Saturday, March 29, 2025

International Animation Festival (1975-1976)

by G. Jack Urso
 
From the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.

As a late Baby Boomer, growing up, my exposure to animation was a steady diet of Saturday morning cartoons by Warner Brothers, Hanna Barbara, Filmation, and a few others. While some classics were produced, there was a bland sameness about them that did little more than turn off our minds for a half hour or so. Then, in 1975, PBS aired the International Animation Festival, produced by KQED in San Francisco, and my cartoon world grew a little larger.

Hosted by Jean Marsh, who was then enjoying recognition in the United States for her role as co-creator and star of Upstairs, Downstairs, hosts the program, which aired 26 episodes from 1975 to 1976. I also recall seeing it rebroadcast on my local PBS station in 1978. This series literally blew my mind as a kid and allowed me to see animation as more than just a time-killer, but actual art. For decades, I searched the internet and the boxes of bootlegs at comic cons for the series but came up empty handed until about two years ago when the Internet Archive posted what is reported by them to possibly be the only remaining episode of the series, which is presented above from the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.
 
Additionally, I also dug up two other segments I remember that aired on the series. Bruno Bozzetto’s animated short Self Service is a surreal look at a day in the life of a mosquito.

From the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.

This next short by Terry Gilliam, of Monty Python fame, The Miracle of Flight, introduced me to the equally surreal humor of the British sketch comedy troupe, whose series also began airing in the United States in 1975. This short never aired on Monty Python, but the animation style and quirky take on history fit right in.

From the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.

Unfortunately, just this one episode out of the 26 produced is available, though the Internet Archive reports four other episodes may be stored at KQED San Francisco, but not yet converted to a digital format. While certain segments aired on the series may still be available, as in the two clips shown above, some probably are not and not having all these short films available together in one place is a lost opportunity for educational and historical documentation purposes. Hopefully, more of these episodes, if they still exist, will be made available in the future.  

The International Animation Festival is just one example on how PBS exposed children to art from around the world that did more than just entertain, it also broadened young minds to a menu of possibilities beyond the same old diet of regurgitated ideas from the typical Saturday morning fare at the time. The programming of Saturday morning cartoon blocks has disappeared from the American tradition I grew up with — and probably for the best. In working with students, I see their interest in animation is far more diverse than what I had at their age. Yes, most of it is commercially orientated, but with affordable software tools, animators, young and old alike, can more easily give life to their vision and share it with the world.

Just like PBS did 50 years ago.

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