Ann Marie Fleming facts for kids

Ann Marie Fleming is a talented Canadian filmmaker, writer, and visual artist. She creates independent films, meaning they are often made outside of big studios. Ann Marie was born in Okinawa, which is now part of Japan, in 1962. She has a diverse background, with Chinese, Ryukyuan, and Australian family roots. One of her well-known films, Window Horses, came out in 2016.

Her animated film, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (2003), won awards for being the best documentary. This film is special because it's about her own great-grandfather, Long Tack Sam. He was a famous magician, acrobat, and vaudeville performer from China.

Ann Marie's Early Life and Education

Ann Marie Fleming has always loved learning and creating. She earned a degree in English from the University of British Columbia in 1984. Later, she studied animation at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. She also completed a master's degree at Simon Fraser University.

After her studies, Ann Marie continued to develop her skills. She joined special programs for film directors. She was even chosen to be an artist in residence in Germany for a while. This means she lived and worked as an artist in a special place.

Working in Film and Animation

Ann Marie has taught film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also helped start a company called Global Mechanic in Vancouver. This company creates animation, films, and designs. From 2015 to 2016, she was an artist in residence at the University of British Columbia. There, she helped and guided students who wanted to learn about filmmaking.

Ann Marie became known in the art world in the 1980s. She met other artists who also started making films, like Mina Shum. Ann Marie and Mina became close friends. Through Mina, she met actress Sandra Oh in 1994. Years later, Ann Marie asked Sandra Oh to do voice-over work for her animated movie, Window Horses. Many people helped fund this film through crowdfunding on Indiegogo.

The Story of Stick Girl

When Ann Marie was an animation student, she had a car accident. She was hurt and couldn't move easily. This made it hard to draw big pictures. So, she started drawing "tiny little gestures." This led to her creating her famous character, 'Stick Girl'.

Stick Girl has two slanted black lines for eyes. This design shows Ann Marie's Asian heritage. Ann Marie uses Stick Girl to represent herself in her films. For example, Stick Girl appears in The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. Stick Girl also plays the character Rosie Ming in Window Horses. Rosie Ming is an Asian-Canadian poet with Chinese and Persian family roots.

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (2003)

While recovering from her accident, Ann Marie found old 16mm film reels. These were home movies of her great-grandfather, Long Tack Sam. She was very curious about him. How could a Chinese man become a successful vaudeville star long ago, when there was a lot of tension and prejudice? She wanted to find out why he was famous worldwide but then forgotten.

In the film, Ann Marie travels around the world. She follows her great-grandfather's path in Canada, the United States, China, England, and Austria. She tries to understand his life story. It was hard because there were different versions of his past. Ann Marie used a mix of styles to tell the story. She combined comic-book drawings, animation of old photos, interviews, and her own first-person narration. This helped her show that there isn't always one simple truth.

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is like a "family portrait documentary." It mixes Ann Marie's own life with her family's history. For example, the film shows how movies started to become popular. This changed the entertainment business and affected vaudeville, which was Long Tack Sam's world. This documentary is important for understanding Asian Canadian culture and history. It helps Ann Marie claim a place for her ancestor, and for herself, in Canada's story. The film also helps us think about cultural differences and ethnic identity.

In 2007, Ann Marie turned the film into a graphic novel. This graphic novel won an award in 2008 and was nominated for two other awards.

Filmography

• Waving (1987)
• You Take Care Now (1989)
• New Shoes: an interview in exactly 5 minutes (1990)
• Pioneers of X-Ray Technology (1991)
• So Far So... (1992)
• It's Me, Again (1993)
• Buckingham Palace (1993)
• La Fabula della bella Familia auf du World (1993)
• My Boyfriend Gave Me Peaches (1994)
• I Love My Work (1994)
• Pleasure Film (Ahmed's Story) (1995)
• Automatic Writing (1996)
• Great Expectations: not what you're thinking (1997)
• AMF's Tiresias (1998)
• One & Only (1999)
• Hysterical: the musical (2000)
• Lip Service: a mystery (2001)
• Aguas de Março (2002)
• Blue Skies (2002)
• The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (2003)
• Room 710 (2005)
• The French Guy (2005)
• My Obscure Object of Desire (2006)
• Running (2008)
• Landslide (2008)
• My Place webisodes (2009)
• Window Horses Karaoke Project (2009)
• I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (2010)
• Gluttony (2011)
• Big Trees (2013)
• Window Horses (2016)
• Vancouver April 2020 18:59:30 PT (2020)
• Can I Get a Witness? (2024)

See Also

In Spanish: Ann Marie Fleming para niños