Girls love bad boys. Viewers of Etiuda&Anima – no matter what gender they are – will love Kaspar Jancis.On Tuesday Estonian animator will use fifth gear and take us on crazy trip through the world of his animation.  We invite you to Małopolski Ogród Sztuki for first screening of cycle „Self - portraits of animation makers”. It's one of the kind, unrepeatable chance to directly take part in process of making animation movie and see next steps of creation act.

KASPAR JANCIS, born in 1975 in Tallinn, belongs to the group of Estonian animation authors who can be attributed to the Pritt Pärn’s school. Since childhood he has been interested in drawing comic strips and writing stories for which he made illustrations himself. His first moving pictures came into being in the corners of his school notebooks. Later in his school years, his brother’s friend, who was a member of a film club, helped him make a short plasticine puppet animated film. Also early in his life, he became interested in music. He formed a part of the creative core of several rock groups, wrote song lyrics, made arrangements and created tunes.

During his studies at the Tallinn Pedagogical University, which he began in 1996, he completed his first films - the silent film Dr. Maisarve and the Matshalka Case (1996) and the cutout puppet film Flight of the Little White Helicopter (1996), which was screened at rock concerts and also on television. He transferred from the Pedagogical University to the Turku Arts and Media School in Finland in 1997 to study animation under the guidance of Priit Pärn. In Turku he made his debut student film created in mixed technique titled Romance (1999) which participated in several international film festivals and was awarded Grand Prix Grand Prix in the undergraduate competition program at the seventh Animerte Dager festival of animated films from the Nordic and Baltic countries in Fredrikstad, Norway in 2000.

Also his following films brought him international awards: Weitzenberg Street (2002) in Tallin, Dresden, Italy and Great Britain, Marathon (2006) – Grand Prix at the International Animated Film Balkanima in Serbia in 2007 and the Prize for the Best European Film at the I Castelli Animati Festival in Rome.

Jancis makes his films on his own but also in cooperation with his friends from the group which remains under artistic guidance of Priit Pärn. He made the most widely known Estonian feature animated film Frank and Wendy (2005), based on the script of Pärn, in cooperation with Priit Tender and Ulo Pikkov. The film, apart from numerous Estonian awards, was granted the prize for the Best Television Film and Serial from AniFest International Festival of Animation Films, Czech Republic in 2005. Together with a Latvian artist Vladimir Leschiov, he made Villa Antropoff in 2012. In this year’s Anima competition at our festival, his newest film Piano will compete with seventy other productions.

After many years Kaspar Jancis has returned to being an active musicians. He founded a band called Criminal Elephant in order to record music for Ulo Pikkov’s The Year of the Monkey. Soon afterwards the cooperation between five musicians: Jancis (guitar), Eno Kollom (percussion), Danel Aljo (saxophone), Madis Muul (keyboard) and Henry Tisma (double bass) resulted in compositions for several dozen films. The band led by Jancis give a lot of concerts where they perform the film music composed by themselves. They also take part in screenings with live music such as the ones organised during Etiuda&Anima 2012, where they performed during presentations of Estonian animated films.

Self-Portraits of Animation Makers I – Kaspar Jancis

Malopolska Garden of Arts (Large Screening Room)
November 24^th (Tuesday), 7.00 p.m.