A DAY OF BOOK LAUNCHES AT THE KAFF

The second day of the 16th Kecskemét Animation Film Festival was all about book launches. István Orosz's Father Book quotes from his father's diaries, into which he weaves his own personal stories, unfolding a shared family history.

 

Márton Orosz and Gábor Ulrich presented a cartoon project that had been shelved for a hundred years: in 1923, painter-architect Andor Weininger sketched the script for an unrealised animation, a narrative akin to Dadaism, which would have been created by an association between abstract and figurative elements. Gábor Ulrich set out to make a film based on the remaining sketches. This presentation will tell the story of the research into the history of the film project, the idea of the reconstruction and the process of realisation.

 

Ferenc Cakó (Photo by Róbert Banczik)

 

Two volumes edited by Dr. Tamás Kollarik, published by the Institute of Art Theory and Methodology of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, were also presented. The Festival Panorama explores the Hungarian film festivals between 2011 and 2020, while Hungarian Animation Artists Vol. 2 features interviews with XXX Hungarian directors and producers.

 

A book on Ferenc Cakó's oeuvre was published in 2022 and presented at KAFF. This large-scale publication provides an almost complete overview of the director's career, from studies to world success, the development of his drawing skills, his early and later accolades, and his development at Pannónia Film Studio.

 

The 16th KAFF also celebrated 150 years of Hungarian comics. In addition to the exciting exhibition, Sándor Kertész's book Bubble Talkers - 150 Years of Hungarian Comics was presented, which presents the adventures of the comic strip in Hungary, from the series of wood-cut caricatures of the 1800s to digital drawing, which varied from era to era depending on political and press conditions, and was also significantly influenced by foreign influences.

 

An exhibition of 80-year-old photographer László Haris opened at the festival. Even on 5 June 1975, László Haris did not know that his series of photographs would become a defining landmark in Hungarian photographic and artistic thinking. The then 32-year-old young man went up to a friend's apartment on Kőbányai utca (Kőbányai street), where he spent the whole day photographing "nothing special" from the window. This set of images later became a work of art in the Hungarian National Gallery's permanent exhibition, now on view at the Kápolna Gallery.

 

László Haris (Photo: Róbert Banczik)

 

During the festival, the organisers have also thought about the playful development of the youngest children: at the Primanima Animation Fun Zone Caravan and the National Film Institute's Klassz Workshop, children can learn animation and natural filmmaking.

The 16th KAFF will close on Saturday evening, but until then it will continue to offer free film screenings in cinemas and outdoors. Under a blue sky, you can watch Cat City and Toldi, the best national and international animation from the past two years, until 25 June.