Festival Dispatch: Drinking and Drawing
Considering it's the first International animation festival on U.S. soil (the others are in Ottawa, Annecy and Croatia), I initially wondered why an event like the [Platform International Animation Festival] wasn't being held in a bigger American city, but now I realize that something like this would be buried in a place like New York. Like myself, a lot of festival attendees are first timers to Portland, Oregon, who thought that Platform would be a good opportunity to see the northwestern city for ourselves. And I must say that's it's well-behaved drivers and trusting "little-city-that-could" demeanor is a perfect fitI mean, I've been here for four days and the city's alphabetical streets and crunchy, slapdash fashion misfires have totally won me over. Never in my life have I used the word "delightful" so many times when describing a city... Two of the most highly anticipated events at the festival are the viewing of the 35mm print of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs and special screening of the rare 2006 Japanese animated film, [Tekkon Kinkreet](http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/tekkonkinkreet/index.html). A film adaptation of the eponymous manga masterpiece by Taiyo Matsumoto, Tekkon Kinkreet has been carrying a word-of-mouth buzz that began long before it played at MoMA's Gramercy Theater back in April. Almost everyone I met spoke of these two screenings as the "don't miss" events of the entire week. Considering the usual year round knee-jerk defensiveness to the stifling industry dominance of Disney and the misunderstood fascination with Japanese imports, you'd think this would be the opposite. And New York-based, [Channel Frederator](http://www.channelfrederator.com/) used their time here to test out an event that they plan on bringing to the big city later this year: "Drinking and Drawing," which occurred last night at The Someday Lounge in the hipster enclave, The Pearl District, brings the two things that animators love the most together in an attempt to create an entire short in one night by divvying up the animated frames seven a piece to each inebriated guest. It wasn't until after I had signed up that I realized that your contribution had to be completed under 15 minutes...I never stood a chance.