Independent animation
f r o m J a p a n a
 nd Australia
The Japan Foundation Gallery
Fe b 1 8 – J u ly 2 , 2 0 2 2

C u r a t o r s 			Artists

Deborah Szapiro

Cynthia Burke

Deborah Szapiro is a Sydney-based creative director,curator and academic specialising in animation forbroadcast, exhibition and public projection art. Her
work has been screened extensively by broadcasters
and film festivals worldwide. Szapiro has received two
AFI awards, Dendy, ATOM and IF awards, Gordon Bruce
Award for Humour, PATHE Award, Shell Canada Awardand BANFF Television Award. Deborah founded theJapanime Film Festival, was co-director of the Sydney
International Animation Festival and curates animation
programs locally and internationally, specialisingin Indigenous animation, nationalities of animatedcinema and the work of women animation directors.
Szapiro is passionate about independent animationand mentoring new generations of animators. She
lectures in the Bachelor of Animation at Universityof Technology, Sydney, where her research looks toanimation’s potential as an agent for cultural resilience,social change and innovation. Szapiro is currently
collaborating with the Honda Research InstituteJapan, where she applies storytelling and animation
principles to the design of creative content for sociallyresponsible robots.

Cynthia Burke is an artist belonging to theNgaanyatjarra language and cultural group. Bornin Alice Springs, she spends her time between
Warakurna and Irrunytju (Wingellina) communities in
the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of Western Australia. Burke’s
creative practice covers a broad range of disciplines
including weaving, which she was taught by her mother,a fibre artist and Tjanpi staff member, Jean Burke(dec.) In 2016, Bourke began working with Tjanpi DesertWeavers. Along with co-directing Ngayuku Papa: Tiny,
she was a key collaborating artist on the Manguri Wiltja
project with FORM and Polyglot Theatre. Burke has
worked for Ngaanyatjarra Media as a camera operator
and radio announcer, winning Best Emerging RadioTalent award at the 15th National Remote IndigenousMedia Festival Awards and the Festival Troy AlbertAward for Excellence in Cinematography.

Honami Yano
Honami Yano was born in 1991 on a small islandin Japan. During her college years she went on
an exchange program to the Rhode Island Schoolof Design, which led her to discover independentanimation. At the Graduate School of Film and Media,
Tokyo University of the Arts,she studied under Kōji
Yamamura and created her graduation project,
Chromosome Sweetheart (2017), which received anomination at Frameline Film Festival and manyother film festivals. After graduating, she worked as a
research assistant for three years and also made her
first film after graduation. Produced and supervised byKōji Yamamura, it was the first work for his studio andgallery Au Praxinoscope. The film, A Bite of Bone won
the grand prize for short animation at the 45th editionof the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Yano currently works for Nagoya University as a
Designated Assistant Professor and is currently
producing a new work, The Story of my First Love andthe Rainbow Ferry that was Sold (provisional).

Jonathan Daw
Jonathan Daw is a stop motion animation director. Daw
started animating while studying a Bachelor of Creative
Arts (Honours) in Film Production at Flinders University,
South Australia. He now lives in Alice Springs and has
worked extensively in Central Australia on collaborative
animation projects for organisations including Tjanpi
Desert Weavers, Tangentyere Artist and Indigenous
Community Television. Between 2011 and 2017, Daw
worked for Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media
in the Central Australian Aboriginal community ofYuendumu. At PAW Media he worked on several
animated projects including Bush Mechanics withWarlpiri filmmaker Jason Japaljarri Woods, Kardiyarlu Kangurnu, and Yarripiri’s Journey for the Songlines
on Screen series. He also enjoys teaching the craft ofanimation and has conducted animation workshops
for First Nations Media, ICTV, Carclew Youth Arts andThe Mulka Project. Daw’s solo directorial films Daffodil,
Extreme Makeover, Catch of the Day and The Seagull
have won numerous awards and have been exhibitedinternationally.

