Andrei Khrzhanovsky at Seventy Watershed – Encounters Festival Wednesday 18 November 2009, 6pm

The Russian animator Andrei Khrzhanovsky celebrates his 70^th birthday on 30 November. In honour of his contribution to the art of animation, and coinciding with the world tour of his first feature A Room and a Half, which screens at the London International Film Festival, Bristol’s Encounters presents a unique retrospective of Khrzhanovsky’s early animated films from the Soviet period, including the once-banned Glass Harmonica (1968). These films capture the essence of his art, exposing the threat to humanism in the modern world.

Andrei Khrzhanovsky studied at the Film Institute VGIK in Moscow with Lev Kuleshov. Since 1962 he has worked at the Soviet animation studio Soyuzmultfilm, and in 1993 he organised his own studio, Shar. Since 1982 he has been teaching on the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors. He is the son of the painter Yuri Khrzhanovsky (1905-87), who worked with Russian avant-garde painters and whose canvasses were shown at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg in 2008. Khrzhanovsky has collaborated with contemporary painters such as Vladimir Yankilevsky, Ulo Sooster, and Sergei Barkhin. Khrzhanovsky often makes his figures move against the backdrop of images drawn by well-known masters, including the poets Alexander Pushkin and Joseph Brodsky, but also Federico Fellini. He was twice awarded the State Prize (1986 and 1998) and is a Merited Artist of the Russian Federation (1992).

The screening will be introduced by Andrei Khrzhanovsky and followed by a Q&A session. The programme is presented by Birgit Beumers, University of Bristol.

THERE LIVED KOZYAVIN [ZHIL-BYL KOZIAVIN], 1966

THE GLASS HARMONICA [STEKLYANNAIA GARMONIKA], 1968

ARMOIRE [SHKAF], 1971

THE BUTTERFLY [BABOCHKA], 1972

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT [DOM, KOTORYI POSTROIL DZHEK], 1976

THE KING’S SANDWICH [KOROLEVSKII BUTERBROD], 1985