Educational Media Reviews Online

Joanna Priestley has been working as animator for over two decades. Since 1980, she has taught animation and the history of cinema at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Northwest Film Center/Portland Art Museum. She's also an instructor at the Art Institute of Portland. She is well-respected among animation buffs and has been called the “goddess of independent animation.” In Fighting Gravity Priestley presents nine of her early works. These animated shorts are fascinating and will appeal to a wide variety of audiences. You don’t need to be well-versed in “indie” animation to appreciate what Priestley has accomplished.

Priestley uses a variety of techniques to bring her animations to life. In Fighting Gravity she experiments with sand-on-glass, 3-d modeling, computer animation, and stop-action photography, to name a few. In one particularly interesting piece, “The Rubber Stamp Film,” she uses rubber stamp images combined with drawings to create a commentary on television culture. Also, in some of the pieces, the medium becomes as important as the message. In “Surface Dive,” for example, Priestley uses multi-layered animations featuring 2-dimensional drawings under a layer of glass pieces and 3-dimensional models. All three layers are animated to create a unique, fantastical environment. Even though Priestley’s work is considered “experimental,” don’t let that fool you into thinking these are impenetrable or hopelessly abstract. While Priestley’s animations do not present traditional, linear stories, they do provide whimsical, fantasy environments in which inanimate objects take on a “personality” of their own through movement and the accompanying music.

The audio and video qualities on this DVD are excellent. The colors are clear and vibrant on most of the animations. The only animation that appears of slightly jerky and out of focus is “Jade Leaf” an experiment in early computer animation completed at Cal Arts. The lower video quality is actually the fault of the animation technique used to create the film rather than the DVD transfer. Even so, it is great to have this piece included in the Bonus Material because it provides a glimpse into early computer animation and allows viewers to contemplate just how far the art form has progressed. The DVD also contains an interview with Priestley in which she gives a tour of her studio, and describes some of the techniques used in making the films. There is also an interview with Lance Limbocker, a sound designer who has worked with Priestley on several projects. It’s great to finally have Priestley’s work available on DVD. In addition to Fighting Gravity, Priestley has also recently released a compilation of later work entitled Relative Orbits. This DVD can be purchased individually or as a two-disc set with Fighting Gravity. Both of these would make a great edition to any academic or public library collection.