Roger Blonder
# Roger Blonder

Roger Blonder is an independent animator and educator born in 1967 in Los Angeles, California.

Blonder received his MFA from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He has taught animation at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, Loyola Marymount University and in the UCLA Animation Workshop. He is currently teaching and developing a program in Jewish Media Arts at the Toledo High School in West Hills, California.

At the intersection of media arts and Jewish life, Blonder has served as the Visual Artist in Residence for the Brandeis Collegiate Institute (BCI) program of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, developed an interactive archaeology installation for the Hebrew Union College Skirball Cultural Center, and participated as a researcher in the development of the Interactive Multimedia Research Center of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance.

## Films and awards

### The Common Sense of the Wisdom Tree – short animated film 1998

* California Sun International Animation Festival May 1998 – AWARD: Best Experimental Animated Film
* Message to Man Documentary, Short and Animated Film Festival, Saint Petersburg, Russia, July 1998
* Wine Country Film Festival, Napa, California, July 1998
* Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, July/August 1998
* Crested Butte Reel Fest, Crested Butte, Colorado – August 1998
* Rhode Island International Film Festival – August 1998 – AWARD: Best of the Fest – Animation
* Hermosa Beach Film Festival – August 1998
* Temecula Valley International Film Festival – September 1998
* Breckenridge Festival of Film, Breckenridge, Colorado – September 1998
* Vermont International Film Festival – October 1998
* Nature and Environment Film Festival, Grenoble, France – November 1998
* Worldfest Flagstaff, Flagstaff, Arizona – AWARD: Gold Award for Best Independent Animated Short Film
* Mendrisio Animation Festival, Switzerland – November 1998
* Cinemagic International Festival for Young People, Ireland – December 1998
* USA KidFilm Festival, in Dallas, Texas, January 1999
* Environmental Film Festival, Smithsonean, Washington D.C. – March 1999
* Green Extreme Film Festival, Saltspring Island, BC – April 1999
* National Educational Media Awards- May 1999 -AWARD: Bronze Apple
* Nashville Film Festival – June 1999
* Chicago International Children's Film Festiva – October 1999 – AWARD: Audience Favorite – Whole Foods Green Screen Prize
* Cornell Environmental Film Festival, Ithaca, NY October 1999
* EcoFilm Festival, Lille, France – October 1999
* Mumbai International Film Festival – MIFF 2000, Bombay, India – Jan 2000
* Ale Kino – The 18th Int’l Festival of Films for Children, Poznan, Poland May 2000
* DiverCine 2000 – Montevideo, Uruguay; Rosario, Argentina; Santa Fe, Argentina; La Paz, Bolivia; Porto Alegre, Brazil; Valdivia, Chile; Bogota, Colombia; Guadalajara, Mexico; Lima, Peru; Caracas, Venezuela – August 2000
* Carrousel International Du Film De Rimouski, Rimouski, Quebec, September 2000 – HUMANITAS CAMÉRIO nomination
* Humboldt International Short Film Festival, 2003 – retrospective

### poeTreeMan, interactive project, 1995

September 1994 – June 1995 a CD-ROM interactive exploration of poetry, illustrations, and short animated films. Finalist in the New Media Magazine InVision Awards and the International Digital Media Awards.

### TreeMan, short animated film, 1994

* Student Academy Awards Regional Finalist
* Humboldt International Short Film Festival, 2003 – retrospective

### Sow N' Till, short animated film, 1994

* UCLA Festival 94
* Humboldt International Short Film Festival, 2003 – retrospective

### Train of Thought, short animated film, 1992

* Zagreb Animation Festival, Croatia June 1994
* Academy of Arts and Sciences, Samuel Goldwyn Theater, June 1993– AWARD: Spotlight Award UCLA Alumni Association
* Big Muddy Film Festival, Carbondale, Illinois, May 1993;
* Charlotte Film and Video Festival, North Carolina, 1993;
* Immaculate Projections: Artists and Spirituality, Los Angeles 5/93
* Laemmle Sunset Theater April, 1993
* DreamWorks 1996 Employee Short Film Festival
* Cine-Poetry Festival, San Francisco 1996 – AWARD: Patchen Award for Best Animated Film
* Humboldt International Short Film Festival, 2003 – retrospective
