Freeze Frame

Hand-drawn animation — at the going rate of 24 cels per second — may be the most labor-intensive form of filmmaking ever concocted by man, but stop-motion is right up there. The favored format of Henry Selick (Coraline), stop-motion animation requires a special combination of imagination, obsessiveness, and, for a feature-length film, a ginormous friggin’ staff. However, the technique also appeals to filmmakers strapped for resources, and with more time than money. "Stop and Go," a shorts program assembled by Bay Area filmmaker and artist Sarah Klein, brings together a cadre of gifted artists who apply detail-oriented diligence to whimsical and poignant concepts. Jen Stark populates her 68-second Papermation with cutouts, for example, while Meredith Holch uses vintage postcards and back issues of Vermont Life to convey the (d)evolution of the rural Northeast in her seven-minute epic Picture Perfect. The common thread connecting the dozen or so works on the bill is a handmade, hands-on, heart-in quality, which makes them especially inviting and accessible for children — even if they aren’t old enough to count to 24.
Sat., May 9, 2 p.m., 2009