Courtesy of Jason Schwartz
Audio By Carbonatix
International Animation Day was officially October 28, but the celebration isn’t over for the Colorado Chapter of ASIFA. The international film association, known by its French name (Association Internationale du Film d’Animation), will hold screenings, a workshop and panels for all ages on Saturday, November 1, at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.
International Animation Day was established by ASIFA to celebrate the art of animation, commemorating the debut of Charles-Émile Reynaud’s Théâtre Optique, which is thought to be the first public performance of moving images. Every year, the organization hosts screenings all over the world to commemorate the day.
“[The 28th] didn’t seem like an ideal day to host an all-day workshop and screening event,” explains Jason Schwartz, the president of ASIFA-Colorado. So the festivities were scheduled for a Saturday.
Courtesy of Jason Schwartz
“The first screening is an all-ages, classic Halloween cartoon screening — just fun cartoons for families to enjoy on a big screen,” Schwartz says.
After the Halloween Classics screening, there will be a hands-on animation workshop, a panel discussion with animators from Powerhouse Animation Studios — the studio that has made a variety of Netflix animated shows like Castlevania, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, and Skull Island, time for networking and a screening of shorts from ASIFA members across the world.
Tickets are free for all of those events, but they are available on a first-come, first-served basis. There is also a paid Rated-R screening from 8:30-9:30 p.m. in which more outlandish shorts will be played; it’s the only event on the roster that isn’t free.
Schwartz knew he wanted to be an animator from a young age.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” he says. “My mom said, since I was three, this is what I said I wanted to be. I always knew that’s what I wanted to do. Movies like Jurassic Park, Roger Rabbit, and The Nightmare Before Christmas were where art meets tech, which is what interested me as a young kid.”
Around 2001, as he was finishing up high school, Schwartz was taking classes at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. There, he was introduced to ASIFA, which had recently started a chapter in Colorado. He met directors like Evert Brown, who inspired him to continue pursuing his passion.
From there, he went to the Rhode Island School of Design.
“When I started school, we were still animating on pencil and paper, shooting under a camera and everything,” Schwartz recalls. “I was in the first digital class where we left with our films on VHS, but there was an option to put it on a DVD if you wanted.”
After he came back to Colorado, Jason reconnected with some friends and decided to submit some content they put together for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, and taught himself how to animate on the computer using 2D.
Courtesy of Jason Schwartz
He was able to get jobs at animation studios like Radical Axis, where he worked on shows like Squidbillies and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, moving to Atlanta in the process. He joined ASIFA and went on to work for companies like Bento Box, and started a freelance animation company called Greenshoe Animation to produce freelance work.
Schwartz tells Westword that being part of ASIFA has given him an opportunity to foster the animation industry and create programming aimed at helping young creatives explore animation.
When Schwartz moved back to Denver last year, he found that the Colorado chapter of ASIFA had shut down during the pandemic and, having been involved with the chapter based out of Georgia, wanted to provide support for the animation community here. After restarting a few months ago, ASIFA-Colorado already has around thirty members.
ASIFA was created to connect those from across the globe who work in animation. Local chapters put on screenings, workshops and mixers to help cultivate the animation industry in their areas.
Schwartz says that he hopes ASIFA-Colorado’s return will be to support Colorado’s burgeoning animation and film industry.
“I saw Atlanta build over 20 years… there was a station that did animation there, and it was a couple of little things, and it blew up. It exploded into something right before the pandemic,” Schwartz says. “There were half a dozen network shows or more being done there. Hundreds of jobs, hundreds of animators, designers, editors, background artists. A lot of that came from two things. They had schools that were there with strong animation programs — CU has an animation program, RMCAD has an animation program… so there are schools to train people here. The other big thing that Georgia had was these tax incentives that help fund some of this stuff, and I’ve been in touch with the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media, and they’ve been wonderful. Bringing up the talent level through education and bringing in tax incentives, especially while there is a spotlight on Colorado from Sundance, there’s no reason that Colorado shouldn’t be the next Georgia.”
Schwartz says that while animation is happening in Denver, it is fairly siloed and disconnected. He hopes that ASIFA can be the bridge to connect the industry in Colorado in the future.
The ASIFA International Animation Day celebration is from 1-10 p.m. on Saturday, November 1, at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, 1600 Pierce Street, Lakewood. RSVP or learn more here.
