The work of Yale film animator Faith Hubley and her daughter, Emily, will be screened on Tuesday, March 4, at 5:30 p.m. in the Hastings Hall basement Art and Architecture Building , 180 York St. Titled "The Animated Films of Faith Hubley and Emily Hubley," the event is free and open to the public. For mobility impaired access, call 432-2645.
A long-time member of the Yale faculty, Faith Hubley is a senior critic in filmmaking at the School of Art. She has designed, directed and produced 19 animated films celebrating "the joy and wonder of living" and the art of various cultures.
Among the works that will be shown March 4 is the 25-minute "My Universe Inside Out," which provides a personal context for Ms. Hubley's life and work. The film recalls "infancy, childhood, turbulent adolescence, adventurous youth, life with John Hubley and our four children, sudden death, crisis and joy, over 50 years of ceaseless work and struggle, and my present search for meaning," says Ms. Hubley, who narrates the film and also plays cello on the soundtrack. The intimate self-portrait chronicles moments ranging from the tragic child abuse and rape to the seriocomic her parents burn down the family home having forgotten to pay the insurance premiums to the miraculous she bears a child despite being told she cannot conceive . The filmmaker contrasts these moments with a parallel story of the universe.
Other short films 10 minutes or less that will be featured during the presentation are "Delivery Man," "Enough" and "Secret Religion" by Emily Hubley, and "Rainbows of Hawaii" and "Her Grandmother's Gift," collaborations between Faith and Emily Hubley.
Faith Hubley's current work-in-progress, "Beyond the Shadow Place," is an eight-and-a-half-minute film, with an original score by Don Christensen, which provides glimpses into the past and explores traditional symbols of death and renewal. In it are enigmatic scenes featuring spirits, a shaman performing magic healing, a woman juggling, and a bird experiencing a prophetic dream. Images from Polynesia, Java, India and Africa take the viewer to ancient Egypt. At the 12th hour, a wandering soul emerges triumphant. "The final sequence," says Mr. Hubley, "is a festival of light, an affirmation of death and the renewal of life."
Born in New York City, Faith Hubley worked in theater before moving to Hollywood to become a film editor and script supervisor. She returned to New York to work as a script supervisor on Sidney Lumet's "Twelve Angry Men" and James Wong Howe's Harlem Globetrotter film "Go Man Go," which she also edited. In 1955 she and her late husband, John, established their independent animation studio. Their partnership produced films such as "Moonbird," "Windy Day" and "Everybody Rides the Carousel," which broke new ground in the world of animation. The Hubleys employed a free-form visual style and used improvised dialogue, children's voices and jazz artists such as Benny Carter and Dizzy Gillespie to explore new ideas. Their 22 films received scores of prizes, including seven Academy Award nominations which resulted in three Oscars. The Hubleys' work has also been honored in events sponsored by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills and the Venice International Film Festival, as well as The Public Theater and the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City.
Faith Hubley's later work is characterized by world mythology and the art of indigenous peoples. She has been honored at the Cannes, Venice and London film festivals and has received 14 CINE Golden Eagles. She was the honorary president of the 1994 Hiroshima International Animated Film Festival and won the Gold Animation Award at the 1994 New York Expo for her film "Seers and Clowns."
Also a painter, Ms. Hubley has had several exhibitions of her work, including "Faith Elliot Hubley, Painter and Cineaste, A One Person Exhibition of Paintings, Watercolors and Films" at the Theater D'Annecy in France in 1980 and a similar showing the following year at the Animator's Gallery in New York. In 1994 the Zipper Gallery in Los Angeles mounted an exhibit of her oils and works on paper.
In 1995 Ms. Hubley was honored with a retrospective program at Washington D.C.'s National Gallery, and she received a lifetime achievement award from the Black Maria Thomas A. Edison Film Festival: a "Luminary Award in Honor of a Life Advancing the Art of Animation." Also that year the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented a special program exploring the collaborative relationship between Faith and Emily Hubley, who also has received honors for her work.