Deanna Morse

Deanna Morse
Born	(1950-02-26) February 26, 1950 (age 74)[1] Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.
Nationality	American
Known for	Animation

Deanna Morse is an independent American experimental filmmaker and media artist.^[1][2][3] Her work is included in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[4][5][6]

For the period of 2022–2024^[update], she is president of the International Animated Film Association.^[7] She has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2020.^[8][9][10]

Early life and education

Morse graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in telecommunicative arts and distributed studies in 1972. She received an M.A. in film and teaching at Goddard College, and in 1992 received a Master of Fine Arts (art and technology), with a merit scholarship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.^{[citation needed]} In 1995, she was awarded an outstanding alumni award by Iowa State University.^{[11] [12]}

Career

After graduation she became an assistant editor at WGBH-TV in Boston,^[13][14] and also worked as a scriptwriter for the Virginia Department of Education,^[13] and on a series about desegregation for Virginia PBS. She was then hired as an artist in residence for the South Carolina Arts Commission,^[13] where she taught for four years, and was filmmaker-in-schools in 1975–1976.^[14][15]

She taught at the College of Charleston, at Regis College, and then at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, for thirty-three years, retiring as an Emerita Professor in 2013.^[16] During her time at GVSU, she released the retrospective and interactive DVD Move Click Move in 2001^[17] and used the proceeds to fund scholarships.^[16] There she also created, together with some of her students, a Flash animation for the international participatory project Flag Metamorphoses^[18]

Her film Lost Ground was part of the 1992 SIGGRAPH Art Show.^[19] She was chair of the SIGGRAPH 1994 Art and Design Show,^[20] and a juror for the art show in 1998.^[21][22]

She has judged festivals and computer graphics competitions including the Hiroshima International Animation Festival^[23] in Japan and the Ann Arbor Film Festival.^[24]

She has published articles in Animation World Network.^{[25][26][27][28]}

Filmography

She has made several films for Sesame Street,^[3][2] including Dogs (1991),^[1] Monkey's T-Shirt (1991),^[1][29] and Night Sounds (1992).^[1][2]

Hyperallergic wrote about her 1989 animated film Plants that "The play of light, color, line, and shape can be mesmerizing ... vegetal patterns move and spin to evoke plants".^[30] Plants was also reviewed by the Chicago Reader, which noted that she " ... creates still-life portraits of flowers using rudimentary (but then-sophisticated) computer drawing tools".^[31]

Year	Film	Format
2017	Clear, Deep, Quiet	Video installation
2015	Angels in Maui	DVD
2015	Bird Dreams	DVD
2014	Animation Collaboration	DVD
2014	Perch	DVD
2013	Mindful	DVD
2013	Whispers of the Prairie	DVD[29]
2013	This present moment	DVD
2012	Skin	DVD
2012	Kindred	DVD
2012	Skies of Mist	DVD
2011	Wish you were here	DVD
2010	Traces of Light	DVD
2009	Breathing Room	Video installation[1]
2009	Ancient Woodland	DVD
2007	Forced Perspective: Odessa	DVD
2007	Time Flights	Video installation[1]
2007	Postcards from my backyard	DVD[1][29]
2002	Kitchen Creature Feature	Film[2]
2001	Move Click Move: a DVD Compilation	DVD[2]
2000	A Mother's Advice	Film[2]
1993	Digital Aquarium	Video installation
1992	Lost ground	Computer animation[2]
1992	Sandpaintings	Film
1991	Self Portrait: Artist With Pets	Film
1991	Dogs	Film
1991	Night Sounds: Imagination	Film
1991	From The Sand	Video installation
1990	The A.M. Dream	Computer animation[2]
1990	Monkey's T-Shirt	Film[29]
1989	Plants	Film[30][31]
1991	Artist In The Schools	Film
1988	Main Street M	Film
1987	The Lumberyard	Film
1985	August Afternoons	Film[1][2]
1984	Camera People	Film
1982	Hand	Film[1]
1981	Reality Check	Film[2]
1981	Recycle	Film
1981	Help!...I'm Stranded...	Film
1980	Charleston Home Movie	Film[1]
1978	Starcycle	Film[2]
1978	Jimmy Brown The Newsboy	Film
1978	Ranky Tanky	Film
1978	Cats At The Door	Film
1975	The Midnight Dance	Film
1972	Marriages	Film
1972	Dejeunez, Mon Amour	Film

Awards

• 1993 - Named a distinguished professor by the Michigan Association of Governing Boards of State Universities.^[32]
• 1995 - Outstanding Alumni Award from Iowa State University^[33]
• 2002 - Addy Award for Move Click Move DVD^[34]
• 2003 - Omni Award for Move Click Move DVD^[35]
• 2005 - Selected as an outstanding woman in the arts by the YWCA^[36]
• 2015 - Hyperion Award, 9th Eclipse Awards honoring Michigan's filmmakers and television creators^[37]
• Honored in the Plaza of Heroines at Carrie Chapman Catt Hall at Iowa State University.^[38]

