Fairy Tale Film Making Contest

No, this isn't one you can enter, but one that recently took place in Maryland.  From Fairy tales in the social consciousness of today by Lauren LaRocca:

If Snow White were alive today, would it be a factory farmer that gave her an apple laden with pesticides? Would Cinderella be a sweat shop worker?
For the fifth annual 72 Film Fest, area filmmakers were challenged to breakdown a fairy tale to its basic elements and re-tell it to fit present day.

"A lot are very well-known fairy tales, but there are also some obscure ones," said festival organizer Clark Kline. "Last year, we used Polaroid photos to see how they influenced the artists. This year, we're sort of continuing that theme of influence, to see how people can influence pre-existing works ... how people in our generation can redefine their chosen fairy tale."

Filmmakers were given three days -- from Thursday night to Sunday night -- to write, shoot, edit and submit a film.

***

In conjunction with Film Fest, the C. Burr Artz Trust and Frederick Reads are bringing best-selling author Alice Hoffman to the Weinberg Center for the Arts tonight for a reading, Q&A and book signing. Known for her use of magic and reimagined fairy tale characters, Hoffman will also choose the winner of the Best Use of the Fairy Tale Theme, presented tonight after her reading.

"I'm so happy to be involved with creating new content. This is such an obvious way to do that," said Elizabeth Cromwell, manager, corporate and community partnerships, at the C. Burr Artz Public Library. She came to the Film Fest Launch Party last Thursday dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, among a sea of costumed guests. "A lot of people think libraries are archives ... but they're not."

***

As teams got their first criteria -- various fairy tales -- the room got louder, the sound of frantic brainstorming sessions.

The second portion of the criteria added another element, such as the film must end happily ever after, must use "the ninth of October" in dialogue, and a clock must strike.

Films were judged throughout the week and will be awarded prizes for acting, cinematography, editing, writing, music, etc., plus an audience favorite award will move one team from Friday to Saturday night. Eduardo Sanchez, who co-wrote, co-edited and co-directed "The Blair Witch Project," and Hoffman are guest judges this year.

The article is longer and the screening event is past, but what an interesting project...

In conjunction with Hoffman's visit, the LaRocca also wrote another article, Hoffman provides new take on old fairy tales:

One would think fairies, witches, unicorns and magical realms are the stuff of children's stories.
Not always so, according to New York Times best-selling author Alice Hoffman, as she has proved with dozens of books for children as well as teens and adults.

Fairy tales use "deep, psychological themes that resonate," Hoffman said. "I think they're the most important stories. In a sense, they're the only stories."

She brings fairy tales into the 21st century, with modern characters and settings but the same emotional tugs and quick-moving plots as their predecessors.

Third-graders write their own [fairy tale] pop-up books

Because I love fairy tales and pop-up books...

From Third-graders write their own pop-up books by Jennifer Fitch:

Students wove imaginative fairy tales with colorful pictures in pop-up books they can either keep for themselves or submit for circulation in the school library.

In Suzy Lemus’ story, the centuries-old characters of Hansel and Gretel trap a witch in an oven. Things get complicated in her tale, though, because the house was constructed from chocolate.

It “melted the house,” said Suzy, 9.

Savannah Neil, 8, used three different types of pop-ups in her book. She said she’d like to make more books at home.

Austin Shaffer, 8, drafted a “fractured fairy tale,” which is a silly version of a well-known story, called Rumplealien. The main character finds an alien princess at the end of his story.

“She beats him up,” Austin said.

Aidan Pooler, 8, said his book has more action than the original “The Ugly Duckling.”

“He goes down the Mississippi River and goes into a big pond. He’s raised by another duck family,” Aidan said.

Tayler Claar titled her book “The Frog Princess.”

“It’s different. I added two frogs, a (Nintendo) DS, a Dad and dinnertime,” said Tayler, 9.

Keontay Aviles, 9, wrote a tale about a wolf and pig who are racing. The pig wins, despite the wolf’s attempts to bully the pig.

