Chris Robinson (writer)

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Chris Robinson is an animation, film, literature and sports writer, author of numerous books and Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF).^[1] He also wrote the screenplay for the Jutra Award and Genie Award-winning animated documentary Lipsett Diaries, directed by Theodore Ushev. In 2020, Robinson was awarded for his Outstanding Contribution to Animation Studies by Animafest Zagreb.

OIAF[]

Robinson began his association with the OIAF in the early 1990s, while still a film student at Carleton University, coordinating festival submissions and selection committees.^[2]

Essays and columns[]

From 2000-2016, Robinson wrote the "Animation Pimp" column for Animation World Magazine. Partially influenced by gonzo journalism and Beat Generation writers, Pimp columns often fused philosophy, history, comedy and memoir in discussing various facets of animation. A selection of columns were later compiled into a book illustrated by German artist and animator, Andreas Hykade. In 2016, Robinson renamed the column, Cheer and Loathing in Animation.

In 2014, Animation World Magazine debuted Robinson's Animation Pimpcast. In this monthly podcast, Robinson sits down with a variety of animation types to fondle their minds through informal chats about animation, life and whatever else they feel like discussing.

Robinson was also a frequent contributor to, Sight and Sound Magazine. He is currently a Canadian correspondent for Cartoon Brew.

Robinson has also written on music, film, literature and sports for various international publications including Salon.com, Stop Smiling, Ottawa Magazine, and the Ottawa Citizen His monthly literature column, "The Lit Pimp" appeared in the Ottawa Xpress from 2006-2010.

Since 2001, Robinson has been the editor-in-chief of the ASIFA (International Animator's Association) Magazine.

Books[]

Robinson's book Stole This From a Hockey Card: A Philosophy of Hockey, Doug Harvey, Identity & Booze (2005), which was a critical success and was shortlisted for the Ottawa Book Award. In 2013, TV hockey personality Ron Maclean listed Stole This From a Hockey Card has one of his choices of books that could change the nation.

Robinson draws parallels between his own troubled past and that of epic defenceman Doug Harvey... The result is a biography cum memoir that should find resonance with many Canadians... Robinson reaches a high level of sports biography... creating an exquisite patchwork of sports, personal narrative and manic alcoholism that is tragic in its normalcy.

— Janine Armin, The Globe and Mail

His other books are: Estonian Animation: Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy (2003); Ottawa Senators (2004); Unsung Heroes of Animation; Great Left Wingers of Hockey's Golden Era (2006); his collection of articles, The Animation Pimp (2007), introduced by Nick Tosches with illustrations by Andreas Hykade;^[3] Canadian Animation: Looking for a Place to Happen (2008); Ballad of a Thin Man: In Search of Ryan Larkin (2008); and Animators Unearthed (2010), a collection of essays on some of the world's most famous independent animators.

His seventh book on animation was the 2010 Japanese Animation: Time out of Mind, which the Ottawa Sun called "a personal, "stream-of-consciousness" journey combing comic book shops and studios looking for past masters and new innovators." Japanese Animation: Time out of Mind inspired a four-part retrospective about Japanese animators Osama Tezuka, , and Koji Yamamura at the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.^[4]

Robinson is currently working on a magic realist memoir/graphic novel with German animator/artist, Andreas Hykade called My Balls are Killing Me.

Screenwriting[]

Robinson's first attempt at screenwriting was the Jutra and Genie Award-winning animated documentary Lipsett Diaries (2010) directed by Theodore Ushev for the National Film Board of Canada. Robinson and Ushev (along with help from Robinson's son, Jarvis Neall) recently made an iPad film for the National Film Board of Canada called Ball Breaker (2012). Inspired by Buster Keaton and Robinson's testicular cancer experience, this macabre, slapstick short features Robinson as a stage announcer whose attempts to speak are continually interrupted by an assortment of balls. In the end, the balls overtake Robinson. All that remains is his porkpie hat. Ball Breaker was made to promote the NFB's pixstop application. The film debuted at the 2012 Ottawa International Animation Festival and is now viewable on YouTube.

He recently wrote a script for a live action feature film to be directed by Theodore Ushev called Drivin'

Personal life[]

In early 2011, Robinson was diagnosed with testicular cancer. After a year of surgeries and chemo treatments, he has now been in remission since January 2012.

Bibliography[]

• Estonian Animation: Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy (2003)
• Ottawa Senators (2004)
• Stole This From a Hockey Card: A Philosophy of Hockey, Doug Harvey, Identity & Booze (2005)
• Unsung Heroes of Animation (2006)
• Great Left Wingers of Hockey's Golden Era (2006)
• The Animation Pimp (2007)
• Canadian Animation: Looking for a Place to Happen (2008)
• Ballad of a Thin Man: In Search of Ryan Larkin (2008)
• Love Simple (2009)
• Animators Unearthed (2010)
• Japanese Animation: Time out of Mind (2010)
• Maurice Richard: The Most Amazing Hockey Player Ever (2011)
• Freaks of Nurture: Stories of NFB Animation (forthcoming, 2022)
• Earmarked for Collision: A History of Collage Animation (forthcoming, 2022/2023)

References[]