Jake Duczynski

Anthony Lawrence

Jake Duczynski is a director, animator and writer who is

Anthony Lawrence is an award winning stop motion
animator based in Melbourne. Inspired by animations
such as Gumby, The Castle and Wind and the Willows,
he purchased a Super 8 camera and began mastering
his animation skills in high school. Early films include
the Mad Max comedy spoof Naughty Boy and theambitious 27-minute stop motion animation Happy
Hatchday to Plasmo. Lawrence’s film Looking for Horses
was broadcast on SBS and won Best Animation at two
Australian film festivals and was awarded a Special
Distinction at the Annecy International AnimatedFilm Festival. Lawrence’s expertise with in-camera
animation effects in stop motion has been widely
utilised in commercials, and in the Oscar nominatedfeature film Mary and Max. His film Grace Under
Water has screened at numerous international film
festivals and won the Yoram Gross Award at the SydneyInternational Film Festival (2015) and Best Short
Animation at 4th AACTA Awards (2015).

committed to cultural preservation and telling edifying
Indigenous stories. A proud Indigenous Australian
man of Gomeroi and Mandandanji descent, Duczynski
explores storytelling through animation, working toestablish cultural collaboration, facilitate culturalpreservation and visualise stories unseen and untold.
As a writer and director on the groundbreaking series
Cooked (2021), Duczynski uses comedy and satire
to explore a collectively-lived Indigenous Australianexperience and to hit home some hard truths. His
collaborative works include My Grandmother’s Lingo(Dir: Angelina Joshua, 2016), designed to revive
and preserve the First Nations language, After theApology (Dir: Larissa Behrendt, 2018) and the NITV
documentary Remaking The Pathway (Dir: EmmaHudson, 2018) about reviving connection to homeland.
Duczynski is co-owner and creative director at Studio
Gilay (formerly Studio Hackett), which develops a slateof original animated works and is committed to forging
a pathway for a new generation of creatively driven
animators.

Simon Japanangka Fisher (Jr.)
Simon Japanangka Fisher is a Warlpiri man fromYuendumu community. He grew up in Yuendumu andattended high school in Alice Springs. In 2013 he began
working at PAW Media in Yuendumu where his father
also works as an archivist. Japanangka Fisher has
directed three documentaries: Kardiyarlu Kangurnu,
an animated film about first contact between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Central
Australia, Nyurruwiyi Yurrumpi, about the history of theYuendumu Community (winner of the CBF Award forexcellence in Community Television at the 2016 Remote
Indigenous Media Awards) and Yarripiri’s Journey for
Screen Australia and the NITV Songlines on ScreenSeries. He lives in Yuendumu with his family.

Kiyamamizuki
Kiyamamizuki was born in Osaka, Japan in 1992. Herdecision to follow a career in animation was inspiredby seeing short animations made by directors fromher generation at a film festival. Her film On the Way
Home (Kaerimichi, 2018) was screened at numerous
international film festivals. In 2019, she received her
Master’s from the Graduate School of Film and New
Media, Tokyo University of the Arts. Her graduation film,
Bath House of Whales (Kujira no Yu, 2019) premiered atthe prestigious Annecy International Animation Festivaland won the Lotte Reiniger Award for Animated Film at
the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Filmand the Special Jury Prize at the Pia Film Festival.

Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media andCommunications
Remote Indigenous media organisation, Pintubi
Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media and Communications
is a community owned and directed media andtechnology provider. It empowers Pintubi, Anmatjere
and Warlpiri people by celebrating, recording andpromoting culture and language and providing themeans to assert their identity and share aspectsof their culture and language that they choose to
make accessible to others. Based in Yuendumu in
the Northern Territory, PAW leads in animation andtraining in the Indigenous media sector, beginningin the 1980s with the first Warlpiri animation, TwoJanagalas and the award winning 1990s mixed Warlpiri
language children’s series Manyu-Wana. In 2010, PAW
embarked on an ambitious animation program thathas produced a number of series, short films andanimated documentaries. Using clay, sand and 2D
computer animation, PAW Media utilises animation totell Jukurrpa and contemporary stories, oral histories
and comedies, continually innovating with media andtechnology to tell their stories, their way.

Ryōtaro Miyajima

Shinobu Soejima

Ryōtaro Miyajima was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1989 andgrew up in Bali, Indonesia. He received a Master’s fromthe Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo
University of the Arts in 2017. He is currently enrolled in
the university’s doctoral program. His film, Radio Wave
(2016), received the Graduation Film DHL Diversity
Prize at the 18th Bucheon International Animation
Festival, and was selected to screen at 32 film festivals
in 21 countries. His film Aeon (2017) was nominatedin Animafest Zagreb, and was selected to screen at
19 international film festivals. The Castle, produced in
2019, has been hugely successful on the international
festival circuit, winning 12 awards and screening at
60 film festivals in 34 countries. Miyajima’s work ischaracterised by his expressive monochromatic handpainted watercolour style. He is currently working on hisnext film The Return.

