-gifted-animators-are-the-focus-of-a-new-documentary-that-screens-sunday.html Six of Portland’s most gifted animators are the focus of a new documentary
  19. https://www.cartoonbrew.com/documentary-2/portland-based-animator-documentary-history-mystery-odyssey-231652.html Six Portland-Based Animators Step In Front Of The Camera
  20. http://creative-capital.org/projects/view/202
  21. Web site: Joanna Priestley .
  22. Web site: The Portable MacDowell. The Portable MacDowell. 7 August 2017. 8 February 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180208115626/http://portablemacdowell.org/#artists/joanna-priestley. dead.
  23. Web site: Past Participants. 29 September 2016. klondikeinstituteofartandculture.ca. 5 May 2018.
  24. Web site: Individual Artist Fellowships. racc.org.
  25. Web site: Animation Journal essays. www.animationjournal.com. 7 August 2017.
  26. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5667860/ The Rubber Stamp Film
  27. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457565/ The Dancing Bulrushes
  28. Web site: Voices. imdb.
  29. Web site: After the Fall. imdb.
  30. Web site: Pro and Con. imdb.
  31. Web site: Utopia Parkway. imdb.
  32. Web site: Andaluz. imdb.
  33. Web site: Streetcar Named Perspire. imdb.
  34. Web site: Missed Aches. imdb.
  35. Web site: Split Ends. imdb.
  36. Web site: Bottle Neck. imdb.
  37. Web site: North of Blue. imdb.
  38. Web site: Special Events: The 50 Foot Challenge. nwfilm. 4 October 2018.
  39. Web site: Jung & Restless. imdb.
  40. Web site: Fighting Gravity: Films by Joanna Priestley. DVD.com.
  41. Web site: Relative Orbits: Films by Joanna Priestley. University at Buffalo Libraries.
  42. Web site: Best of Tricky Women 2009. tricky women.
  43. Web site: Clam Bake. Cartoon Brew. 16 August 2012.
  44. Web site: Retrospective Joanna Priestley. fantoche.ch. 17 July 2019.
  45. Web site: An Evening With Joanna Priestley. nwfilm.org/. 27 October 2017.
  46. Web site: Joanna Priestley Retrospectives & Screenings Set for Stuttgart, BFI. awn.com. 5 May 2018.
  47. Web site: Joanna Priestley to Appear at Stuttgart, British Film Institute. 27 April 2017. animationmagazine.net. 5 May 2018.
  48. Web site: Joanna Priestley Retrospective - tricky women. www.trickywomen.at. 5 May 2018.
  49. Web site: Department of Art Education & Crafts. www3.kutztown.edu. 5 May 2018.
  50. Web site: Animated Worlds of Joanna Priestley - Cinema Pacific. cinemapacific.uoregon.edu. 5 May 2018.
  51. Web site: Guest of Honor: An Evening with Joanna Priestley | POWFest . 2017-09-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170916012541/http://powfest.com/an-evening-with-joanna-priestley/ . 2017-09-16 . dead .
  52. Web site: Joanna Priestley. 29 July 2009. redcat.org. 5 May 2018.
  53. Web site: 'Floreana,' 'North of Blue' Top LA Animation Festival. awn.com. 5 December 2018.
  54. Web site: Yosemite International Film Festival. imdb.com. 5 December 2018.
  55. Web site: Local Sightings Film Festival 2018 Winners Announced. nwfilmforum.org. 1 October 2018.
  56. Web site: Finalists - Animation. festeuro.ru. 2019-08-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20190802004244/http://festeuro.ru/finalists/. dead.
  57. http://www.blackmariafilmfestival.org/Program_Booklet_files/BMFF-2014-Program.pdf
  58. Web site: aaff. aaff. 26 March 2013 . 5 May 2018.
  59. News: ASIFA-SF Spring Festival Winners Announced. Animation World Network. 23 July 2012.
  60. Web site: "Interview" & "Enrique" Among Top Short Winners at Oscar-qualifying USA Film Festival. Brian. Brooks. 6 May 2011. indiewire.com. 5 May 2018.
  61. Web site: Joanna Priestley - Regional Arts and Culture Council. racc.org. 5 May 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20170916054419/https://www.racc.org/team/joanna-priestley/. 16 September 2017. dead.
  62. Web site: Tricky Women 2001 - tricky women. www.trickywomen.at. 5 May 2018.
  63. Web site: 24th Northwest Film & Video Festival: Awards. Andrew. oldsite.nwfilm.org. 5 May 2018.
  64. Web site: Children of Chaos @ Burning Man. wordpress.com.
  65. Web site: Children of Chaos Halloween Bus. wordpress.com.
  66. Web site: Production Designer Paul Harrod Gets into the Details of Isle of Dogs. www.studiodaily.com. 23 March 2018 .
  67. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5181830/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0/ Wendell and Wild
  68. Web site: Paul Harrod. nwfilm.org.

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