I edited this down to focus on the fractured tales told by the kids, so click through to read the entire article which isn't much longer.  There are also images and a video of one student reading her book to get an idea of who the assignments were fulfilled. Fun class unit on books and fairy tales!  And a great teacher or teachers, too....

 

Mary Hoffman at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

I neglected to post about this past Friday's Fairytale Reflections (4) Mary Hoffman on Seven Miles of Steel Thistles.

This week's featured author is Mary Hoffman who has written over 90 books.  She writes a lovely piece about The Fisherman and His Wife as her own personal fairy tale and why the tale is important to her.  Do click over and read it...

This Fairytale Reflections series is wonderful for discussing fairy tales--and so far some of the less popular ones--and for also highlighting British authors who might not be as well known on the other side of the pond.

New Book: There Are No Scary Wolves by Hyewon Yum

There Are No Scary Wolves by Hyewon Yum is scheduled for release tomorrow.  (For some reason it appears to be a hard release date, not so common in picture books.)

Book description from publisher:

What exactly is it like outside when Mom isn’t around? Are there . . . scary wolves? When a little boy ventures out of the house with his mother, he’s in for the fright—and the adventure—of his life! Reality and make-believe collide in this new picture book by acclaimed author and illustrator Hyewon Yum, with results that are fantastically adorable, disarmingly funny, and utterly unique.

Now this is very subtle playing with Little Red Riding Hood, of course, with no overt references beyond the boy's clothing, and well, the wolves. But can't you just see this as the book parents read to their children after scaring them with LRRH? Although the argument is often made that the tale is meant to scare and preach stranger danger. However, the fear can be carried too far and this book addresses that issue.

You can see more of the unusual illustrations on Yum's website. And here is a cute video of her son reading from a galley:

Library of the Early Mind

I missed the Friday events at the Southern Festival of Books due to my illness, but my sweet husband escorted me yesterday, facilitating my visits to several sessions so I am happy despite a few disappointments. My priorities yesterday were seeing Jon Scieszka (True Story of the Three Little Pigs), Mo Willems (Knuffle Bunny), and Michael Buckley (Sisters Grimm).  I also wanted to see the preview screening of "Library of the Early Mind." I got to do it all. I only missed Sara Lewis Holmes (Letters from Rapunzel) because my body was protesting my first jaunt in over a week so it was time to return home.

All of the authors were talking about their latest projects, so fairy tales were not the topic for the day in any of the sessions, those I saw and those I missed, but obviously children's literature was at the forefront which is my other passion.

A tidbit from Buckley's panel is that the next and ninth Sisters Grimm book will be the last one in the series.

Most of all, I want to endorse Library of the Early Mind.  It offers a full fest of children's authors and illustrators, funny and poignant, and I didn't get to see it all.  The full premiere is in a few weeks at Harvard University on October 19. You can keep track of other screenings and news at the film's official site.

After the preview, Scieszka and Williems joined a panel with moderator Ann Neely and the film's producer, Edward J. Delaney.  The hot topic at first was the New York Times article from this week stating that picture books are dying or dead or whatever: Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children.  (Oh, journalists, there is a reason I didn't join your ranks!) After that one was thrown around a bit--the consensus is that they aren't dying, just suffering a bit perhaps, at least for a time--the panel was thrown wide open with much hilarity from Scieszka and Willems. 

Here's a trailer for the film. You can hear a snippet from Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) talking about fairy tales at about the 55 second mark.



edited to add: Maria Tatar posted about the NYT times article today too.

Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn

I read many books this week while bedridden and a few towered over the crowd. (It looks like another one will, too, but I haven't finished it yet: Coronets and Steel by Sherwood Smith.) None of them were directly fairy tale related because my brain couldn't handle it. 

Anyway, so many of you read and love the same stuff I do, fairy tale related or not, so I thought I would write about Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn, her brand new book which was released this week. 

Publisher's description:

Zoe Ardelay receives astonishing and unwelcome news: she has been chosen to become the king's fifth wife. Forced to go to the royal city, she manages to slip away and hide on the shores of the mighty river.

