01/09/2009

The 6th Venice Days (September 3-12, 2009) will make a special tribute to Latvian animation filmmaker Signe Baumane by screening her entire anthology of 15 short films under the title Teat Beat of Sex.

The US/Italy/Latvia/Swiss co-production Teat Beat of Sex, is a take on sex exclusively from a woman's point of view. It won an Honorary Mention at Ottawa Int'l Animation Festival 2007 and articipated at Sundance International Film Festival in 2008.

Baumane graduated from Moscow University in 1989 with a BA in philosophy. The same year, she started her animation career at Dauka Animation Studio in Riga. In 1991, she made her first short animation film The Witch and the Cow. In 1995, she moved to New York where she is still based. Her US move gave her the opportunity to work as production manager, colour stylist and cell painter on Bill Plympton’s feature film I Married a Strange Person. Her latest film Birth, a US/Italian co-production had its international premiere at the last Berlinale Short Film program and was nominated for the Golden Bear.

Baumane is currently working on the feature length-animation Golden Horse.