During ASIFA Egypt’s last monthly program of Animation Forum in Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which dedicated to celebrate the 50th years of Egyptian TV, the guest of the program Mme Shewekar Khalifa, the female animator pioneer, asked the attendance to stand for a moment of reverence for the passed away Ali Muhib (1935-2010) who died the day before our show !

Ali Muhib is considered to be the Godfather of the Egyptian animators, and as Gianalberto Bendazzi wrote about him in his informative essay “African Cinema Animation” Page22 :

“Film animation in Egypt saw a renaissance thanks to Ali Muhib and his brother Husam, who gave birth to the Film Animation Department within the national television channel which was inaugurated in 1960. In 1962 Ali Muhib directed The White Line, a film animation plus twenty-five-minute live action, which was a cross between a short musical and a documentary film. It was a lively and excellent film, which made fine use of the split-screen technique (unusual at that time), in a style reminiscent of Piet Mondrian. After eight years of work at the Department, during which he trained many young colleagues, Ali Muhib successfully switched to advertising. In 1979 he directed the first Arab animation film series, Mishgias Sawah, composed of thirty episodes.”

Funeral was already held, but many tribute forums are held dedicated to his memory in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and will be in Minia.

Mohamed Ghazala

It is really a great loss for our world to lose a greatest, unparalleled artist, and it is a very difficult thing for me to carry out a task to inform such a sad news to all of you.

Kihachiro Kawamoto was one of such an unparalleled artists, who received numerous international prizes including Grand Prizes, and also, he served as an ASIFA Board Member in 1970s, and made every efforts for the development of animation field until today. We also cannot forget that Kawamoto was the very first laureate of ASIFA Prize in 1985.

Kihachiro Kawamoto, attracted by puppet animation in his youth, aimed to become a filmmaker. He went to Czechoslovakia and studied under Jiri Trnka. After returning to Japan, he created his original animation by inspiring his puppets with Japanese traditional culture such as Bunraku, Noh, Kyogen, Haiku, as well as the essence of the profound philosophy of Japanese literature. He created a new art form to express deep emotions and absurdities using the breathes of puppets, very unique to Kawamoto Animation. Also, he expressed the philosophies of Europe and China, and taught us the impartial existence of human beings despite the cultural differences. I have been proud and admiring his existence as an artist, and we have been sharing courage together until today.

In HIROSHIMA 2010 in August, we were pleased to hold a retrospective of his animation films, as well as an exhibition of his beautiful puppets. I was also asking Kawamoto to hold a talk show within his programs, and although he was looking forward to it very much, it did not realize as he had to be hospitalized. In the meantime, I was most pleased that I could inform him, after the festival, that so many audience attended his programs and exhibition, and that they were attracted and inspired by his films and puppets very much. When we held a press conference in Tokyo, on June 2nd, about HIROSHIMA 2010 and its 25th anniversary, Kawamoto kindly joined us, and he stroked my back and appreciated my hard work as the festival director for 25 years… and we were very much looking forward to our festival in August… It was really an unbelievable news, which came in to me so suddenly…

To my regret, so many great masters are passing away recently. I believe that we ASIFA should be very proud of these masters, who dedicated one’s entire life for animation art and its development as well as for fostering young generation. On this occasion, I think we should reconsider the quintessence of our association, which our masters tried to construct, and I feel that we should not forget to make every effort to take over their wishes and intentions for future.

Sayoko Kinoshita President of ASIFA-Japan

Previously named Sheng Song, Te Wei was born in Shanghai on August 22, 1915. As the founder of Chinese animation, he devoted his entire life to its development and was the only artist in the country to receive a lifetime achievement award from the International Animated Film Association. Te Wei’s famous works include “The Conceited General” in 1956, “Where Is Mama?” in 1960, “The Cowboy’s Flute” in 1963, and “Feeling from Mountain and Water” in 1988–all classics that have influenced many generations of Chinese.

Where is Mama, 1960

From about 1960,Te Wei’s animation style was influenced by Chinese painter Qi Baishi. He first applied Chinese brush painting to “Where is Mama?” or “The Little Tadpole Looking for His Mother” in 1960, which stunned the animation world when it was produced. Not permitted to carry on his animation during the Cultural Revolution, Te Wei regained a position of artistic influence in the late 1970s and the 1980s with a series of animated films in painterly style.

As the first president of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Te insisted on innovation and introduced new techniques such as incorporating traditional paper-cutting and paper-folding in animated films. While he was in charge of the work, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio produced many other animated films such as “Uproar in Heaven” and “NeZha Riots the Seas”.

Filmography The Conceited General, 1956 Where is Mama, 1960 The Cowboy’s Flute, 1963 Feeling from Mountain and Water, 1988