In Persona Ann Marie Fleming

Animation artist Ann Marie Fleming is a wanderer between styles and cultures. The linking element between Ann Marie Fleming’s multifaceted artistic expression in films is “Stickgirl”, her animated alter ego. Born in Japan and with Australian roots, she combines an Asian way of thinking and aesthetics with western narrative forms and the innovativeness of experimental film. She developed her artistic background in Canada, at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (BFA in Animation) and the Simon Fraser University – School of Contemporary Arts (MFA). Even as a student she made numerous short films featuring “Stickgirl” – a character drawn in a minimalist way with a great expressive potential owed precisely to this reduction. Even in her latest film “Window Horses” (2016) which runs in the animated feature film competition in this year’s ITFS, “Stickgirl” with her funny hairstyle plays a central role. What appears to be childlike at first look, turns out be feminist positioning and the search for the own identity. She links personal issues with a universal story, again and again revolving around the question of origin – backed by a laconic sense of humour. In “The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam” (2003), a documentary family portrait of her greatuncle, she falls back on old family films which she combines with interview sequences and animations. The interweaving of animation, live action and oral history is characteristic of her work, which alwayspoints beyond her own person and is part of a cultural history of migration. As a former fellow of the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Ann Marie Fleming has a personal connection to Stuttgart, where she produced the film “Great Expectations” together with Studio FILM BILDER. In the lead role: “Stickgirl”!

Study of an Apartment (Study of an Apartment)

Regie Director: Martin Rose, Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 1985 / 00:03:30 min.

Waving (Waving)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 1987 / 00:07:00 min.

So far so… (So far so…)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 1988-1992 / 00:01:30 min.

You Take Care Now (You Take Care Now)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 1989 / 00:11:00 min.

New Shoes (New Shoes)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 1990 / 00:05:00 min.

Great Expectations: Not What You’re Thinking (Great Expectations: Not What You’re Thinking)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 1997 / 00:03:00 min.

AMF’s Tiresias (AMF’s Tiresias)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 1998 / 00:05:00 min.

Lip Service EXCERPT (Lip Service EXCERPT)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 2001 / 00:07:00 min.

The Magical Life Of Long Tack Sam EXCERPT (The Magical Life Of Long Tack Sam EXCERPT)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 2003 / 00:07:00 min.

Room 710 (Room 710)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 2004 / 00:07:00 min.

I Was A Child of Holocaust Survivors (I Was A Child of Holocaust Survivors)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 2010 / 00:15:00 min.

Big Trees (Big Trees)

Regie Director: Ann-Marie Fleming / Kanada / 09.2013 / 00:12:21 min.

Window Horses Trailer (Window Horses Trailer)

Regie Director: Ann Marie Fleming / Kanada / 2016 / 00:02:00 min.

Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet, is invited to perform at a poetry festival in Shiraz, Iran, but she’d rather go to Paris. She lives at home with her over-protective Chinese grandparents and has never been anywhere by herself. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians who tell her stories that force her to confront her past: the Iranian father she assumed abandoned her and the nature of poetry itself. The film is about building bridges between cultural and generational divides. It’s about being curious. Staying open. And finding your own voice through the magic of poetry.