It's there that Zoe realizes she is a coru prime ruled by the elemental sign of water. She must return to the palace, not as an unwilling bride for the king, but a woman with power in her own right. But as Zoe unlocks more of the mysteries of her blood-and the secrets of the royal family-she must decide how to use her great power to rise above the deceptions and intrigue of the royal court.

Such a simple description for a rich book that reads like a fairy tale really. I am a sucker for books about elemental powers, (such as Midori Snyder's Oran Trilogy and even Mercedes Lackey who mixes it up with fairy tales in her Elemental Masters series, although the earlier ones in that series are much more readable than the later ones for me).  I am also a sucker for Sharon Shinn.  She is an automatic buy and this week she hooked me twice for I had preordered the hardcover and ended up downloading the Kindle version to make it easier to read while sick.  Best medicine all week besides the actual meds prescribed by my doc.

Anyway, as always, Shinn writes wonderful characters, tells a good story and world builds so that I want to go traveling.  (I wish it were possible to actually take a vacation to Luminaux from her Samaria series.)  There is always the risk that I will be disappointed in a new series, but I trust Shinn and she didn't disappoint me with this one. Samaria will always be my favorite, but I adore so many of her books that it doesn't really matter what she writes, I will buy it.  Often more than once.

The best part of this book is the main character Zoe, who is wonderfully flawed.  She gets angry, makes bad decisions, learns about the bad decisions of others and deals with betrayal and grief. She is also smart and savvy, never weak, even when grief leads her into inaction for a while. She is very real.  I hope she will appear as a minor character in future entries in the series as Shinn never gives characters two books of their own.

I also enjoyed the court intrigue--Shinn has played with that before in her Summers at Castle Auburn, a stand-alone novel.  Almost all of the intrigue in this novel centers around the king's four wives and their machinations. This one is about women's power.

There is also a subtle romance for those who enjoy that, too.

So that is my scatterbrained review.  If you are a Shinn fan, don't be afraid of a new series.  If you don't know her work, this is a fine place to start although I do love Samaria so much...

Chelleline Cards and Stationary

Michelle Lin sent me the sweetest email a few weeks ago. 

I found your website ten years ago, during my freshman year of college, and thanks to SurLaLune, I have fallen in love with fairy tales. I never enjoyed them as a child - I thought the ones we learned were kind of boring - but the fairy tales I read on SurLaLune, both tales I'd never heard of (like East of the Sun) and versions of tales I already knew (Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty) fascinated me. I have to confess that I spent my freshman spring semester exam period reading SurLaLune instead of studying for my exams!

I'm writing because I started designing stationery three years ago, and a number of my products are fairy tale-themed. You can see the fairy tale section at my website here.

They are all made from original collages, and I sell them as either originals or prints.

I think we can all relate to her story.  At least I could!  I just had to do a simple HTML programming project--content really didn't matter and so we could annotate a fairy tale--for a class and it turned into what is now SurLaLune.

Well, Michelle's interest turned to stationery and I was charmed (not just by her references to SurLaLune) so I had to share.

Visit Michelle's Etsy shop to purchase if you are interested.  Or just to browse... ;)

Rated: Grimm in NYC / Sculptures by Tine Kindermann

This timely piece arrived in my inbox from Ellen Kushner just as the *&*%$ I've been bedridden with hit me over the weekend.  Then Lisa Stock just poked me with it again rescuing it from my temporary amnesia.  Thanks to both of them.  So late, but not too late, I hope:

Rated: Grimm
Tine Kindermann
Reception: Friday October 8, 2010; 7-9pm
September 30, 2010 through October 23, 2010

LZ Project Space is pleased to present Rated: Grimm, sculptures by Tine Kindermann. For her first solo exhibition, Kindermann shows her series of dioramas and peephole installations inspired by the Brothers Grimm's dark fairy tales. Juxtaposing kitsch and horror, childhood imagery and childhood fears, tiny murders in the dollhouse, Kindermann’s work reflects her upbringing in West Germany, where traditionally, traveling storytellers would capture their audiences in the marketplace with “Guckkästen”, peep hole installations that promised a glimpse into faraway lands, long before printed media or moving images were invented.