References

1. Bendazzi, Giannalberto (2015). Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times. CRC Press. p. 46. ISBN 9781317519881. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
2. Davis, Juliet (Winter 2006). "Reviewed Work: MOVE-CLICK-MOVE by Deanna Morse". Journal of Film and Video. 58 (4). University of Illinois Press on behalf of the University Film & Video Association: 46–48. JSTOR 20688539.
3. Sullivan, Karen; Schumer, Gary (2013). Ideas for the Animated Short: Finding and Building Stories (2nd, revised ed.). Taylor & Francis. pp. 139–141. ISBN 9781136141973. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
4. Morse on cutting edge of filmmaking, Grand Rapids Press, November 9, 2001
5. N.Y. Museum Adds Local Film To Collection, Grand Rapids Press, November 2, 1986
6. MOVE-CLICK-MOVE by Deanna Morse, Review by Juliet Davis, Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 58, No. 4, winter 2006, University of Illinois Press, pp. 46-48
7. ASIFA: Board Members
8. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: new members in 2020
9. Grand Valley State University: VMA faculty member emerita joins Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, August 5, 2020
10. Grand Valley Lanthorn: Professor Emeritus joins the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
11. Iowa State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Alumni: Citation of Merit
12. Iowa State University, Plaza of Heroines: Deanna Morse
13. "Filmmaker Head Named for S.C." The Times and Democrat. Orangeburg, South Carolina. 18 November 1974. p. 5B. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
14. "Super 8 Films Featured". The Greenville News. Greenville, South Carolina. 23 May 1976. p. 16B. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
15. Todd, Sharon (6 June 1975). "Artistic Uses Of Film Explored". The Greenville News. Greenville, South Carolina. p. 43. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
16. "Deanna Morse Says Goodbye". dot[COMM] The Official Blog of Grand Valley State University's School of Communications. 29 April 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
17. Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre: DVD Move Click Move
18. Flag Metamorphoses, 2005-2014
19. SIGGRAPH 1992: Art Show
20. SIGGRAPH 1994: Art and Design Show
21. SIGGRAPH 1998: Touchware
22. SIGGRAPH 1999: technOasis
23. Hiroshima International Animation Festival Juror, August 1998
24. 41st Ann Arbor Film Festival Juror, March 2003
25. Pre-Cinema Toys Inspire Multimedia Artist Toshio Iwai, Animation World Magazine, February 1999
26. Secrets from the Selection Committee: Zagreb Animafest 2004, Animation World Network, June 14, 2004
27. Love and Peace: Hiroshima International Animation Festival 2006, Animation World Network, September 14, 2006
28. Animation at the Ann Arbor Film Fest: Bending Minds and... Uncensored... Since 1963, Animation World Network, April 25, 2007
29. "Let's Watch with the Ann Arbor Film Festival - Deanna Morse". CTN Ann Arbor. 27 March 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
30. Larkin, Daniel (December 9, 2015). "A Taste of Four Decades on the Fringes of Animation". Hyperallergic. Brooklyn, New York.
31. Sachs, Ben (5 November 2015). "Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation". Chicago Reader.
32. Grand Valley Forum, Volume 17, No. 39, May 1993
33. Iowa State University, Citation of Merit, Recipients
34. YouTube: Video News Release announcing the Addy award for the animation collection Move Click Move
35. Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre: Deanna Morse
36. Grand Valley Forum, Volume 30, No. 14, October 2005
37. "2015 Hyperion Award". The 9th Eclipse Awards. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
38. "Deanna Morse".

Further reading

• Giannalberto Bendazzi: ANIMATION: A World History, Volume 3, Contemporary Times, 2015. P. 46: Women in the Limelight, Deanna Morse^[1]
• Karen Sullivan, Kate Alexander, Aubry Mintz and Ellen Besen: Ideas for the Animated Short: Finding and Building Stories, Focal Press, 2013, pages 139–141^[2]
• Juliet Davis: Review of MOVE-CLICK-MOVE by Deanna Morse, Journal of Film and Video, winter 2006.^[3]
• Pilling, Jayne, ed: Women and Animation: a Compendium. British Film Institute, 1992. ISBN 0-85170-377-1
• Russett, Robert; Starr, Cecile: Experimental Animation, origins of a new art. Da Capo Press, New York, N.Y., 1988. ISBN 0306803143 (p. 22-23)

External links

• Official website
• Animations by Deanna Morse on her YouTube channel
• The Film-Makers' Coop - Deanna Morse

1. ANIMATION: A World History, Volume 3 at Google Books
2. Karen Sullivan, Kate Alexander, Aubry Mintz, Ellen Besen: Ideas for the Animated Short: Finding and Building Stories, Focal Press, 2013, ISBN 9780240818726
3. Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 58, No. 4 (winter 2006), University of Illinois Press, pp. 46-48