Shinobu Soejima creates stop motion animation andsculptures that explore impermanence and fear of
the unexpected. Many of her works incorporate motifs
from Asian folk stories and religious ceremonies. Afterspending nine years in Malaysia, Soejima enrolled in
UCLA Slade School, graduating in sculpture. Whileworking as an exhibiting sculptor, she embarked on aBachelor of Intermedia at Tokyo University of the Arts.
She also later completed a Master of Animation in theDepartment of Film and New Media. Soejima’s 2018 film
The Spirits of Cairn won the 4th Heisei Geijutsu Award,
the Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi, also known as theEriko Kimura (Yokohama Museum’s chief curator) Prize,
the 22nd Japan Media Arts Festival Jury’s Award andthe Entertainment Division of the 24th Campus Genius
Contest. Her most recent stop motion animation, Blinkin the Desert (2021) is already receiving attention on theinternational festival circuit.

Jilli Rose
After brief careers as a croupier, archaeologist, andprinting press assistant, Jilli Rose taught herself toanimate and has been gleefully making things moveever since. She was an award winning co-owner,producer, director, and animator at Phleschbubble
Productions before starting Bespoke Animation in 2012.
Originally known for her lively and engaging multiscreen museum displays of ancient creatures andenvironments, Rose has also created award winninggraphics for documentary features and television series
including the Emmy nominated Defiant Requiem, thePeabody Award winning Silence of the Bees and themuch-loved title sequence for the Discovery Channel
series Mythbusters. Rose’s short independent films
have participated collectively in over 150 film festivals,
including Clermont-Ferrand, SXSW, Vimeo Staff Picks
and Mountainfilm, and won numerous awards.

Jelena Sinik
Jelena Sinik is an award winning animator, illustrator
and filmmaker from Sydney’s Eastern beaches. She
graduated with a Bachelor of Media from UNSW, before
completing a Master of Animation at the Universityof Technology, Sydney. Art and expression, in all theirvarious cinematic and poetic forms, have always beena profound passion for Sinik, whose films playfully
challenge structural expectations of storytelling whilst
maintaining a clear progression and a strong senseof journey. Drawn to the tactile, material, crafted andartistic aspects of animation, her films aim to leave avisceral impression on their audience. Sinik’s award
winning animations, My Country (2014), Imagining
Time (2015) and On (2018) have been invited to screeninternationally at numerous film festivals.

Nicholas Tory
Nicholas Tory is an award winning artist, artistic director,
designer and project director who graduated from
Sydney College of the Arts’ Electronic and Temporal Arts
studio. Tory’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses a
range of site specific collaborative art projects including
sculptures, installation, light-based art and animatedfilms. Through his production studio, Ample Projects,
Tory develops both conceptual and narrative driven
work about living in our world and how this world affects
us, realising these themes in his award winning public
art projects. Through collaboration, Tory’s work utilises
light, spatial and object design, electronic engineering,interactive design, sound, projection, animation,
filmmaking and traditional techniques like drawing andpainting. Lifeblood (2020) is testimony to Tory’s attention
to detail, his respect for Australia’s Indigenous culture
and his love of regional Australia. He is currently working
on two more short animated films, also based in theBourke district.

Tjanpi Desert Weavers

Kōji Yamamura

Tjanpi Desert Weavers is the dynamic social enterpriseof the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara(NPY) Women’s Council. Tjanpi (meaning desert
grass in Pitjantjatjara) began in 1995 as a series ofbasketmaking workshops facilitated by NPY Women’sCouncil in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of WA. Women
wanted meaningful and culturally appropriate
employment on their homelands to better provide for
their families. Building upon a long history of using
natural fibres to make objects for ceremonial and dailyuse, women took quickly to coiled basketry and weresoon sharing their new-found skills with relatives andfriends from neighbouring communities. It was notlong before they began experimenting with producing
sculptural forms. Today over 400 women across threestates are making spectacular contemporary fibre art
from locally collected grasses. Working with fibre inthis way has become a fundamental part of Central andWestern Desert culture.

