Stella had notes for James Parris on a short documentary he shot edited and directed, about SECAC Art Conference which is a national non-profit organization devoted to education and research in the visual arts.
Together they worked on extending some shots and refining others.
I worked with James Parris at Disney Feature Animation. After my intenship, I started work on the Feature animated film, Pocahontas. I believe James was a Key Assistant animator on that film. Together we worked on the character of Powhattan who was the father of Pocahontas. Powhattan was a proud regal character who moved slowly and deliberately.
James would work on the key drawings and my job was to add all the inbetween drawings to smooth out the action. James would check each of my drawings and there were always plenty of adjustments he would make. We worked together for over 2 years. Stella was on a Zoom meeting with James and she turned the computer towards me so James could see me. He squinted his eyes and didn’t recognize me at first. Granted I have a grey beard now, but then I realized that there was a bright side table lamp behind me as well. What James saw was a mysterious silhouette from his past. It was good to see him. He directed a CGI animated animated film called Blue and Pink. It was exciting to share my recent film festival experiences. James put it simply, “Welcome to the Club.”