Join us at McMenamins Kennedy School for a free community event during the 2025 Biamp Portland Jazz Festival, featuring this year's Festival Graphic Artist, award-winning animator and director, Robbie Shilstone who is known for his collaborations with Apple, MoMA and Disney. Acclaimed Portland animator Joanna Priestley moderates.

The program includes screenings of the short films Off Leash and Trash, followed by a conversation with the artists about the intersection of jazz and film, insights into their creative processes, and a presentation on Robbie Shilstone's upcoming project Publique.

Seating is limited! Free RSVP ticket required.

Both films will be presented in DCP format for high-quality viewing. Don't miss this unique opportunity to explore jazz-inspired animation and filmmaking with two distinguished artists. Learn more at pdxjazz.org.

Robbie Shilstone is an award-winning Los Angeles-based animator, director and filmmaker. His background in illustration and proclivity for experimentation has led his own unique animation style. He pulls from abstraction, minimalism, modernism and jazz to inform his animated works. After working with the pillars of the art world, he now tells his own stories and makes his own films.

Joanna Priestley has directed, animated and produced 36 award winning films and the iOS app Clam Bake. Her animated feature North of Blue won Best Experimental Film at the Indie Film Awards in Amsterdam and Best Feature Film at the Los Angeles Animation Festival.

Priestley's work maintains a high level of porosity between serious exploration of boundaries and intuitive whimsy, and she is dedicated to experimentation in technique, theme and content. She has had retrospectives at the British Film Institute (London), Museum of Modern Art (New York), Center for Contemporary Art (Warsaw, Poland), American Cinematheque (Los Angeles), Hiroshima International Animation Festival (Japan), Jeonju International Film Festival (South Korea), Animation Masters Summit (Trivandrum, India) and Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (Germany). Priestley has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Film Institute, MacDowell Colony, Fundación Valparaíso and Creative Capital. She was founding president of ASIFA Northwest and she is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Short Films and Feature Animation Executive Committee. Priestley annually juries the Oscars, Student Academy Awards and many other film festivals and her other passions include medicinal herbalism and creating projects at Burning Man. She lives next to the forest in Portland, Oregon with her husband, director/production designer Paul Harrod.