Kōji Yamamura started working on animated films in
the late 1970s at the age of 13. During the 1990s, heexplored various styles and techniques while mainly
working on films for children. When Yamamura’s film
Mt. Head was nominated for Best Animated Short atthe Oscars, the artist joined the world’s most renowned
animation filmmakers. His films have been awarded
more than 100 prizes, including grand prizes at the fourmost important international animation film festivals:
Annecy International Animation Festival, Animafest
Zagreb, Ottawa International Animation Festival andHiroshima International Animation Festival. Yamamura
has been part of many international juries and has held
numerous retrospective screenings around the world. He
was awarded the National Medal with Purple Ribbon in
2019. At Animac International Animation Film Festival,
Catalonia in 2021, Yamamura was named second in the25 top short animated film directors of the last 25 years.
Yamamura is currently a member of the Academy ofMotion Picture Arts and Sciences and Professor at theTokyo University of the Arts.

Shane Jupurrurla White
Shane Jupurrurla White is a Warlpiri man from Lajamanu
Community. He was educated in Darwin and Batchelor.
Jupurrurla has worked at PAW Media for many years as
a videographer, video editor and radio broadcaster. He
lives in Yuendumu with his family.

Jason Japaljarri Woods
Jason Japaljarri Woods is a Warlpiri man. He grew up inLajamanu and attended high school in Darwin. Japaljarri
has been working for PAW Media in Yuendumu since2006. While working for PAW he studied at Batchelor
College and received a Certificate 3 in Media. Japaljarri
has directed and animated several short films whileworking for PAW media, including films in the Animating
Jukurrpa series and Bush Mechanics, which won Best
Australian Animation at Flickerfest 2015 and screened
at Melbourne International Film Festival. In 2016 heworked with the National Motor Museum to help createa Bush Mechanics exhibition, which toured nationally.
Outside of filmmaking Japaljarri is interested inphotography and graphic design. He lives in Yuendumu
with his family.

Honami Yano
Honami Yano was born in 1991 on a small island inJapan. During her college years she went on an exchange
program to the Rhode Island School of Design, which
led her to discover independent animation. At theGraduate School of Film and Media, Tokyo University ofthe Arts,she studied under Kōji Yamamura and created
her graduation project, Chromosome Sweetheart (2017),
which received a nomination at Frameline Film Festivaland many other film festivals. After graduating, she
worked as a research assistant for three years andalso made her first film after graduation. Produced andsupervised by Kōji Yamamura, it was the first work forhis studio and gallery Au Praxinoscope. The film, A Bite ofBone won the grand prize for short animation at the 45thedition of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Yano currently works for Nagoya University as a
Designated Assistant Professor and is currently
producing a new work, The Story of my First Love and theRainbow Ferry that was Sold (provisional).

Steffie Yee

Song YungsungSteffie Yee is an animator, designer, and director
working in Sydney (unceded Gadigal land) and in theHunter Valley region of Australia (unceded Wonnarualand). Yee sees animation as a combination of visualswith sound. She works with materials such as
plasticine, ink, pencil, and 2D & 3D animation. Her work
has screened internationally at film festivals, including
the Atlanta Film Festival, Melbourne InternationalFilm Festival, and Palm Springs ShortFest, where her
film The Lost Sound (2018) received two nominations
for Best Animated Short and Best Animated Student
Short. Yee has created visual installations for live
music events and worked on music videos for major
artists including Sam Smith, The Free Nationals, Justin
Bieber, TOKiMONSTA and The Naked and Famous. Her
other clients include ABC TV, McDonald’s, Red Bull
Music, the University of Technology, Sydney and Opera
Bar Sydney, among many others.

Song Yungsung is an independent animation filmmakerborn in South Korea. His approach to filmmaking isbased on early 20th century art concepts and painting
styles of Wassily Kandinsky, Robert Delaunay andHenri Matisse. He studied filmmaking at the Graduate
School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University ofthe Arts where he completed two films, Part Blue(2010) and QQQ (2012), which have been screenedat several animation film festivals over the world.
His graduate film Creative Evolution has screened atnumerous international film festivals, winning Special
Prize at 15th Indie-AniFest 2019, First Place in Frame
by Frame/Traditional at the Florida InternationalAnimation Festival (2020) and Best Animated Film
at 15th San Francisco International Festival of ShortFilms.