Ursula K. Le Guin

I once went through an Ursula K Le Guin phase that took me through reading every book on the shelf at my local library, plus buying some for my home library, so when I heard that a producer/director I knew was making a Le Guin documentary I threw our hat in the ring to work on it.

The director Arwen Curry gave us the task of animating all the ephemera: book covers, maps, papers, and letters. A lot of the covers were not of her books,  but helped the audience understand the style and content of science fiction in the 60’s when Le Guin started her writing career. The science fiction of that time was overwhelmingly male, and focused hard science fiction, aka nuts and bolts scifi.

Here’s the main title which we created, as well as some of the covers we animated. And the finished film is wonder, so I recommend seeing it. Either in film festivals or when it comes to PBS American Masters.

Credits:

PBS American Masters

Director: Arwen Curry

Director of Motion Graphics: Kia Simon

Main Title Design: Rob Astamendi

Motion Graphics: Kia Simon, Rob Astamendi, Alexandra Petrus