About
Biography
Lorelei Pepi is an internationally screened and award-winning independent animation filmmaker. Her work has screened competitively at many festivals, including Sundance, Rotterdam, Black Maria, Ann Arbor, Ars Electronica, Images Toronto, Annecy, OutFest Los Angeles, ImageOut NY, Leipzig, Holland Animation,and Oberhausen. Her work has been included in a number of touring shows and curated screenings, such as the Best of Ann Arbor, MadCat, " Scratching the Sex" in Oberhausen, "Women in Animation" by WIFVNE, and "Words in Motion: Transformation" in Ottawa.
She has directed and animated for both television commercial and series work, contributed work for an Academy nominated animation film, directed interactive web game development, worked in feature film animation, and been a Creative Director for an Interactive Media Group in Los Angeles. Her professional career also includes teaching at university level, with a visiting position at Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Rochester Institute of Technology. She currently teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. her own education is with a BFA from RISD and an MFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts.
Philosophy
Something that wakes me up me in this world is the quirky and fundamental energy of relational strategies. It's a bit inspired by old Rusian editing concepts: bring two or more contrasting ideas / comments / concepts / objects together and see sparks fly as a new, unimaginable "third" is created. As a filmmaker interested in spatial and sensorial use of time-based media, relational strategies construct/deconstruct/reconstruct the cinematic concepts and the potency of narrative space. It is alternative concepts of existence in time, duration and space like these that brought me into my art.
Animation is representation, and is an art that requires multiple, connected units in order to exist and create the illusion of life. This crafting of each and every image unit (a frame of film, for instance) expresses a validity of emotional abstraction that “live action” cannot. By virtue of it’s abilities to render the abstract, of intimate and personal representation frame by frame, I inevitably find a deeper level of meaning in this discipline of animation. Animation is not restricted to filmmaking, but can be applied much more widely. It can be incorporated into photography, sculpture, performance, painting, to name a few disciplines. It is a universal art form, and is available to all practices.