The Bear

Svyatoslav
Ushakov

Slava began his professional activity at age of 17, being a high school student. He worked as a cartoonist at the Moscow weekly newspaper “Soviet Circus”. His cartoons were published in every newspaper issue during two years. In 1987 he joined Animation Studio “Pilot” (Moscow, Russia) as an animator artist, scriptwriter and co-director. Slava participated in creating of many animation movies (see the attached list). He took part in many International animation festivals and had won many prestigious awards (see attached list). Slava was a principal artist-animator for movie “The Hunter”, which earned the Jim Henson Prize where (4th International Animation Celebration in Los Angeles, in November of 1991). In 1994 Slava made animation musical clip “Haru Mambaru”, which became a hit on Russian TV during almost 3 years, and is still popular. During his work at “Pilot”, Slava in 1997 graduated from Highest School of Scriptwriters and Art Directors of the Russian National Institute of Cinematography (Moscow, Russia). He earned his Master Degree as Artist-Animator with diploma work “Earlier I Lived By The Seashore”, which later received several Russian and International prices. In the same year he has established his own animation studio “Nils”. In addition, Slava in 1993 participated in Russian feature film “Babnik” (“Womanizer”) as an actor. In 1997 he played the only role in combined animation-feature film “A Man and a Cat”. Slava had three personal fine art exhibitions. His oil painting and graphics were presented at the following exhibitions: “Very Cold” (Moscow, Russia, 1998), “Two Italians” (St. Petersburg, Russia , 1997) and “Bamboo Cat” (Saigon, Vietnam, 1992). In 1998 Slava was invited as a Storyboard Director to Los Angeles based Animation Studio “Kinofilm”. The main production of the studio with Slava’s participation is the animated TV serial “Mike, Lu & Og”, which is now airing on the Cartoon Network. Since 2000 Slava has been working at Animation Studio “Klasky Csupo”.

Once upon a time there was a bear that longed for a circus career. To pursuit his dream he leaves his job as a stuffed animal posing in a restaurant.

This film screens as part of the programFlorian and other animations.