Since 1997, Kindermann’s peephole boxes have seduced her viewers with their promise of a small perfect world, but then delivered unexpected horrors: a cut off head, the dangerous woods of German fairy tales, a family facing an uncertain (or worse, certain) fate, or a roof destroyed by an earthquake or bombing. Made from drawers and crates found in the streets of New York's Lower East Side, and peopled with sculpted figurines, these miniature worlds invite the viewer to participate as a voyeur in a story told without words, in which the dollhouse format often belies the severity of what appears to have happened. "The maiden fetched the magic wand, and she took the dead girl's head and dropped three drops of blood on the ground, one in front of the bed, one in the kitchen, and one on the stairs." (From "The Darling Roland") Drawn to stories and folk songs in which the hero or heroine experiences an event which turns their life around, Kindermann depicts the moment before the climax and describes it as “a terrible stillness, time stopping for a heartbeat. These moments, and the feelings associated with their implied consequences, are what I try to capture in images.”

You can see some images and read more here and here. The same information at both links, the latter probably more permanent than the former which didn't work for me at first but then loaded.

Thanks Ellen and Lisa...

New Book: Fairy Tale Films: Visions of Ambiguity

Christy referenced this book in her comment on the Zipes' film post, so I had to learn more for once again, somehow I missed it when it was released in August.  Thanks, Christy!

Fairy Tale Films: Visions of Ambiguity edited by Pauline Greenhill and Sidney Eve Matrix with an introduction by Jack Zipes

Description from the publisher:

In this, the first collection of essays to address the development of fairy tale film as a genre, Pauline Greenhill and Sidney Eve Matrix stress, "the mirror of fairy-tale film reflects not so much what its audience members actually are but how they see themselves and their potential to develop (or, likewise, to regress)." As Jack Zipes says further in the foreword, “Folk and fairy tales pervade our lives constantly through television soap operas and commercials, in comic books and cartoons, in school plays and storytelling performances, in our superstitions and prayers for miracles, and in our dreams and daydreams. The artistic re-creations of fairy-tale plots and characters in film—the parodies, the aesthetic experimentation, and the mixing of genres to engender new insights into art and life— mirror possibilities of estranging ourselves from designated roles, along with the conventional patterns of the classical tales.”

Here, scholars from film, folklore, and cultural studies move discussion beyond the well-known Disney movies to the many other filmic adaptations of fairy tales and to the widespread use of fairy tale tropes, themes, and motifs in cinema.

And from Zipes' introduction:

The essays in Fairy Tale Film seek to keep our eyes open and sharpen our perspective. Folk and fairy tales pervade our lives constantly through television soap operas and commercials, in comic books and cartoons, in school plays and storytelling performances, in our superstitions and prayers for miracles, and in our dreams and daydreams. The artistic re-creations of fairy-tale plots and characters in filmýthe parodies, the aesthetic experimentation, and the mixing of genres to engender new insights into art and lifeýare significant because they mirror possibilities of estranging ourselves from designated roles and the conventional patterns of the classical tales. As Greenhill and Matrix stress in their introduction, "the mirror of fairy-tale film reflects not so much what its audience members actually are but how they see themselves and their potential to develop (or, likewise, to regress)."

You can also see the table of contents with a strange bookviewer on the press page for the book.  Overall, it appears to be discussing the usual suspects--Company of Wolves, Pan's Labyrinth, the Harry Potter movies with Ever After and Enchanted thrown in this time. And Eyes Wide Shut?  Okay then.  :)

What will be interesting is the literature that will arrive in a few years after the new slew of fairy tale movies we are being promised by the media, most of them not from Disney.  I'm so glad that SurLaLune is a perennial project...

De-Disneyfying the Fairy-Tale Film

From Author aims to ‘de-Disneyfy’ fairytales by Aaron Cordova:

After briefly explaining the evolution of fairytales from thousands of years ago to today, Zipes showed the first video of the evening, which was an early film version of "Little Red Riding Hood." The black and white cartoon characters were line drawings, using no shading techniques. The characters did not speak as a constant upbeat tune played in the background, accompanied by whimsical sound effects that are common to all classic cartoons.

