Against the background of the freezing winter, the Bulgarian media recently became hotly agitated over the news of world acclaim for a Bulgarian creative man abroad. For his piece Blind Vaysha animation artist Theodore Ushev has been nominated for Best Animated Short at the 89th Academy Awards as well as for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award for Best Animated Short at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards. The film's length is eight minutes. It was produced by Canada's National Film Board with a budget of about 65,000 Canadian dollars. To end up in the Oscar's short list, Theodore's work had to compete with giants like Disney and Pixar.
Speaking from Montreal where he lives and works our compatriot casts a glance back at his creative career so far which curiously includes also Radio Bulgaria!
„As it usually happens, you never know how a small gesture or act might grow into something large and important. To be honest, I emigrated to Canada thanks to three QSL cards and a logo I designed for Radio Bulgaria. This was back 1994-1995. Thanks to the postcards I won a few contests for graphic design and got involved in multimedia. It was very much in the vogue at that time. I was then offered a job in Canada for a few months but it lasted 18 years. So, I went into animation and filmmaking. The guys from The National Film Board of Canada watched my films and commissioned me to make a film about the internet. Later I won a contest for a longer children's film, its title is Tzaritza. It is about a little girl who misses her grandmother. Since then I am not aware what has happened. I was making films and getting prizes from prestigious festivals. I reached as far as the world premiere of Blind Vaysha at one of the most renowned film festivals, Berlinale.”
Blind Vaysha has been the first joint project of writer Georgi Gospodinov and Theodore Ushev. The author of the soundtrack is Nikola Gruev a.k.a. Kottarashky. Vaysha is a girl doomed to see with one of her eyes only the past, and with the other - the future. The animation film is addressed to children aged from 9 to 99, and its message as formulated by Theodore is as follows: „ We must stop fearing the past, stop fearing the future, because everything that happens to us is a projection of ourselves and happens today and right here. Our gestures and acts determine how we are going to live today.”
We asked the artist whether there is something new about the technique he used to create the film.
„Hardly anybody professionally involved in animation is not aware of the way I make my films”, Theodore says. “Every time I try to invent a new technique. This is precisely what happened with Blind Vaysha. It has been made with a technique I have been developing for years; I have even got a name for it - digital linocut. In a digital way, drawing by using a tablet I create an image that looks as if it is drawn by hand and printed with the respective shortcomings and mistakes. This makes the image very alive, and it reminds of a book in motion which was the objective of this film. I really wanted spectators to feel as if they are reading a book. One important addition is the voiceover of an incredible Canadian actress, Caroline Dhavernas who told me this was her favorite part in cinema.”
Very emotionally Theodore Ushev explains that although he lives thousands of miles away from Bulgaria, he remains Bulgarian. In Canada he has met people who appreciate him and his work and encourage him to develop his talent. Not for a moment has he regretted the decision to settle there. However, at every single opportunity he comes back to Bulgaria, to the people he loves and the things that charge his creativity.
English Daniela Konstantinova
