In which Chris Robinson asks animators profound and inane questions that have little to do with animation. Today's guest is the extraordinary Chinese animator, artist and rapper, Lei Lei.
'Big Hands' by Lei Lei
Lei Lei is a very nice fellow from China. Ray Lei is also a very nice fellow from China. Together they make animation films. You might know some. You might not no some. You can call him Ray, you can all him Lei, just don’t call him Johnson. He is also a musician and can rap (as anyone who attended the closing ceremonies of the 2011 Ottawa International Animation Festival can attest to). He agreed to meet me on a space station overlooking the Armenian countryside on a crisp January morning in earlyish 1995 at 4:45am. It was dark.
I get the greatest pleasure from....
I get the greatest pleasure from watching films and creating music together with friends. Recently I went to Taichung, so after I returned to Beijing, I have been watching Taiwan New Wave films. Hou Hsiao-hsien is my favorite director.
The trait I like least about myself is
Naive…
The book I value above all others is
The book I value above all others is The Old Man and the Sea. I have read it for many times and have different understanding during each reading.
A (non-family member) person I have high respect for is....
I have high respect for the people who have sincerely helped me, including my teachers, friends and many other people. A person I'd like to mention is the landlady of my studio. She is a kind old lady. She often brings cooked Jiaozi to me while I'm working at the studio. I love the people around me.
The song that makes me tingle is....
If you visit my Facebook webpage, you can find the new songs created by Dave Liang and me: “Don’t Like the Comics You Drew”
The funniest thing that happened to me….
Recently, I would run in a park beside my apartment at night. The woods in the park are very dark at night. Once, I found a beam of light in the pitch-dark woods, giving me a sense of a constellation floating in the darkness. When I approached it, I found several fireflies trapped in the spider net. It’s may not be the funniest thing, but it is very romantic…
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Since there is no actual video of Lei Lei's song, here's a video of some musical mice. Please enjoy and tell your friends, should you have any:
A well-known figure in the world of independent animation, writer, author & curator Chris Robinson is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