In the film, an abstract "Red Riding Hood" character was pursued by a shifty-eyed man donning a bowler hat and driving a convertible that tip-toed behind her. He eventually trapped her in her grandma's vacant house and presumably violated her, making the house jump, shake and expand as the girl screamed inside.

Zipes explained it was a symbolic wolf-pursuit, and said "Little Red Riding Hood" was "all about rape."

Following the film, Zipes showed several Disney adaptations of the fairytale. In contrast, Disney focused on sporadic outbreaks of song and infantile girls who became increasingly dumb and vulnerable.

Explaining that Disney's versions of the fairytale upset fellow Hollywood animators, Zipes showed several more versions from other creators, some of which mocked Disney's versions. One film, made with stop-motion claymation, focused on Russia in 1989 with the theme of international relations.

Of course, you can read the entire article by following the link.

Also, Zipes' The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films is due to be released on December 15th of this year.

More Tangled

From Tangled takes us back to when Disney's princesses reigned supreme by Meredith Woerner:

We've seen Tangled, Disney's latest attempt to revive the great princess movies of its past. While we can't share everything that happens in this movie, suffice to say it transported us back to our childhoods via a pumpkin carriage.

Last night Disney hosted an even where they screened an unfinished version of Tangled, and showed a selection of Tron clips. While I can't yet give you my final impression of this film, I will tell you that my gut reaction afterward was to go home and immediately dust-off the old dress up tiara. Tangled transported me right back to the age of nine. While the latest batch of Pixar films have all moved me to tears, none of them has rekindled my childhood love for castles, adventure-seeking princesses, magic, zany pets and Prince Charming the way Tangled did.

Tangled accomplished this feat by either revisiting or reinventing the classic Disney tropes of the early 90s. Back when princess movies kicked ass. Rapunzel and friends unabashedly break into song, commonly ending with said singing character in the classic "hands pointed towards the heavens" pose, knee deep in a sweeping crescendo finale. Our new princess also has a collection of adorable animal friends, who sometimes outshine their human counterparts without even speaking (yes, the animals don't speak in this movie). Plus there's plenty of room for the long forgotten romantic duet, something we haven't seen since Aladdin's "A Whole New World" and Beauty and the Beast's "Something There."

Click through to read the rest, of course.

Guillermo del Toro and the Science of Fairy Tales

   

Found in my very random and very haphazard searching as I enjoy sitting upright for a while. I am on the downswing of a serious bout of flu or some other creeping crud. Otherwise I would discuss this more. Maybe. My brain is too flustered to know, but I didn't want to not post this either:

From "If you get bored with nothing to do, you are not a writer": Guillermo del Toro's words to live by by Erik Henriksen

The Science of Fairy Tales: An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology by Edwin Sidney Hartland, published in 1891, is the book that most influenced the Strain Trilogy (though it sounds like it's influenced a lot of del Toro's other stuff, too; it's available online for free.) "I needed to make Pan's Labyrinth feel like a real fairy tale... like it was ancient," del Toro said. "I think everything I write is a fairy tale, to a degree." Chapters of The Science of Fairy Tales include "Changelings," "Swan-Maidens," "Robberies form Fairyland," no fewer than three chapters on "The Supernatural Lapse of Time in Fairyland," "Fairy Births and Human Midwives," and, naturally, "Fairy Births and Human Midwives (Continued)." The first line from the book's preface:

The chief object of this volume is to exhibit, in a manner acceptable to readers who are not specialists, the application of the principles and methods which guide investigations into popular traditions to a few of the most remarkable stories embodying the Fairy superstitions of the Celtic and Teutonic peoples.

Anyway, The Science of Fairy Tales is an interesting text... And with a fever of a minimum of 100 the past several days, I'm not going to think about del Toro's work.  My brain is fuzzy and prone to hallucinatory ideas that I have to talk myself out of.  I've stayed away from anything that would lead to nightmares.

And, yes, I am feeling better.  But I expect things to be slow for the next few days around here at least.  Huzzah...