Evergreen to Host Canadian Filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming
Weds, January 21, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
The Evergreen State College, Communications Building, Recital Hall

Award winning Canadian independent filmmaker, writer and artist, Ann Marie Fleming will screen her animated documentary, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam at The Evergreen State College this Wednesday evening, January 21, 2009 . Completed in 2003, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam follows Fleming's exploration of the life and times of her great grandfather, a travelling Chinese vaudevillian acrobat and magician. In 2002, she created the inspirational Blue Skies, a reaction to the events of 9/11, and a riff on events in Long Tack Sam's life, as well. It won best Canadian Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival, has played on screens from India to Iran and has appeared on TV in Canada, the US and China.

Her graphic novel, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, adapted from the film, was published in September of 2007 and is on the American Library Association's list of "10 Best Graphic Novels for Teens." It has won rave reviews from a variety of critical sources. It was nominated for two Eisner Awards and won the Doug Wright "Best Book Award" for graphic novels in Canada.

Born in Okinawa of Chinese and Australian parentage, Flemig's film work incorporates various approaches including animation, documentary, experimental, dramatic, and primarily deals with themes of family, history and memory, in a continuing media critique. In 2008, she completed a 5 minute animated film starring her avatar, "stickgirl" called Running (heart body mind spirit). It was commissioned by the Victoria Film Festival as part of the Victoria Symphony's "Reel Music", a competition for composers across Canada to score to new work. It was screened with the live 80-piece symphony orchestra in January, and the winning composer was Maxime Goulet.

Fleming is currently working on an adaptation of a illustrated memoir by Bernice Eisenstein, "I Was A Child of Holocaust Survivors", with the Toronto and Montreal offices of the NFB, a dramatic script of the life and loves of her great grandfather, "Shanghai Follies", and "Window Horses," a feature-length animated father-daughter story that involves poetry and immigrants (what else?) and takes place in Shiraz, Iran.

LEARN MORE: http://www.sleepydogfilms.com/                   http://www.longtacksam.com